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Shoegaze
What the hell is shoegaze? A scene? A movement? A sound? Back in the Nineties, many would have said the so-called genre was entirely fabricated. The term itself, an offensive piss-take given by the notoriously catty and scene-obsessed British music press, was plainly rejected by the absurdly small collection of bands to which it supposedly applied.
Today shoegaze is undeniable. As a descriptor and as a source of influence, it is used in more ways and by more bands than anyone could have dreamed of 30 years ago. Between those periods of invention and ubiquity, the term, along with the bands it first described, all but disappeared off the face of the earth.
In this ambitious oral history of a genre that has eluded definition for three decades, Ryan Pinkard unearths the first wave of shoegaze, following the core bands, their sounds, their influence, and their journeys in and out of obscurity. His analysis is woven through dozens of original interviews with artists, label heads, and critics. What he discovers is the unlikely odyssey of this esoteric, experimental music form, which nearly became a mainstream entity, only to be viciously killed off, forgotten, and rediscovered by a new generation that regards it as one of the most influential alternative music events since the Velvet Underground.
Today shoegaze is undeniable. As a descriptor and as a source of influence, it is used in more ways and by more bands than anyone could have dreamed of 30 years ago. Between those periods of invention and ubiquity, the term, along with the bands it first described, all but disappeared off the face of the earth.
In this ambitious oral history of a genre that has eluded definition for three decades, Ryan Pinkard unearths the first wave of shoegaze, following the core bands, their sounds, their influence, and their journeys in and out of obscurity. His analysis is woven through dozens of original interviews with artists, label heads, and critics. What he discovers is the unlikely odyssey of this esoteric, experimental music form, which nearly became a mainstream entity, only to be viciously killed off, forgotten, and rediscovered by a new generation that regards it as one of the most influential alternative music events since the Velvet Underground.
- GenresMusic
192 pages, Paperback
Published October 3, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
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December 26, 2024The story of shoegaze in my preferred medium: all of the A-list telling the story in mostly their own words (with the exception of the inevitably absent My Bloody Valentine), and with music journalists sheepishly trying to cover the paths they furrowed thirty years earlier with their absurd hyperbole. Perhaps some more depth on the key cuts would have been nice, but that’s what the 33 1/3 books on individual albums are designed for.
March 4, 2025
So good, so good, so fucking good. Pinkard cracked the code of how to write about shoegaze: an oral history. Most all of the players are here (except *of course* MBV, who loom largest over everything), and the author keeps his comments / binding material to the facts, generally not editorializing. This exceeded my admittedly high hopes, and is a superb work.
October 16, 2024
A fun oral history of an often overlooked and/or misunderstood genre of guitar music.
The author had access to many key musicians and label folks which gave the book some firsthand weight
The author had access to many key musicians and label folks which gave the book some firsthand weight
January 25, 2025
Enjoyable overview of the so-called shoegaze genre. There are quotes from all of the key bands of the time with one very notable (but unsurprising) exception
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews