No, the music scene was much more trend-driven and unforgiving in the ‘90s - especially in the UK - if you were last year’s flavour and deemed passé, you had to move onto a new sound or consider your career over. Everything is in fashion all the time now and shoegaze is here to stay.
That’s an interesting point. It’s way easier for much more subcultures/genres to thrive now. We’re so much more connected globally and it’s easier to find a greater amount of likeminded people, albeit in a digital capacity (for better or worse).
Yes the Internet changed so much. It's amazing to think of how much power that music journalists and print media had up until the early 2000s, and how quickly that evaporated. I miss professional writing and discourse playing such a central role in music culture, but I don't miss the snarky, build-'em-up/tear-'em-down mentality - it was so toxic. Shoegaze was effectively run out of the country where it evolved, but thankfully was able to continue developing in North American and other continents.
Honestly? No. The genre has survived this long. It’ll splinter and then reconverge.
And a lot of the OG artists are still at it. Ride, MBV, Slowdive, Swervedriver, Medicine (well, fine, *Brad*), and more are all still putting out music, and in some cases (*::stares at Slowdive::*) they seem to be putting out better music than they did in the 90’s.
Plus we’ve got a lot of new standard bearers, and the first thing I said the first time I saw Glixen live (opening for Deserta and Citrus Clouds) was “the future of this genre is in good hands”.
I think some artists will split off, and go their own way. Others will stay with the blissful wall of sound.
What is and is not popular will forever wax and wane. Some people who are making shoegaze now, will be exploring other genres in ten years and some won’t, and neither is right or wrong for it.
Musical renaissance does not last forever, scenes become over saturated with subpar imitation acts and people move on. There will always be new bands in genres you enjoy, but we are in the middle of a serious revival. Enjoy it while it lasts.
> In the 90s it seemed like almost all the shoegaze bands disappeared overnight and started making drum and bass, IDM, and breakbeat instead.
besides MBV, whose dnb work didn't show up until almost 20 years later, this is more of an individual artist thing than a notable trend (and those artists were way smaller than the shoegaze that came before).
Beyond that, I think we'll see some interesting newer ideas with the more attention the genre's received, but I don't think any of the newer ideas will really be that big or be a notable trend in itself. Would be nice though. The current trends are either too traditional or like it's just trying to make shoegaze into standard alt rock.
5-year span is pretty common for any genre.
shoegaze was an anomaly in terms of popularity. no music like shoegaze should have had such a big following.
so it was kind of predictable that it would collapse under the weight of its own success.
I'm listening with a lot of effort to modern shoegaze. unfortunately it does not cut it for me. but this watered down version of shoegaze might be commercially more viable than the first wave.
I wouldn't say "almost all" shoegaze bands started making electronic music. Some artists did. Others moved on from the genre in other ways, as public interest waned.
Popular music is always evolving and shoegaze is no exception, especially as loosely defined a genre as it is. New artists will bring their personal interpretations to the art form and in another 30 years what passes for shoegaze will leave Gen Z fans shaking their fists yelling "get off my lawn."
No, the music scene was much more trend-driven and unforgiving in the ‘90s - especially in the UK - if you were last year’s flavour and deemed passé, you had to move onto a new sound or consider your career over. Everything is in fashion all the time now and shoegaze is here to stay.
That’s an interesting point. It’s way easier for much more subcultures/genres to thrive now. We’re so much more connected globally and it’s easier to find a greater amount of likeminded people, albeit in a digital capacity (for better or worse).
Yes the Internet changed so much. It's amazing to think of how much power that music journalists and print media had up until the early 2000s, and how quickly that evaporated. I miss professional writing and discourse playing such a central role in music culture, but I don't miss the snarky, build-'em-up/tear-'em-down mentality - it was so toxic. Shoegaze was effectively run out of the country where it evolved, but thankfully was able to continue developing in North American and other continents.
this prevented difference engine from making a second album, for example, due to infighting over the sonic direction of the band’s next release
Honestly? No. The genre has survived this long. It’ll splinter and then reconverge. And a lot of the OG artists are still at it. Ride, MBV, Slowdive, Swervedriver, Medicine (well, fine, *Brad*), and more are all still putting out music, and in some cases (*::stares at Slowdive::*) they seem to be putting out better music than they did in the 90’s. Plus we’ve got a lot of new standard bearers, and the first thing I said the first time I saw Glixen live (opening for Deserta and Citrus Clouds) was “the future of this genre is in good hands”. I think some artists will split off, and go their own way. Others will stay with the blissful wall of sound.
> (::stares at Slowdive::) they seem to be putting out better music than they did in the 90’s. man, no way...
Saw Glixen opening for Diiv last night and I was definitely impressed.
What is and is not popular will forever wax and wane. Some people who are making shoegaze now, will be exploring other genres in ten years and some won’t, and neither is right or wrong for it. Musical renaissance does not last forever, scenes become over saturated with subpar imitation acts and people move on. There will always be new bands in genres you enjoy, but we are in the middle of a serious revival. Enjoy it while it lasts.
The scourge of brit pop took over.
> In the 90s it seemed like almost all the shoegaze bands disappeared overnight and started making drum and bass, IDM, and breakbeat instead. besides MBV, whose dnb work didn't show up until almost 20 years later, this is more of an individual artist thing than a notable trend (and those artists were way smaller than the shoegaze that came before). Beyond that, I think we'll see some interesting newer ideas with the more attention the genre's received, but I don't think any of the newer ideas will really be that big or be a notable trend in itself. Would be nice though. The current trends are either too traditional or like it's just trying to make shoegaze into standard alt rock.
5-year span is pretty common for any genre. shoegaze was an anomaly in terms of popularity. no music like shoegaze should have had such a big following. so it was kind of predictable that it would collapse under the weight of its own success. I'm listening with a lot of effort to modern shoegaze. unfortunately it does not cut it for me. but this watered down version of shoegaze might be commercially more viable than the first wave.
I wouldn't say "almost all" shoegaze bands started making electronic music. Some artists did. Others moved on from the genre in other ways, as public interest waned. Popular music is always evolving and shoegaze is no exception, especially as loosely defined a genre as it is. New artists will bring their personal interpretations to the art form and in another 30 years what passes for shoegaze will leave Gen Z fans shaking their fists yelling "get off my lawn."