There’s a meme which circulates the internet from time to time depicting a serious-looking child, sat in a dimly lit room, with text overlaid which reads: “You like shoegaze? Name every shoe”. It’s a riff on the sorts of fans the shoegaze movement stereotypically attracts – chinstroking musos who take themselves and the music far too seriously, assuming everyone else to be inferior in their knowledge and commitment (I once went to a party where it came up in conversation that I liked shoegaze, and the man I was talking to abruptly demanded I name five shoegaze bands – true story).
It’s a trope that dogged the bands within the scene somewhat unfairly. The term ‘shoegaze’ itself was initially a dig from the British music press, mocking the bands for their perceived lack of charisma and insularity, and at least a couple of the bands mentioned in this feature still flinch at the term now. Still, no one – not even the savage 90s music press – could deny the beauty and innovation coming from within.
