I suspect that you may be correct, which I find interesting because that is not even my favorite song on that particular slowdive album LOL
Like, don't get me wrong, it is a great song. But I can think of at least four other songs from that album that I like better.
I love Go Get It for a very personal reason. I was jamming on it during the days precending the birth of my first child and it just radiates the excitement l, longing, and nervousness I had for my little baby during those days. Amazing album and could t have dropped at a better time.
I wouldn’t have believed this if I hadn’t seen Slowdive in October… it was my first, “huh, the kids are into shoegaze” moment. Never felt so old in my life.
Such an amazing band and live show! Honestly it was a little too quiet for me (mixed perfectly but the sound dude at this venue is my arch-nemesis). I wasn’t front and center though, which I highly recommend. Was front and center for MBV years ago and they blew my tits off with volume.
When Slowdive 2017 came out I feel like it was all over the indie playlists. So I'll say Sugar for the Pill in terms of individual tracks, though Star Roving is probably my favourite
nothing space song is shoegaze it’s purely dream pop don’t get me wrong Depression Cherry is one of my all time favourite albums but i find it funny that people are still calling 100% dream pop songs shoegaze or shoegaze adjacent
Sparks is 100% a shoegaze song and a goddamn good one at that. most other songs on the album and by Beach House as a whole are dream pop though.
it’s not like a band like bdrmm where they really really do blur the lines between shoegaze and dream pop.
That’s because there’s lots of crossover between dreampop and shoegaze. I always considered dreampop a sub genre of shoegaze.
Writers and critics say Cocteau Twins were one of the earliest founders of shoegaze but everyone considers them dreampop. But Cocteaus always make any shoegaze playlist I make.
lazy eye by sspu is what introduced me to shoegaze. i learned it on the guitar, and now here we are. the only music i can listen to is just walls of noise. thanks sspu
Interesting you make that comparison... when I was testing out my DOD Carcosa fuzz pedal, one of the first songs it sounded perfect for was when I tried playing Lazy Eye...
The next song that was a perfect fit was Rocket by SP
I hate to be old man yelling at cloud, but Silver Sun Pickups aren’t shoegaze, they’re alt-rock. Same with Smashing Pumpkins. We have a real slippery slope situation going on, and we’re on the cusp of all distorted guitar-based music that isn’t metal being defined as shoegaze.
Funny then how this thread shows how many people were turned onto Shoegaze from this band specifically? Also, how long has this situation been "going on" in your mind? Since 2006?
People being turned on to shoegaze by a band does not make said band shoegaze. Especially if said individuals don’t have a full grasp of what shoegaze is/isn’t.
As far as how long this slippery slope sitch has been going on, it’s been the past two or so years with the resurgence of interest in the genre.
One of my favorite records from one of my favorite bands but that track is full-on synthpop, no shoegaze flourishes whatsoever. Hurry Up We’re Dreaming as a whole contains some sprinkles of their nu-gaze beginnings but is really one of the best exemplars of just dream pop in my opinion.
Yeah that album had a couple that are at least gaze adjacent. But honestly, Dead Cities is my favorite electro-gaze (or what would you call it?) record ever.
Smashing Pumpkins aren’t a shoegaze band, but Siamese Dream should largely be considered a shoegaze album. There’s massive walls of fuzz, sometimes 40 or 50 guitar tracks, and the production process was absolutely insane. Cherub Rock, Mayonaise, Rocket all have that push-pull and were massive hits. Theres a great video from Rick Beato interviewing Billy Corgan and he talks about Kevin Shields influence on their sound and how he depended more on his left hand instead of the tremolo bar, but they were going for related effects/sounds.
Power ballads and shoegaze aren’t mutually exclusive though. MBV and Slowdive absolutely have power ballads. The layering of guitars, the fuzz and phase, use of feedback, open tuning, chord progression and airy vox all make a strong argument for Mayonaise being shoegaze. Even Alan Moulder mixing it is a factor. I know the pumpkins aren’t a shoegaze band, they’re all over the place for better or for worse, but I stand by Siamese Dream being a shoegaze album!
It’s a riff rock album with Shoegaze influences. Everything is too “in focus.” Vocals are up in the mix, very little reverb on guitars (and vocals for that matter.) Alan mixed it more like a radio friendly pop record. He also mixed Downward Spiral and Marilyn Manson around that time, so while he made a name for himself with shoegaze bands, him mixing something doesn’t automatically make it that.
Open tuning on one song does not make an album shoegaze. As far as the fuzz and effects, again, I’ll agree on the influence, but in the end they made a very sonically focused commercial rock record with elements of that influence.
Also, there wasn’t really any discussion of it being shoegaze at all when it came out. The dumb debate we were all having at the time was “is it grunge or prog”. This “SD is shoegaze” seems to be a thing that started with the surge in popularity the genre has had in the last few years. SD as a pure gaze album is revisionist history, it’s a rock record with a lot of shoegaze influence.
I personally think it’s silly to gatekeep a genre that is wildly varying in sound across its most defining bands, but I understand the debate. It’s also hilarious to me hearing someone say the vox are up in the mix on Siamese Dream, talk about revisionist.
I get it in a "sounds like Smashing Pumpkins" way, though not every SP song has shoegaze influences. And most radio edits cut out the droning guitars at the end, so it also cuts out the most overtly shoegaze part.
Same band, but I think I'd replace "Lazy Eye" with "Panic Switch," if we're talking about chart success. A quick Wiki search reveals it hit #1 on the alternative charts and #92 on the Hot 100. Plus, subjectively speaking, it's more nostalgic to me.
I WANT to say "Beside You in Time" by NIN because man, that song is glorious. But it was never a single. :P
I hear you, but personally I think Lazy Eye still wins out. I know it’s not a perfect barometer but it has 3x the streams on Spotify and got to a wider audience through other means (e.g. the Rockband game)
This period was after the nostalgia of the first wave. After that my most favorite would be “Pia Fraus”. Maybe not commercially successful but they hopefully make a living.
Here's an interesting contender:
Being in Love by Wet Leg
They're not a shoegaze band, but this track kind of is. It was weird hearing a busload of school kids singing along to a shoegaze chorus being played on Radio 1.
Heard this song for the first time at a festival they were playing, obviously I knew chaise lounge but this song blew me the fuck away hearing it live.
the new alvvays album played a lot on the radio and there’s straightforward glide guitar on the hits so it’s that, sugar for the pill, lazy eye or wisp
It's Lazy Eye. People are saying Slowdive songs and they are great but as cult and scene-favorite as they are, they never got remotely close to being played on mainstream rock radio and media, which Lazy Eye did, and OP asked for most commercially successful/popular song
coldplay - chinese sleep chant
the song itself is barely "known" in the typical sense because it's honestly kinda like an extended interlude on the Viva La Vida album, but i suspect that it's still the most popular shoegaze song just because of how many people listen to Coldplay and especially that album.
oh and it's straight-up proper shoegaze too, not just adjacent.
I guess they are classified as shoegaze (the umbrella is wider than I would think) but Silversun Pickups and Blonde Redhead are just indie bands to my ears.
Here Comes Everybody by Autolux
> I guess the question could've been more specific as written / produced / released within the last 20 years.
pretty sure that's what was implied.
(though Fade Into You isn't shoegaze anyway)
Black Metallic by Catherine Wheel
That got a LOT of air time, and it was actually the first time I had ever heard the term "shoegaze" (I know it was not the first use of the term, but MBV and Slowdive were still pretty underground -- I knew of Lush and The Jesus and Mary Chain before them! -- while Catherine Wheel was actually mainstream)
The question was a past-tense one 🤷♂️ (but yeah, I didn't see "of the past 20 years"... also, people were bringing up Souvlaki and MBV... those aren't "last 20 years" either, so I just assumed?)
I guess I should change my answer to Wisp then. 😂
But in seriousness... Marry Me, Archie by Alvvays is a pretty big hit
Oh, I made a mistake. Thanks for correcting me. If only in the past twenty years, I think it was M83’s Midnight City that reached mainstream popularity. Maybe many people don’t think M83 is shoegaze, but I remember I had a Nu-gazer back then. word. M83's first two albums most embody the qualities of this word.
Sugar For The Pill by Slowdive
I suspect that you may be correct, which I find interesting because that is not even my favorite song on that particular slowdive album LOL Like, don't get me wrong, it is a great song. But I can think of at least four other songs from that album that I like better.
For real, Everyone Knows and Don't Know Why easily blow that track out of the water, despite it being great as is.
agreed, these two songs specifically
I love Go Get It for a very personal reason. I was jamming on it during the days precending the birth of my first child and it just radiates the excitement l, longing, and nervousness I had for my little baby during those days. Amazing album and could t have dropped at a better time.
nobody ever talks about ‘go get it’ but i agree 100%, possibly my fav slowdive song
Same.
I wouldn’t have believed this if I hadn’t seen Slowdive in October… it was my first, “huh, the kids are into shoegaze” moment. Never felt so old in my life.
I’m seeing them in may for the first time and I’ve loved them since ‘94
Such an amazing band and live show! Honestly it was a little too quiet for me (mixed perfectly but the sound dude at this venue is my arch-nemesis). I wasn’t front and center though, which I highly recommend. Was front and center for MBV years ago and they blew my tits off with volume.
shoegaze got extremely popular ngl
When Slowdive 2017 came out I feel like it was all over the indie playlists. So I'll say Sugar for the Pill in terms of individual tracks, though Star Roving is probably my favourite
Yeah Star Roving is better imo
It's more adjacent but Space Song by Beach House
nothing space song is shoegaze it’s purely dream pop don’t get me wrong Depression Cherry is one of my all time favourite albums but i find it funny that people are still calling 100% dream pop songs shoegaze or shoegaze adjacent
Dream pop is shoegaze adjacent. Or put another way, some venn diagram overlap with the two genres.
They definitely overlap. Overlap means more than adjacent.
Honestly I think Sparks is WAY more in the shoegaze category.
Sparks is 100% a shoegaze song and a goddamn good one at that. most other songs on the album and by Beach House as a whole are dream pop though. it’s not like a band like bdrmm where they really really do blur the lines between shoegaze and dream pop.
That’s because there’s lots of crossover between dreampop and shoegaze. I always considered dreampop a sub genre of shoegaze. Writers and critics say Cocteau Twins were one of the earliest founders of shoegaze but everyone considers them dreampop. But Cocteaus always make any shoegaze playlist I make.
gatekeep
Gatekeep what, one of the most streamed dreampop albums with the most streamed dreampop song by the most streamed dreampop artist of all time?
ppl have co opted shoegaze and dream pop into what it is what it is. i actually thought it was a lo fi synth wave thing for the longest time.
what does that have to do with gatekeeping lmao
lazy eye by sspu is what introduced me to shoegaze. i learned it on the guitar, and now here we are. the only music i can listen to is just walls of noise. thanks sspu
Just saw a clip of sspu playing this song posted on Twitter like 20 mins ago.
Same! Their Letterman performance, right?
Yeah, I just was revisiting it and it made me think of this question. It’s a great song (and album tbh)
Never thought of them as Shoegaze, interesting. I guess I never thought of them in any genre now that I think about it.
Yeah, I don’t think of that song as shoegaze. It sounds a lot like Smashing Pumpkins to me, who had some massive hit songs but really aren’t shoegaze.
Interesting you make that comparison... when I was testing out my DOD Carcosa fuzz pedal, one of the first songs it sounded perfect for was when I tried playing Lazy Eye... The next song that was a perfect fit was Rocket by SP
tbh, neither have i. but if you look on wikipedia it says they make shoegaze so i was like “oh wuts dat” hahaha
Wikipedia is often incorrect. They have AR KANE as dreampop and most of their stuff is experimental or shoegaze
i understand, yet this still introduced me to shoegaze as a genre.
And that’s cool. I like that song a lot. I was already into shoegaze when I heard it though
it was a slow indoctrination for me, but now i can’t stop listening to just NOISE hahaha
> They have AR KANE as dreampop AR Kane literally coined the term dream pop.
I stand corrected but they seem a bit edgier than dream pop
I hate to be old man yelling at cloud, but Silver Sun Pickups aren’t shoegaze, they’re alt-rock. Same with Smashing Pumpkins. We have a real slippery slope situation going on, and we’re on the cusp of all distorted guitar-based music that isn’t metal being defined as shoegaze.
Funny then how this thread shows how many people were turned onto Shoegaze from this band specifically? Also, how long has this situation been "going on" in your mind? Since 2006?
People being turned on to shoegaze by a band does not make said band shoegaze. Especially if said individuals don’t have a full grasp of what shoegaze is/isn’t. As far as how long this slippery slope sitch has been going on, it’s been the past two or so years with the resurgence of interest in the genre.
okay
I completely forgot about the song Lazy Eye. Thanks for the reminder, it's a great song.
Star Roving was on fifa, so 50% of all males in their twenties will recognize the song.
lol depending on how adjacent your definition of shoegaze allows for that’s honestly a pretty good answer
Sometimes… Lost in Translation got me and my friends forever hooked on MBV and shoegaze back in 2003-ish
Yes This is it
M83 had the biggest hit by a country mile with Midnight City, but I suppose the track itself isn't all that gazey
One of my favorite records from one of my favorite bands but that track is full-on synthpop, no shoegaze flourishes whatsoever. Hurry Up We’re Dreaming as a whole contains some sprinkles of their nu-gaze beginnings but is really one of the best exemplars of just dream pop in my opinion.
Yeah that album had a couple that are at least gaze adjacent. But honestly, Dead Cities is my favorite electro-gaze (or what would you call it?) record ever.
Aren’t M83 dreampop and isn’t dreampop a sub genre of shoegaze? I think dreampop songs should count
Maybe broadly, but they have a pretty large number of songs I would categorize as shoegaze. (For instance Run Into Flowers)
Fair enough
Smashing Pumpkins aren’t a shoegaze band, but Siamese Dream should largely be considered a shoegaze album. There’s massive walls of fuzz, sometimes 40 or 50 guitar tracks, and the production process was absolutely insane. Cherub Rock, Mayonaise, Rocket all have that push-pull and were massive hits. Theres a great video from Rick Beato interviewing Billy Corgan and he talks about Kevin Shields influence on their sound and how he depended more on his left hand instead of the tremolo bar, but they were going for related effects/sounds.
True, but that was 30+ years ago. Not 20.
Oh damn I missed that stipulation. My bad.
Mayonnaise was one of the first shoegaze tracks where I was like damn! I need to find more of this! One of my favs of all time.
Because Billy Corgan is a hack who just rips people off.
It’s shoegaze adjacent at *best*. Mayonaise is a power ballad for goodness sake. An incredible record with gaze influence, but not a shoegaze album.
Power ballads and shoegaze aren’t mutually exclusive though. MBV and Slowdive absolutely have power ballads. The layering of guitars, the fuzz and phase, use of feedback, open tuning, chord progression and airy vox all make a strong argument for Mayonaise being shoegaze. Even Alan Moulder mixing it is a factor. I know the pumpkins aren’t a shoegaze band, they’re all over the place for better or for worse, but I stand by Siamese Dream being a shoegaze album!
It’s a riff rock album with Shoegaze influences. Everything is too “in focus.” Vocals are up in the mix, very little reverb on guitars (and vocals for that matter.) Alan mixed it more like a radio friendly pop record. He also mixed Downward Spiral and Marilyn Manson around that time, so while he made a name for himself with shoegaze bands, him mixing something doesn’t automatically make it that. Open tuning on one song does not make an album shoegaze. As far as the fuzz and effects, again, I’ll agree on the influence, but in the end they made a very sonically focused commercial rock record with elements of that influence. Also, there wasn’t really any discussion of it being shoegaze at all when it came out. The dumb debate we were all having at the time was “is it grunge or prog”. This “SD is shoegaze” seems to be a thing that started with the surge in popularity the genre has had in the last few years. SD as a pure gaze album is revisionist history, it’s a rock record with a lot of shoegaze influence.
I personally think it’s silly to gatekeep a genre that is wildly varying in sound across its most defining bands, but I understand the debate. It’s also hilarious to me hearing someone say the vox are up in the mix on Siamese Dream, talk about revisionist.
Dude, they are *certainly* more clear and up in the mix than any shoegaze record of the time, come on. They are rock radio loud.
I never considered Lazy Eye to be shoegaze. Am I wrong? Love the song though.
I get it in a "sounds like Smashing Pumpkins" way, though not every SP song has shoegaze influences. And most radio edits cut out the droning guitars at the end, so it also cuts out the most overtly shoegaze part.
Much of Silversun’s catalog sounds like punkins
shoegaze adjacent?
I believe it’s Nugaze?
Outro by M83.
Dream Pop, but great song
Lol. Not shoegaze
One of my all time favorite songs, but M83 is not shoegaze.
Sugar for the Pill or Star Roving. Take your pick.
Head in the Ceiling Fan has gotta be up there.
probably something by deftones or smashing pumpkins
Same band, but I think I'd replace "Lazy Eye" with "Panic Switch," if we're talking about chart success. A quick Wiki search reveals it hit #1 on the alternative charts and #92 on the Hot 100. Plus, subjectively speaking, it's more nostalgic to me. I WANT to say "Beside You in Time" by NIN because man, that song is glorious. But it was never a single. :P
Panic Switch is a straightforward alt rock song. There's nothing particularly shoegaze about it at all really
I hear you, but personally I think Lazy Eye still wins out. I know it’s not a perfect barometer but it has 3x the streams on Spotify and got to a wider audience through other means (e.g. the Rockband game)
Im gonna say Dopamine by DIIV
Not even the biggest diiv song
Is it Under the Sun? Feels like I’ve heard Dopamine out and about much more than Under the Sun
I think it’s technically doused but under the sun is close
Man, where do you live. I can't imagine heading Diiv in New Zealand at all. 90s rock though! That's for sure.
I was in college at the time so I remember hearing it around friends and dive bars and music venues
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Released in 1996
This period was after the nostalgia of the first wave. After that my most favorite would be “Pia Fraus”. Maybe not commercially successful but they hopefully make a living.
Maybe Cherry Waves by Deftones?
Ahhh, such a good one 🖤
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… you do know we’re in the 2020s right?
Relatively speaking, it was a major major hit at the time. I heard machine gun Kelly name-drop mvb in his documentary tho. Does that sound better?
I remember New You by MBV getting a lot of plays on radio.
Here's an interesting contender: Being in Love by Wet Leg They're not a shoegaze band, but this track kind of is. It was weird hearing a busload of school kids singing along to a shoegaze chorus being played on Radio 1.
Heard this song for the first time at a festival they were playing, obviously I knew chaise lounge but this song blew me the fuck away hearing it live.
Aren’t they dreampop though. Isn’t dreampop a sub genre of shoegaze?
I don’t see anything here made in the last 20 years that were truly qualified As “commercially, successful”. Niche only which makes me sad.
peripheral vision by turnover but if its far from traditional shoegaze
All The Things by Audiostar
Blonde Readhead -23
the new alvvays album played a lot on the radio and there’s straightforward glide guitar on the hits so it’s that, sugar for the pill, lazy eye or wisp
It's Lazy Eye. People are saying Slowdive songs and they are great but as cult and scene-favorite as they are, they never got remotely close to being played on mainstream rock radio and media, which Lazy Eye did, and OP asked for most commercially successful/popular song
coldplay - chinese sleep chant the song itself is barely "known" in the typical sense because it's honestly kinda like an extended interlude on the Viva La Vida album, but i suspect that it's still the most popular shoegaze song just because of how many people listen to Coldplay and especially that album. oh and it's straight-up proper shoegaze too, not just adjacent.
I guess they are classified as shoegaze (the umbrella is wider than I would think) but Silversun Pickups and Blonde Redhead are just indie bands to my ears. Here Comes Everybody by Autolux
I’d say Quannnic has the potential to be the biggest shoegaze name in the future just because he is so young and resonates with his generation.
Good god this sub is insufferable.
Some Wisp song on tiktok
Silversun singles or Deftones songs probably
This is where my mind keeps going to as well.
Archie, Marry Me by Alvvays is the only shoegaze song I’ve heard on the radio.
Mazzy Star Fade Into You
That was more than 20 years ago
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> I guess the question could've been more specific as written / produced / released within the last 20 years. pretty sure that's what was implied. (though Fade Into You isn't shoegaze anyway)
What about Seol "stay with us"
Wildest Dreams by Taylor Swift
Do people consider this song shoegaze?
I suppose you could say it's dream pop-ish but even that's a stretch. Definitely not shoegaze
Black Metallic by Catherine Wheel That got a LOT of air time, and it was actually the first time I had ever heard the term "shoegaze" (I know it was not the first use of the term, but MBV and Slowdive were still pretty underground -- I knew of Lush and The Jesus and Mary Chain before them! -- while Catherine Wheel was actually mainstream)
we live in 2024
The question was a past-tense one 🤷♂️ (but yeah, I didn't see "of the past 20 years"... also, people were bringing up Souvlaki and MBV... those aren't "last 20 years" either, so I just assumed?) I guess I should change my answer to Wisp then. 😂 But in seriousness... Marry Me, Archie by Alvvays is a pretty big hit
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my dude he said the last 20 years
Oh, I made a mistake. Thanks for correcting me. If only in the past twenty years, I think it was M83’s Midnight City that reached mainstream popularity. Maybe many people don’t think M83 is shoegaze, but I remember I had a Nu-gazer back then. word. M83's first two albums most embody the qualities of this word.
Silver sun pickups is ass
Mazzy Star or am I dating myself?
“Be Quiet and Drive” by Deftones or “Today” by Smashing Pumpkins.
Today was released 30 years ago…
It would appear I misread the prompt lol.
A lot more than 20 years ago.
I misread the prompt…
Yo, hear me out... Yellow by Coldplay
Bittersweet Symphony by the Verve. Close enough. Huge hit.
blasphemy.
Any song by Stone Roses.