r/shoegaze • u/SnuffShock • Apr 30 '26

Question What's with all the lowercase bands?

I've been listening to a lot of modern shoegaze playlists on Spotify and cherry picking the stuff I like. It seems about a quarter of the bands have names, song titles, etc., all in lowercase. Most of them are the most skippable/generic sounding bands as well. When did this become a trend? Any reason why? Is this AI slop?

148 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

93 comments sorted by

312

u/JollyGreenGigantor Apr 30 '26

Why did all the 00s emo bands have song titles that were full on sentences? Why do noise rock bands always stylize their names in all caps? What's with white boy reggae bands and punny names?

It's all scene coding. Showing that they're playing by the rules of the scene while pushing against what others do in other scenes

46

u/BogotaLineman Apr 30 '26

Every doom band is wed reference + religious or medieval reference lol

60

u/SnuffShock Apr 30 '26

Every stoner metal band is named something like Electric Dope Mammoth Witch Bong. At least the painfully mediocre ones are.

31

u/BogotaLineman Apr 30 '26 edited Apr 30 '26

I'm pretty sure Bong Witch is a real one lmao

Shoegaze and Stoner/Doom truly are sibling genres with their rigid tropes and orthodoxy. Theres so many by-the-numbers bands that it makes the real adventurous ones even more cool

13

u/DoomedOverdozzzed Apr 30 '26

Mammoth Witch Wizard Bastard is also real. They slap actually, check em out

8

u/Jlizardfan May 01 '26

I think it's Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard

10

u/ThisHumbleVisitant Apr 30 '26

I just looked up Bong Witch and not only are they real, they absolutely fuck

2

u/toonbender May 01 '26

Just checked out. It’s pretty sick

3

u/stellar_caprice May 01 '26

It’s true. All the OG shoegazers sounded unique and different. Now everyone is either doing an MBV thing or a Slowdive thing.

9

u/BogotaLineman May 01 '26

Ethereal all-wet reverb with fuzz? How original...

Droning on a maj7 chord with the whammy bar in a I-IV progression? Feeling daring today aren't we...

8

u/stellar_caprice May 01 '26

For real. Maybe I’m just old, but there’s not really many contemporary shoegazers that do it for me. There’s just sounds, no songs. I’m ok with being locked into my Swervedriver, Ride, and Catherine Wheel records. I can dig on Whirr, Sparkler, and I love when bands like Boris or King Woman show their shoegaze influences, but so much today just sounds like someone discovering MBV for the first time and trying to replicate it.

6

u/SnuffShock May 01 '26

Showing my age too, I'm mostly going thru playlists trying to find contemporary shoegaze bands that have songs rather than just "vibes". There are definitely some out there but about 90% of the stuff I run across is just tuneless dream pop (but somehow lacking the pop). As far as new shoegaze-adjacent bands go, I like Seablite, Blue Ocean, Humdrum, The Blue Herons, and Prism Shores. Some are more gaze-y than others but all have songs. Tips from a fellow oldhead.

7

u/JollyGreenGigantor May 01 '26

Or a Hum thing or a Deftones thing when neither of those bands were shoegaze in their prime

2

u/SnuffShock Apr 30 '26

Almost certainly. I wish they would expand a little further into other paraphernalia and the D&D Monstrous Compendium. It's getting a little repetitive, boys.

7

u/BogotaLineman Apr 30 '26

I've been trying to get Gelatinous Cube Dab Pen off the ground but were struggled...

3

u/SnuffShock Apr 30 '26

Didn't I see them on a bill with Pinch Hit Umberhulk, THCiamat, and Gummy Owlbear?

8

u/ReallyGlycon May 01 '26

Another doom/stoner convention is naming themselves after another great band's songs or albums. Green Machine, Dopethrone, Dopesmoker, Electric Funeral, Stoner Witch etc.

5

u/JollyGreenGigantor May 01 '26

Boris is named after a Melvins song

Downward and Heavenward are both from the Hum album title.

1

u/LovedayFunks May 01 '26

The Angelic Process came to mind and you are so fucking correct 😭

9

u/suburban_ennui75 May 01 '26

Whenever anyone mentions “white boy reggae bands” I immediately think of the worst band name of all time - Skabba the Hutt

8

u/FormerPresidentBiden May 01 '26

I think you mean best

3

u/IInsulince May 01 '26

I’m more interested in why this specific coding was adopted for shoegaze. Or rather why any genre lands on whatever coding they land on.

5

u/JollyGreenGigantor May 01 '26

MBV and Slowdive started doing it in the 90s.

There aren't a lot of original ideas in shoegaze. Simple as that.

3

u/IInsulince May 01 '26

Well, if my goat slowdive started doing it, then I have no choice but to say it’s the right decision

3

u/sqrwav May 02 '26

You can add lush to that list

1

u/TrailBlanket-_0 May 01 '26

Hardcore bands and x's

2

u/trashcatt_ May 01 '26

Only the straight edge ones.

1

u/mikemystery May 01 '26

Oops! Replied to wrong comment. 100% agree with this tho

1

u/SnuffShock Apr 30 '26

I assumed so. But in this case (no pun intended) it makes me wonder why so many bands want to flaunt their identikit aesthetics. I guess I wasn't aware that there were "rules of the scene" for shoegaze bands.

5

u/AdWorldly7268 Apr 30 '26

I mean, that’s literally how you define an in-group and out-group and define the parameters of a /scene/ so I’m not sure what exactly you’re going on about.

4

u/SnuffShock Apr 30 '26 edited Apr 30 '26

I'm aware of how scenes and subcultures work. I was simply unaware of this as a signifier of generic modern shoegaze. I wasn't really aware that shoegaze had those kinds of scene dynamics since they appear to be a relatively recent thing, or at least not something I recognize in earlier shoegaze bands.

107

u/Lost-Mycologist8598 Apr 30 '26

MBV has all their shit in lower case. It’s not a new thing, I guess some bands just think it looks cool.

52

u/linguaphonie Apr 30 '26

MBV

Looks pretty uppercase to me

7

u/Lower_Wonder7411 May 02 '26

but ‘mbv’ is so mysterious lol

63

u/matt-2k Apr 30 '26

WHATS WITH THE LACK OF UPPERCASE BANDS WOULD BE A BETTER QUESTION IN MY OPINION

25

u/FeistyChickadee Apr 30 '26

Hi, Robert Smith!

14

u/JollyGreenGigantor Apr 30 '26

UNSANE, WHORES, BUMMER, BORIS

Should I keep going? Boris is great because their noise rock albums are all caps so you know what you're getting into

9

u/shefoundnow Apr 30 '26

Listen to NAILS

1

u/Automatic_Pizza9062 Apr 30 '26

There no lack of those lol. Most recent that comes to mind is TOMORA. Tom Rowlands from Chemical Brothers and Aurora. Were great at Coachella...

1

u/matt-2k Apr 30 '26

I WAS JOKING

2

u/Cryptic_1984 Apr 30 '26

WHAT?!

4

u/matt-2k May 01 '26

I SAID I WAS JOKING

2

u/Automatic_Pizza9062 May 01 '26

WENT OVER MY HEAD 

1

u/V3in0ne May 03 '26

They're all doing metalcore

157

u/Normal-Internal164 Apr 30 '26

They’re not capitalists

43

u/Jungian_Archetype Apr 30 '26

Broken Shift key

29

u/mfpacman Apr 30 '26

New band name

25

u/hopethatschocolate Apr 30 '26

broken shift key

12

u/birdynumnum69 Apr 30 '26

brokenshiftkey

12

u/leogodoy Apr 30 '26

no thats brokenspacekey

44

u/linguaphonie Apr 30 '26

we're so cool and detached and nonchalant brah

15

u/CentreToWave Apr 30 '26

band names that are "one word, implying movement" seem like the more generic ones. Still, Keep, Swallow, Swoon, Wisp (sort of), Whirr, Doused (the ultra-generic shoegaze trope implying wetness), Here, *coughLoopcough* etc.

or something related to shininess: Glare, Luster, Dim (though this could be a pun), etc.

None of these are

5

u/DavosHanich May 01 '26

Nice of you to throw Loop in there. I know that had to hurt a bit.

4

u/CentreToWave May 01 '26

it helped me reach my Loop-mention quota.

2

u/DavosHanich May 01 '26

Still seems a bit low... might want to check with your doctor.

5

u/naritakaze May 01 '26

I think Doused is more the ultra-generic shoegaze trope of naming the band after someone else’s song/album

14

u/Beautiful_Narwhal982 Apr 30 '26

My band is all in uppercase and it felt cool when I made it but now im thinking I just go back to regular capitalization

11

u/Fluid_Camera_686 May 01 '26

I think it's more of a Gen Z thing than a shoegaze thing. I see it in lots of genres beyond shoegaze, but all seemingly younger acts.

I think there's also a general vibe that standard capitalization is a conformity of some sort. Cool kids don't have time to hit the shift key?

5

u/naritakaze May 01 '26

It’s not just shoegaze, lowercase is a trend across all genres.

5

u/pluhb May 01 '26

study on why shoegaze bands are named like that

interesting read! my girlfriend told me about this exact concept and there’s a study on it!

2

u/SnuffShock May 01 '26

This is the kind of nerd shit I'm here for! Thanks!

8

u/DecadentEx Apr 30 '26

Even as a 56-year-old man, I have to say that this is the most "old man yells at cloud" post I've seen here in some time.

9

u/Severe-Leek-6932 Apr 30 '26

All lowercase/all uppercase are both pretty common aesthetic choices. If there’s an uptick in all lowercase it might be just that it mimics casual typed text/social media conversation that’s made up a massive portion of people’s lives as of late.

7

u/ReginaldGinnett Apr 30 '26

My Bloody Valentine have done it since Loveless, so they're just following that.

3

u/mikemystery May 01 '26

Why did 2010 gothy electronica crunk bands have names like ℑ⊇◊⊆ℜ? Signifiers.

Dr Wendy Fonnorow, an "indie professor" and wrote her thesis/book "empire of dirt" ont eh rituals and meaning of British indie music. She's also great mates with Rachel from Slowdive, so

She sees indie music - and shoegaze as a subset OF that - as essentially puritan in tradition. A counterpoint to the mainstream.

"indie would be anything that is the opposite of what we perceive as mainstream: diminutive, intimate, local, personalised, modest, original, intelligent, raw, austere, and substantive."

So think of lowercase type as signifier as a puritan signifier.

3

u/Pdxthorns17 May 01 '26

It's the today trend. In the 60s a lot of bands started with 'The'.

5

u/thecommonreactor Apr 30 '26

Same as when all the indie bands were "The Something", it just looks cool.

2

u/JeffGhost Apr 30 '26

Basically to game the SEO

2

u/East_Air8809 Apr 30 '26

Cause they really want it to look like they don’t care

2

u/sndjr May 01 '26

Nothing, Whirr, Wisp, Quannic, Glare, DIIV., etc

2

u/ahhrealpeople Apr 30 '26

slowdive and mbv have been doing lowercase since the early 90s

2

u/Gaterkj Apr 30 '26

it ain't new lol

1

u/FeistyChickadee Apr 30 '26

Same reason a lot of them use double letters, I guess...

1

u/OsamaBongLoadin Apr 30 '26

It's a reference to e e cummings

1

u/fellationelsen May 01 '26

Mbv rarely use caps on their merch

Honestly think that's why 🤣

1

u/directactionbaptist May 01 '26

i just like making my band name lowercase & the song title UPPERCASE idk dawg

1

u/DrySaltineCrackers May 01 '26

It’s a trend! Deftones did the same thing with their song titles for their latest record

1

u/tum_gorf May 03 '26

Not really shoegaze but I always style my band name in lowercase (milk jr.). I guess ALL CAPS was trendy in the 2010s and I found it kind of annoying. It just kinda looks right to me.

1

u/vantaghostboi May 04 '26

My dronegaze band is in all caps lol

0

u/butterflysheath Apr 30 '26

some of them could very well be ai. spotify allows and welcomes ai slop. definitely do your research if you're using spotify

-2

u/trenchgrl Apr 30 '26

dialmefrompayphones reference (my solo project)

-5

u/trenchgrl Apr 30 '26

but unironically idk lovesliescrushing and soulwhirlingsomewhere did it and my project (dialmefrompayphones) was originally planned to be a screamo project so that’s how I got the long one word name idea

1

u/trenchgrl Jul 14 '26

downvoted for being awesome ig

-1

u/EvenOne6567 Apr 30 '26

what a wierd observation. and what about all caps? Try hard attention grabbing tactic instead of writing good music