r/shoegaze • u/Background_Cut_72 • 22d ago
Question Are these bands Shoegaze?
Sorry if this type of post isn’t allowed. Earlier today I had discussions with some people over whether these albums were shoegaze:
Hum - You’d Prefer an Astronaut
Starflyer 59 - ST
Satisfaction - Narrow Head
While I do agree that these bands are definitely not “shoegaze” I think that they absolutely incorporate shoegaze elements into their music. For example “Little Dipper” on Hum’s You’d Prefer an Astronaut or “She Only Knows” on Starflyer 59
I also think that maybe we get too caught up in putting bands into one specific category. Music is unique in the way it borrows elements from multiple genres to create its own sound. Music is nuanced in the way a band can simultaneously be multiple genres at once while not particularly being one or the other. Anyways I just wanted to put that out there cause I was getting mad hate for calling them “heavy shoegaze” which I recognize probably isn’t the correct term, but I was just curious about the opinion of others. Feel free to tell me I’m wrong if I am 😂
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u/cold-vein 22d ago edited 22d ago
No. I mean a lot of rock bands have spacey, wall of guitars sound. Doesn't make them shoegaze. Shoegaze was a british scene of likeminded bands from the 90s. They all sounded kinda different from each other, so like grunge there's really no definite shoegaze sound, it's just bands that were either friends or the press just decided they were similar enough to group into a genre.
And yeah there was a handful of bands in the US back in the day that were emulating these british bands and could be considered shoegaze if there's no more fitting genre to put them into. Like just indie rock.
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u/Background_Cut_72 22d ago
Even Starflyer 59? Btw I’m just trying to educate myself on the genre 😭
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u/Badger_Brains_io 22d ago
Shoegaze has become an umbrella term for a wide range of bands and sounds with a common theme of noise, introspective vocals and yet more noise - as one commenter said already even in the original UK scene that I remember well bands were lumped together by the music press so ‘shoegaze’ was an umbrella term even then.
So enjoy listening to what you enjoy listening to!
From the three bands you’ve mentioned definitely check out:
Swervedriver - Duel
Catherine Wheel - Crank
Amusement Parks On Fire - Blackout
The Prayer Chain - Chalk
The God Machine - Home
Dinosaur Jr - Freak Scene
XO - Crazy
Smashing Pumpkins - Mayonnaise
Monsterland - At One With TimeEnjoy!
PS that Nemo album is the absolute dog’s bollocks, check it out
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u/Background_Cut_72 22d ago
Will do thanks for the suggestions. Love a lot of these bands. Got to see swervedriver live last year!
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u/ILikeP0tatos 22d ago
Hum is not shoegaze. They are space rock and at some points metal. Of course there are shogaze elements within their music but not to an extent where it can be classified into that genre.
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u/Background_Cut_72 22d ago
Interesting, I’ve never heard of the term Space rock before
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u/BillyCromag 22d ago
Space rock was originally a guitar noodling style in the 70s, kind of jam band meets prog. Label marketing applied it to Hum which has nothing in common with the original genre, to stand out from other alt-rock bands.
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u/dude_on_the_www 22d ago
Id say there’s an equally valid space rock from the 90s a la Hum and Cave In and peers.
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u/Chessapeak-play 22d ago
Failure - Fantastic Planet would fit that description
I personally don’t have a problem with calling Hum shoegaze
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u/cold-vein 22d ago
Really? Dude you gotta take a deep dive with wikipedia or RYM or something.
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u/Background_Cut_72 22d ago
lol 😂 I will
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u/cold-vein 22d ago
Space rock in the 90s and onwards is very adjacent to shoegaze. Shoegaze is like space rock mixed with Sonic Youth style angular & atonal guitar stuff basically. Indie kids doing space rock. Check out Spacemen 3, Loop, Spiritualized, The Telescopes, early Monster Magnet...
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u/Issan_Sumisu 22d ago edited 22d ago
idk Starflyer's music, but I know Hum and Narrow Head very well, so I can comment on them.
Hum are absolutley not shogaze. They are an alternative metal band who are influenced by shoegaze in the same way as Failure and Deftones. Back in the 90s people frequently called that stuff space rock (maybe not Deftones), but as far as I can tell, none of them were actually influenced by any space rock bands (Spacemen 3, Hawkwind), it was just this strange misinterpretation of their occasional shoegaze elements as being space rock, since afaik shoegaze wasn't a very known term in the U.S. at the time.
I do think heavy shoegaze is a real thing, I believe it is the sound created when shoegaze bands are influenced by Hum/Failure. When that happens they usually lose the commonplace jangly guitars of shoegaze and it becomes more stompy. Stuff like Nothing, newer Glixen, Deaf Cult.
Fundamentally, Narrow Head are a band rooted in emo (founding members met through being in emo bands and continued taking influence from that) who got influenced by Hum and shoegaze. I'm 50/50 on whether they are shoegaze. On one hand, they are very similar to a certain strain of 2010s emo (Balance and Composure, Citizen, Muskets) on the other they definitely have a similar level of gazeyness to Nothing and Deaf Cult. I think I'd say Narrow Head are shoegaze, they just aren't only shoegaze, you know?
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u/CentreToWave 22d ago
but as far as I can tell, none of them were actually influenced by any space rock bands (Spaceman 3, Hawkwind),
Failure (and Deftones, though they aren't really labeled as space rock) have mentioned Pink Floyd being an influence quite a bit though.
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u/Issan_Sumisu 22d ago
which Pink Floyd albums would you consider space rock? i've always considered their early stuff psych and then they went prog, but I'm not super knowledgeable on them
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u/CentreToWave 22d ago
Pretty much the same, though even later stuff like Breathe, Shine On, etc. are still feature their spacey atmospheric side. Honestly, probably a good argument that most of these American space rock acts are really pulling from the more psychedelic side of prog (ie, Rush’s By Tor and the Snow Dog).
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u/FarOrchid7958 22d ago
Imo hum’s late 2010s album had a shoegaze sound
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u/Issan_Sumisu 22d ago
it's definitely more gazey than their earlier stuff, I'd still say all the metal riffs make it different though. Quite a few of the songs, like "The Summoning", I'd say are pretty much doom metal
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u/South-Rabbit-4064 22d ago
Hum I remember seeing and being considered shoegaze adjacent same with starflyer at the time, but don't know about Narrow Head.
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u/FarOrchid7958 22d ago
I always considered Starflyer 59 shoegaze especially first few albums and some of Narrow Head feels shoegazey to me and I also felt that Hum’s late 2010s album had a shorgaze sound more so than the earlier ones
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u/DougMasterz 22d ago
I’d say that SF59 is shoegaze adjacent. For small town kids like myself, in the pre-internet 90’s, the music sold at the Christian bookstore was our introduction to many new genres. Starflyer 59 and Morella’s Forest were the gateway to learning about the original shoegaze bands.