Since My Bloody Valentine’s 1991 masterpiece, Loveless, set the gold standard for shoegaze, there've been countless innovations and regional flairs applied to the specific, yet also quite moldable, style of blaring guitar music. While many listeners and musicians still think of the UK as the genre’s creative homeland, the most interesting innovations to the genre are currently being made by a disparate mass of young bands throughout the United States.
Channeling the noisy experimentation of '90s-era bands like Swirlies, Medicine, and Loveliescrushing, this New Wave of American Shoegaze is rubbing shoulders with other genres like drum 'n' bass, country, and emo; toying with fresh sonic elements such as Auto-Tune, computerized synths, and wobbly guitar chorus; and drawing from a diverse range of modern influences that are yielding new sounds that buck many of shoegaze's stale, repetitive traditions.
These are 15 songs that provide an introductory taste to where shoegaze is headed in the 2020s. For as timeless as the music of originators like Slowdive and Ride remains, that ground has been well-treaded over the last 30 years. These bands are revamping the genre for a new generation, keeping shoegaze's artful and thrilling spirit alive. Maybe, just maybe, one of them will end up making the next Loveless.
