Shoegaze / Dream Pop
Listen to our playlist of songs that flirt or are in the genres dream pop and shoegaze.
Shoegaze and dream pop are two subgenres of alternative rock that are often confused and mixed. It is not easy to distinguish them. After all, some sound elements are common to both and the main artists of these styles are generally associated with both.
Some scholars of pop music consider that the elements that gave characteristics to dream pop were born in the 1960s and 1970s with works by bands like Beach Boys and Velvet Underground, and albums produced by Phil Spector, like All Things Must Pass of 1970 by George Harrison . It is understood that dream pop acquired a sound form in the early 1980s, mainly with the Scottish band Cocteau Twins. Many consider shoegaze to be a derivation of dream pop.
But, what is the difference between them? In a brief and simple way, shoegaze presents a harsher sound, in which the ethereal vocals are buried under layers of guitars, creating nebulous songs. In dream pop, there is more clarity in vocals and melodies, with soft sonorous textures that evoke dreams.
Their experiments gave an air of renewal to the aesthetics and sound structures of pop music. Their influence, over the years, contributes to the emergence of bands, which, although not labeled within these styles, flirt with their elements.
- Cocteau Twins
Carolyn's Fingers - Yo La Tengo
Nowhere Near - A Sunny Day in Glasgow
Close Chorus - Beach Fossils
Sleep Apnea - The Clientele
Reflections After Jane - DIIV
Mire (Grant's Song) - A Place to Bury Strangers
To Fix the Gash in Your Head - Slowdive
Souvlaki Space Station - The Jesus and Mary Chain
Reverence - Galaxie 500
Blue Thunder - Ride
Leave Them All Behind - The Horrors
Three Decades - My Bloody Valentine
Soon - The Sundays
Here's Where the Story Ends - DIIV
Doused - Mercury Rev
Chasing a Bee - A Sunny Day in Glasgow
Boys Turn Into Girls (Initiation Rites) - My Bloody Valentine
Sometimes - Primal Scream
Shoot Speed/Kill Light - My Bloody Valentine
Only Shallow - Mazzy Star
Fade Into You - Low
Words - The Joy Formidable
Whirring - The Jesus and Mary Chain
Just Like Honey - R.E.M.
Let Me In - Pale Saints
Sight of You - The Brian Jonestown Massacre
Hyperventilation - Curve
Horror Head - Ride
Vapour Trail - Beach House
Gila - Slowdive
When the Sun Hits - The Cure
Plainsong - Swervedriver
Duress - Galaxie 500
Listen, The Snow Is Falling - Beach House
Myth - Medicine
Miss Drugstore - M83
Don't Save Us from the Flames - Cocteau Twins
Cherry-Coloured Funk - Dinosaur Jr.
Tarpit - Yo La Tengo
Deeper into Movies - Slowdive
Alison - The Clientele
We Could Walk Together - Curve
Faît Accompli - Cocteau Twins
Heaven or Las Vegas - M83
Run Into Flower - Grouper
When We Fall - Lush
De-Luxe - Teenage Fanclub
Star Sign - Lush
Sweetness and Light - Deerhunter
Hazel St