Shoegaze

Wednesday, December 27 2023

Subgenre Turmoil

I fuarrking love shoegaze. However, it's hard to explain the subgenres of shoegaze that I like. Two songs can be described as dreamy, reverbed moonscapes but only one might be pleasant for snoozing (FOG - Fictitious Fiction Fictitious), while the other is mildly vexing (Slowdive - When The Sun Hits). Two songs can also described as fuzzy, distorted motorcycle rides in the countryside, but only one might provide melodic comfort (Animal Ghosts - Here), while the other creates a jarring discomfort (Ringo Deathstarr - Rip). What are the shoegaze categorizers, frantically searching for word-sound mappings, to do?

Discover

How can one expand their gazing to new horizons? YouTube is very finite with its shoegaze scene of recommendations. Although there are very obscure artists with full albums automatically uploaded to YouTube via "- Topic" channels, they rarely appear as recommended videos. What I end up doing to discover new shoegaze music, is I listen to DKFM radio. They consistenly play music I find really great. A more recent method I've been used is Bandcamp's "discover" view, https://bandcamp.com/discover/alternative?tags=shoegaze. It allows you to filter by genre and geolocation, and sort by best selling, new arrivals, and "surprise me".

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