YOUNG SOLE REBELS
Shoegaze: it’s time to celebrate the scene that celebrated itself, insists wall of noise addict Jim Keoghan
Scenes come, scenes go. Some pass without mourning, but those with class join the pantheon of the musical great and good. But every now and then a scene appears that despite its quality, has to work that bit harder and wait that bit longer before it takes its rightful place among its peers. Twenty years ago, one such scene began its journey into the wilderness of the unlamented also-rans, a journey it’s only recently begun to return from. Characterised by distortion and dissonance, and an uneasy alliance of the noisy and tranquil, the movement was known as shoegazing.
Its roots can be traced back to the very late 80s, when a collection of bands from in and around London and the Thames Valley started to grab the interest of the music press.
“We were starting to notice a load of bands coming through producing music that was really interesting,” says Paul Lester, a Record Collector writer who was then on Melody Maker. “For me, the biggest influence on them seemed to be My Bloody Valentine (MBV) and I’ve always thought of those bands as baby Valentines. I think in hindsight you can look at MBV’s 1988 single You Made Me Realise as the song that laid the foundation for what would follow.”
One of the key elements of You Made Me Realise was something then known, perhaps tastelessly, …
by Jim Keoghan
<< Back to Issue 390
Already a Magazine Subscriber? Register now for online access.
