[Column] Indie Shoegaze / Dream Pop

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15 Dec 2025

Prologue: The birth of music with a downcast gaze

Text: mmr｜Theme: About the history of reconstructing sound images and sensations

Shoegaze and dream pop, which emerged mainly in the UK from the late 1980s to the early 1990s, significantly shifted the expressive realm of rock music from ““performance” to ““sound image.” These musics focus on the space, reverberation, and sensual duration created by overlapping sounds, rather than the immediate appeal of melody or the clear delivery of lyrics.

The term “shoegaze” came from the way people looked at the effector boards at their feet while performing, and the term became established as a symbol of the introverted nature of the performance. Dream pop, on the other hand, was formed as a result of the fusion of an earlier ambient pop sensibility with the sonic orientation of post-punk.

Although the two have different origins, they are closely connected in terms of sound processing, voice handling, and visual sensibilities.

[“The genre name was an afterthought, and many of those involved were not aware of its classification at first.”]

Chapter 1: Prehistory and formation of dream pop

1-1. Acoustic sensation after post-punk

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, postpunk deconstructed rock’s structure and shifted its attention to timbre, texture, and spatial treatment. Synthesizers, reverb, and delay are no longer mere decorations, but function as elements that shape the structure of the song itself.

In this process, the singing voice changed from being the main body telling the story to becoming just a part of the sound.

1-2. Cocteau Twins location

The Cocteau Twins played a crucial role in establishing dream pop. Guitarist Robin Guthrie layered chorus, delay, and reverb to create a unique floating feeling while blurring the contours of the chords.

Elizabeth Fraser’s vocals create an emotional atmosphere through pronunciation, intonation, and strings of syllables rather than clearly conveying meaning. Lyrics were often abstract or improvised, and the meaning of language became secondary.

[“Voice is not treated as information, but as texture”]

Chapter 2: Dream Pop Sound Structure

2-1. Guitar and spatial processing

Dream pop guitars are arranged as sustained sounds, rather than riffs or chord progressions. Delay is used to create overlapping reverberations rather than being synchronized to the beat, and reverb plays the role of melting the contours of the sound.

2-2. Rhythm in the background

The drums and bass don’t act as the driving force behind the song, but function as a center of gravity to support the sound image. The tempo is relatively constant, and emphasis is placed on the continuation of a state rather than dramatic development.

Chapter 3: The Outbreak of Shoegaze

3-1. Junction with indie rock

The British indie scene of the late 1980s was a mix of elements of jangle pop, noise rock, and dream pop. Among them, a group of bands pursuing a more distorted guitar sound and a high-density wall of sound will appear.

3-2. Introducing My Bloody Valentine

My Bloody Valentine is an icon of shoegaze. Their music is not just distortion, but is built on fluctuations in pitch, instability in pitch, and minute shifts.

Kevin Shields uses a unique playing technique using a tremolo arm to create a sound image that continues to shake the entire chord. This causes the guitar to lose its percussive attack and acquire a continuous wave-like texture.

[“The instability of the performance creates stability in the music”]

Chapter 4: Shoegaze Sound Analysis

4-1. Strain layer structure

In My Bloody Valentine’s songs, multiple distorted guitars are layered, each occupying a different band. As a result, the clarity of single notes is lost, but a thicker sound mass is formed as a whole.

4-2. Vocal placement

The vocals don’t come to the fore, but are embedded among the instruments. The lyrics are intentionally kept low in discernibility, and the voice functions as part of the melodic instrument.

Chapter 5: Visual sensation and visual expression

5-1. Jacket and color

Shoegaze/dream pop artwork is often abstract and blurry. The vague outlines, low contrast, and nearly monochromatic colors are strongly linked to the texture of the music.

5-2. Music video trends

The images do not tell a story, but are composed of fragments of light, slow motion, and superimposition. Camerawork and editing also avoid clear focus and emphasize a sense of visual floating.

[“Image exists not as an explanation, but as an extension of sensation”]

Chapter 6: Differences and overlaps between both genres

Elements	Dream Pop	Shoegaze
Volume	Relatively suppressed	Loud volume/high density
Distortion	Less	Multilayer
Treatment of voices	Floating	Buried
Sensations	Dreaming/Introspection	Oppression/Euphoria

The two are not opposed to each other, but rather exist on a continuum.

Chapter 7: Chronology

timeline 1979 : ポストパンクの音響志向が顕在化 1982 : Cocteau Twins 初期作品でドリームポップ的音像を確立 1988 : 英国インディ・シーンでシューゲイズ的手法が拡散 1991 : My Bloody Valentine による音響表現の到達点 1990s : 両ジャンルが後続世代へ影響を及ぼす

Final chapter: When music becomes scenery

Indie shoegaze and dream pop transformed music from an object to be listened to to a space to be immersed in. It is not a display of skill, but a design of the senses, a comprehensive expression that connects visual and physical sensations.

My Bloody Valentine and Cocteau Twins, in their different directions, showed how far music could be abstracted. The sound image they left behind continues to be echoed directly or indirectly in many indie works even today.

[“This music never ends. It’s always replayed in a different form.”]

Additional Chapter A: Changes in sound technology and production environment

A-1. Development of studio technology and genre formation

The establishment of shoegaze and dream pop is closely related not only to performance techniques but also to changes in recording techniques since the 1980s. The development of multi-track recording, outboard effects, and in-studio mixing technology has changed music production from ““recording” to ““construction.”

In particular, the method of recording the same part multiple times and layering them creates a sound that is both thick and ambiguous at the same time. This technique contributed to both the spatial spaciousness of dream pop and the sonic density of shoegaze.

[“The studio began to function as part of the instrument”]

A-2. Redefining foreground and background in the mix

Traditional rock mixes typically place vocals and lead instruments in the foreground. However, in shoegaze/dream pop, this principle is intentionally broken.

Vocals are embedded in the midrange and treated in the same way as guitar and synthesizer reverberations. This arrangement creates the effect of giving the listener a bird’s-eye view of the entire sound, rather than focusing their attention on one point.

[“Obfuscating what is the main character is itself a musical intention”]

Additional Chapter B: Treatment of Rhythm and Physical Senses

B-1. Beat repetition and stagnation

Rhythm in shoegaze and dream pop functions not as a device for producing development, but as a device for maintaining a state. The drum pattern is relatively simple, with less emphasis on fills and accents.

As a result, the song emphasizes ““time that continues to stay” rather than ““time that progresses.”

B-2. Redefining physical upliftment

At first glance, shoegaze played at high volume may seem like aggressive music, but the physical experience is different. The focus is not on rhythmic leaps, but on envelopment through sound pressure and immersion through sustain.

This is an experience where the audience’s body is not pushed forward, but immersed in the sound.

[“Not moved, but covered”]

Additional chapter C: Position of lyrics and regression of meaning

C-1. Language abstraction

In dream pop, as exemplified by the Cocteau Twins, the meaning of the lyrics is intentionally obscured. Pronunciation, vowel length, and relationship to rhythm take priority, and lexical clarity recedes into the background.

This was an attempt to redefine language as a sound material rather than a means of transmitting information.

C-2. The obscurity of lyrics in shoegaze

In My Bloody Valentine’s works, there are many parts where the lyrics are completely inaudible. However, this is not a lack, but a result of design.

As words lose their meaning, listeners are required to receive their emotions without verbalizing them.

[“Reaction is prioritized, not understanding”]

Additional Chapter D: Visual Representation and Anonymity

D-1. Depersonalization of the band

Shoegaze/dream pop artists tended to avoid pushing their individuality to the forefront. The low line of sight, dim lighting, and expressionless appearance on stage are devices designed to de-emphasize the individual performers.

D-2. Absence of subject in video

In music videos and visual materials, people are often not shown clearly or are intentionally blurred. This is an attempt to ensure visual anonymity similar to music.

[“It’s not about who is making the sound, but what is making the sound”]

Additional Chapter E: Structural influence on subsequent genres

E-1. Succession to the late 1990s and beyond

Even after shoegaze and dream pop temporarily lost commercial attention, their techniques continued underground. The emphasis on sound images is being reinterpreted in alternative rock, post-rock, and ambient pop.

E-2. Connection with production environment after indie

With the spread of home recording environments, it has become possible for individuals to create multi-layered acoustics. This extended shoegaze-like layering and dream-pop spatial processing to a smaller production environment.

[“Giant sound images no longer necessarily require huge equipment”]

Supplementary Chapter: Contrasting achievements of My Bloody Valentine and Cocteau Twins

Perspective	My Bloody Valentine	Cocteau Twins
Volume	Extremely loud	Relatively suppressed
Fluctuation of sound	Physical/Performance	Spatial/Processing
Role of voice	Part of musical instrument	Medium of emotion
Worldview	Sealing/Compression	Diffusion/Floating

Although they share the same method, they have reached different directions.

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