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.
Featured Tracks:
- Cocteau Twins Carolyn's Fingers
- Mercury Rev Chasing a Bee
- My Bloody Valentine Only Shallow
- Deerhunter Hazel St
- Low Words
- Yo La Tengo Nowhere Near
- Curve Faît Accompli
- The Jesus and Mary Chain Reverence
- Swervedriver Duress
- The Sundays Here's Where the Story Ends
- Spiritualized Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space
- Slowdive Souvlaki Space Station
- Primal Scream Shoot Speed/Kill Light
- DIIV Under the Sun
- Teenage Fanclub Star Sign
- Cocteau Twins Cherry-Coloured Funk
- The Verve Star Sail
- Chromatics Kill for love
- M83 Run Into Flower
- My Bloody Valentine Soon
- DIIV Mire (Grant's Song)
- Mazzy Star Fade Into You
- Cocteau Twins Heaven or Las Vegas
- Beach House Gila
- Dinosaur Jr. Tarpit
- Ride Leave Them All Behind
- The Clientele Reflections After Jane
- DIIV Doused
- Galaxie 500 Listen, The Snow Is Falling
- The Joy Formidable Whirring
- Galaxie 500 Blue Thunder
- Pale Saints Sight of You
- The Horrors Three Decades
- Grouper When We Fall
- Medicine Miss Drugstore
- Lush De-Luxe
- The Clientele We Could Walk Together
- The Brian Jonestown Massacre Hyperventilation
- A Sunny Day in Glasgow Close Chorus
- A Place to Bury Strangers To Fix the Gash in Your Head
- Curve Horror Head
- Beach Fossils Sleep Apnea
- M83 Don't Save Us from the Flames
- My Bloody Valentine Sometimes
- A Sunny Day in Glasgow Boys Turn Into Girls (Initiation Rites)
- The Cure Plainsong
- Beach House Myth
- Ride Vapour Trail
- Yo La Tengo Deeper into Movies
- Deafheaven Near