Shoegaze is a compelling genre of music, with some really captivating sounds and artistry. It also has a s**tton of subgrenes that you might dig.
Arguably, most non-mainstream music fits better into a subgenre than a main one. That’s kind of the idea. It’s stuff that’s a bit left of center. This is true with shoegaze, which is already a pretty unique sound on its own. But if you love that sound, here are a few more versions you might also dig.
Dream Pop
Some people might feel like putting dream pop as a subgenre of shoegaze is not an accurate representation of the two genres’ relationship. That is a fair position, to be honest. But for the sake of potentially opening new listeners up to something they haven’t heard, we’re gonna suspend belief for a bit.
Essentially, some bigger shoegaze bands, like Cocteau Twins and Mazzy Star, are very much dream pop. It’s a more subdued approach, with more flowery melodies, but still a lot of the perpetual sound coming through.
A great example, I think, are Turnover’s second and third albums, Peripheral Vision (2015) and
Good Nature (2017). They’re notably different in many ways, with Good Nature being objectively more dream pop, but they work really well as two sides of the same coin.
Blackgaze
This is one of my personal favorites, but I also loved both black metal and shoegaze separately before I heard blackgaze, so do with that what you will.
Blending the two musical onslaughts into one attack on your ears, the subgenre was pioneered by Alcest in the 2000s. It was Deafheaven’s 2013 album Sunbather that really brought it out into the light, as it were.
Frankly, the two genres work mercilessly well with one another, just blasting your head with heavy noise and blast beat rhythms. A few more blackgaze acts to check are Holy Fawn, Oathbreaker, and Lantlôs.
Grungegaze
Arguably, grungegaze—which blends grunge and shoegaze—is a more recently identified subgenre. It’s an interesting thing, though, because shoegaze bands and sounds actually had a big influence on early 90s grunge. (Think young Smashing Pumpkins.) So, you know, it’s just ironic.
Some of the bands who match this sound are Superheaven, Oathbreaker, Narrow Head (who I recently saw live and they were f**king fantastic), and Fleshwater. The vibe is really heavy jams, with distorted guitar that reverberates at great magnitude. It’s a big, kind of gritty, sonic landscape that is deeply reminiscent of grunge’s most prolific era.
Witch House
To be fair, Witch House has a bit more in common with EDM than shoegaze. But those gaze elements are important. To render it down a bit, it’s like Darkwave that employs those big, sense-engulfing dynamics that usually come from guitar and bass. Only, here it’s more electronic.
Then there are the themes. Witch House traditionally contains occult or gothic themes. Again, it leans to dark aesthetics on almost every front, which is an important identifier.
A couple of important Witch House acts include Michigan’s Salem and White Ring, from New York. Salem is notable because of how they represent Witch House impacting the mainstream. Salem member Jack Donoghue was hired by Kanye West to work on his Yeezus album. Specifically, his production inspired the song “Black Skinhead“.
Other artists who’ve cited Witch House as an inspiration—or incorporated elements of the genre—include A$AP Rocky, The Weeknd, and Wicca Phase Springs Eternal.
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