What makes a band a "shoegazer" band? I know personally I hate to always categorize bands as this or that style of music but this is a movement that has inspired many musicians (including myself) and fans to appreciate these great bands and their music with the overall sound. The "sound" is very special with songs being very textured, thick and layered with effects on most instruments. Most bands use similar effects to achieve their own unique sounds with emphasis on modulation type effects: chorus, phaser, flanger, tremolo and delay & reverb. This is the key to the "sound". The experimentation with these effects have, along with great song writing and arrangement, become an important factor in shaping music in the 1990s and into the next milennium.
"Shoegazing is a genre of late '80s and early '90s British indie-rock, named after the bands'
motionless performing style, where they stood on stage and stared at the floor while they played.
But shoegazing wasn't about visuals -- it was about pure sound. The sound of the music was
overwhelmingly loud, with long, droning riffs, waves of distortion and cascades of feedback. Vocals
and melodies disappeared into the walls of guitars, creating a wash of sound where no instrument
was distinguishable from the other. Most shoegazing groups worked off the template My Bloody
Valentine established with their early EPs and their first full-length album, Isn't Anything, but
Dinosaur Jr., the Jesus & Mary Chain and Cocteau Twins were also major influences. Bands that
followed -- most notably Ride, Lush, Chapterhouse, and the Boo Radleys -- added their own
stylistic flourishes. Ride veered close to '60s psychedelia, while Lush alternated between straight
pop and the dream-pop of the Cocteau Twins."
-- All-Media Guide Definition
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