Sinister: shoegazing backlash

[Keith Watson]

anastasia wrote
>why is it that british indie kids like
>to take the piss
>out of old shoegazers?

i once had this discussion with someone and they
claimed to be anti-shoegazing because it was a
purely middle class phenomenon and that oasis as
heroes of the working class rescued fair england
from the pretenders with floppy fringes.


I suspect it's more to do with the fact that the entire "Shoegazing" scene 
invented by the music press to follow up on the large sales figures they 
attained during Madchester, and that lumping together a load of frankly 
poor bands who sound like My Bloody Valentine and the Cocteau Twins and 
calling it the next big thing wasn't really going to wash with the 
kids(tm). That's not necessarily a reflection on the fact that there were 
certainly some good records made, but then, there are good records made in 
almost all genres. It has been a source of mystery to me however quite why 
"shoegazing" seems to have left a lasting impact on the USA. I suppose it 
just died here since the top bands (Ride, Slowdive, Chapterhouse etc.) were 
just not even vaguely comparable to the previous year's big thing, in the 
Stone Roses and the Happy Mondays. I would doubt that people would 
deliberately decide not to be into a genre of music cause of it being a 
"middle-class phenomenon" however (you can basically rule out the sixties 
for a start), and in any case shoegazing died a death several years prior 
to Oasis appearing here, there was a grim patch in between with people like 
the Frank and Walters on the cover of the NME.

Cheers,
  Keith.


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