\n\t \n\tThe word \u201cshoegaze,\u201d like \u201cgoth\u201d or \u201cTrekkie,\u201d was originally coined as an insult, before getting adopted as a badge of honor by true believers. One of the eternally weird things about the genre is how the first-wave British legends still despise the term and refuse to be associated with it, even though it\u2019s been decades since anyone used it as a pejorative. (Witness the irony of the superb shoegaze documentary Beautiful Noise<\/em>, where the word \u201cshoegaze\u201d is never mentioned because it was the only way Kevin Shields would agree to talk.) But like drum-and-bass, it\u2019s a Nineties sound that\u2019s found a second life in the 2020s, as a rich musical language loaded with emotional possibilities.<\/p>\n \n\tThis type of music attracts gearheads who fetishize their boutique distortion pedals, but nowadays it\u2019s also accessible to any upstart kid with an imagination. Wisp<\/a> made one of last year\u2019s most stellar shoegaze albums with If Not Winter<\/a>,<\/em> but she got her start without even leaving her dorm room. As an 18-year-old college student, she devised \u201cYour Face\u201d by singing into her phone over a shoegaze track she found online \u2014 then watched it blow up into a viral TikTok sensation. Like fellow zoomers such as Quannnic<\/a> or Flyingfish<\/a>, she shows why the current boom can\u2019t even be called a \u201crevival.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n
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\n\t\t<\/span>hoegaze<\/a> was once dismissed as a Nineties fad \u2014 but it\u2019s exploding these days. Pioneers like My Bloody Valentine<\/a>, Slowdive<\/a>, and Ride are far more beloved and influential now than they were in their original lifetimes. The shoegaze sound keeps evolving, as young artists keep hearing themselves in those mega-distorted waves of guitar fuzz. The Gen Z fans and bands have entered the mix, creating a boom of new zoomergaze styles. Something about this bone-shaking noise keeps hitting us right in the darkest places of the soul.<\/p>\n![\"Reasons](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/rock-mobile.png\")
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