shoegazing, n. orig. Brit. Freq. depreciative.
Brit. /ˈʃuːˌgeɪzɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈʃuˌgeɪzɪŋ/
[‹ shoe n. + gazing n. Compare shoegazer n.]
A style of popular music originating in Britain at the start of the 1990s, featuring a sound in which the distinctions between separate instruments and vocals are blurred, esp. through the use of effects, and characterized by a deliberately reticent or introverted style of performance. Freq. attrib. Cf. dream pop n. at dream n.2 Additions
So named because of the supposed tendency of such performers to look down (esp. in order to operate guitar effects pedals) rather than at the audience.
| 1991 New Musical Express 8 June 26 Call it ‘shoe gazing’, call it ‘murmuring’, even call it ‘post-rave comedown’. 1991 Daily Tel. 11 Nov. 2/7 Competent though they are, their long tousled hair, distorted guitar sound and ‘shoe gazing’ stance—they stare at their feet as they play—does little to set them apart from those in Britain. 1996 Raygun Nov. 91 Luna now rejects Galaxies trademark sound: the sensuous, expressionistic, reverb-drenched dreamscapes that went on to influence the entire so-called ‘shoegazing’ scene in the UK. 1999 London Student (Univ. of London Union) 24 Feb. 15/3 Elements of emo, shoegazing, and other things can be heard in their often dreamy melodic music. |