"Shoegazing
by no means dominated what the passed for the British 'indie' scene
-- after Madchester/Baggy, other 'scenes' managed to hold the
attention of the nation's music-buying public. The quirky efforts
of Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine and Kingmaker were
unfathomably popular for a while in the likes of the NME and Melody
Maker, only to be replaced on an almost weekly basis by other bands
-- Pop Will Eat Itself, The Senseless Things, Ned's Atomic Dustbin,
The Wonderstuff and even Daisy Chainsaw (or as Carter USM described
them in 'The Only Living Boy in New Cross: "the grebos, the
crusties and the goths")."
Largely a phenomenon confined to the Home Counties in terms of
where the bands hailed from, the shoegazing scene enjoyed headline
status in both the music press and on the festival and live circuit
in the early 1990s, eclipsing the Madchester scene of 1990. With
its origins in the distorted sounds of My
Bloody Valentine and early Cocteau
Twins, the shoegazing movement became known as
"the scene that celebrated itself" by virtue of the coterminous
fanbases of the bands and their attendance at each other's gigs.
However, it did enjoy some commercial success in the form of Ride
and My Bloody Valentine (the latter regarded as distinguished
artists in their own right) and the influence of the main
protagonists of the scene (Ride, Lush, Slowdive) carries on to this
day, whereas the others (Adorable, Chapterhouse, Pale Saints) now
rank among rock's also-rans. Shoegazing by no means dominated what
the passed for the British 'indie' scene -- after Madchester/Baggy,
other 'scenes' managed to hold the attention of the nation's
music-buying public. The quirky efforts of Carter the Unstoppable
Sex Machine and Kingmaker were unfathomably popular for a while in
the likes of the NME and Melody Maker, only to be replaced on an
almost weekly basis by other bands -- Pop Will Eat Itself, The
Senseless Things, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, The Wonderstuff and even
Daisy Chainsaw (or as Carter USM described them in 'The Only Living
Boy in New Cross': "the grebos, the crusties and the
goths"). By 1993, the 'shoegazer' (allmusic.com traces the
term to: "the bands' motionless performing style, where they
stood on stage and stared at the floor while they played") had
become derogatory, the trademark of a spent-out oh-so-brief epoch
of Indie Pop history. Indeed, many bands resisted the application
of the tag and in some instances it was merely lazy pigeonholing by
the music press. The scene itself and some of the bands that were
part of it now enjoy cult status and although its heyday was
arguably 1992, it could point to origins a full decade before and
influence that pervades to this day.