English

Noun

shoegaze ‎(uncountable)

1. (music) Shoegazing, an introspective genre of alternative rock popular in the 1990s which made extensive use of guitar effects.
   • 2011, Courtney E. Smith, Record Collecting for Girls: Unleashing Your Inner Music Nerd, One Album at a Time, page 144,

     Historically, it is filed by music critics under the shoegaze genre. I suppose this is because the band used a lot of the same guitar tones as shoegaze outfits from the same time, but it was really a bit too psychedelic to fit the genre.

   • 2013, Benjamin Halligan, 3: Shoegaze as the Third Wave: Affective Psychedelic Noise, 1965-91, Michael Goddard, Benjamin Halligan, Nicola Spelman (editors), Resonances: Noise and Contemporary Music, page 58,

     Most of the releases from the Boo Radleys during their shoegaze phase feature just such a baroque, as do Killing Time by Bleach (1992; with a prawn) and ... x, y and z by Moose (1992; with a sunflower). […] In the same way that the image of the sheep is common for EDM releases at this time, the cat comes to typify shoegaze.

   • 2014, Alex Niven, Oasis' Definitely Maybe, page 44,

     The shoegaze influence in the early Oasis sound is just as pronounced as the debt to the grunge of Nevermind. Although they were viewed as something of an anomaly within the shoegaze label Creation, Oasis were nevertheless a neo-psychedelic rock band with a taste for distorted guitars and classic sixties pop, so in fact they fitted in pretty well with the Creation house style.

Verb

shoegaze ‎(third-person singular simple present shoegazes, present participle shoegazing, simple past and past participle shoegazed)

1. (music) To perform in the shoegazing style.
   • 2004, Erik Morse, Spacemen 3 and the Birth of Spiritualized, ISBN 0711996024, page 86:

     Ever the pedestrian, Jason shoegazes to the side of his rhythm section, his body limp against a guitar and greased locks flowing down over his arched brow.

Derived terms

• -gaze
  • metalgaze
  • shitgaze