Shoegazing
noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A subgenre of alternative rock music popularised in early 1990s, characterised by a dreamlike sound making much use of effect pedals, and by a detached or introverted performance style. British, uncountable
""[…]Anyway, correct me if I'm wrong here, Danny, but wasn't it you who told me that true shoegazing began and ended with Slowdive's 12-inch debut: the imaginatively titled, 'Slowdive'?” “You're taking me out of context here, dude. What I meant was that it was the epoch of the genre. The other bands still made a valid contribution, they just didn't define the moment.""
- 2 A subgenre of alternative rock typified by significant use of guitar distortion, feedback, obscured vocals and the blurring of component musical parts into indistinguishable ‘walls of sound’ wordnet
- 1 present participle and gerund of shoegaze form-of, gerund, participle, present
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples""[…]Anyway, correct me if I'm wrong here, Danny, but wasn't it you who told me that true shoegazing began and ended with Slowdive's 12-inch debut: the imaginatively titled, 'Slowdive'?” “You're taking me out of context here, dude. What I meant was that it was the epoch of the genre. The other bands still made a valid contribution, they just didn't define the moment.""
Etymology
From shoe + gazing, because of the tendency of such performers to look down rather than at the crowd and the heavy use of effect pedals.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.