Nu gaze

Last updated

Nu gaze
Years active2000s
Location Europe, North America
Influences Shoegaze
A sample of Silversun Pickups's song "Panic Switch", from their 2009 album Swoon .

Nu gaze (also typeset as nu-gaze and sometimes known as second-wave shoegaze) was an international movement of shoegaze that took place during the 2000s. The movement was influenced by the original shoegaze movement but embraced a more diverse array of influences, particularly from electronic music. Often, bands in the movement were faster and included cleaner production than those in shoegaze's first-wave.

Contents

Nu gaze began around 2000, with England's My Vitriol, Sweden's the Radio Dept. and France's M83. The 2003 soundtrack for the film Lost in Translation helped accelerate the revival when Deerhunter, Maps and Asobi Seksu began to gain attention. The movement had declined by 2013, succeeded by a separate shoegaze revival including DIIV, Cheatahs and Wild Nothing. During the 2020s, nu gaze's name was adopted for a separate genre: those merging elements of shoegaze and nu metal.

Characteristics

Pitchfork described nu-gaze as a diverse spectrum of bands from around the world who incorporated both analog and digital production in their shoegaze-adjacent sound and approach. [1] In nu gaze, tempos were often faster than traditional shoegaze, and vocals were mixed more prominently. [2] Often, bands showed an influence from 1990s shoegaze, blending jangly indie with layers of distortion. [3]

Etymology

2000s–2010s: Origins

My Vitriol vocalist Som Wardner is often credited as coining the name "nu gaze" MyVitriol.Nov24.KOKO.jpg
My Vitriol vocalist Som Wardner is often credited as coining the name "nu gaze"

As early as 2001, My Vitriol vocalist Som Wardner had identified his band using the name "nu-gaze". [4] By 2005, it had been used to describe Ambulance LTD, [5] and by 2006 to describe the Morning After Girls. [6] In 2007, Jude Rogers of the Guardian noted the name as being used interchangeably with "stargaze" and "shoetronica", crediting their popularity as due to a stigma around the name "shoegaze". [3]

In a 2009 editorial for Drowned in Sound , Cramp dismissed nu-gaze as a "bad pun", emphasizing that it was not a distinct music scene but rather a renewed interest in shoegaze. [7] By the 2010s, nu gaze was largely used synonymously with the phrase "second-wave shoegaze". [8] [1]

2020s: Semantic shift

Eli Enis, former editor of Revolver , noted in a 2024 article that during the 2020s, the term "nu-gaze" evolved from referring to this second-wave of shoegaze, to referring to a specific fusion of shoegaze and nu metal. He noted this fusion as largely descending from the shoegaze-influenced sound of Deftones, listing examples of this style as Narrow Head, Wisp, Loathe, Fleshwater, Trauma Ray, Trxy and Leaving Time. [8] This definition has been stated by Stereogum , [9] Ultimate Guitar, [10] and Epitaph Records. [11]

An article by Splice specified that this definition is explicitly hyphanated as "nu-gaze", while the tradition definition is unhyphanated as "nu gaze". [12]

According to Claudio Lancia of the Italian magazine Ondarock , the 2020s definition of nu-gaze has a subgenre called zoomergaze, which is defined by being played by generation Z. [13] In 2025, a few prominent American news outlets referred to Wisp and her debut album If Not Winter as "nu-gaze". [14] [15]

History

Around 2000, an international wave of bands taking influence from shoegaze began to take shape with England's My Vitriol, Sweden's the Radio Dept. and France's M83. Following the release of their debut EP Finelines (2001), My Vitriol experienced a sudden rise in notoriety, its single "Always: Your Way" entering the UK's top 40 charts, leading them to perform at Top Of The Pops, Glastonbury Festival and Reading Festival. The following year the band went on hiatus, leading to the rise in popularity of the Radio Dept. and M83. [4]

The 2003 release of Sofia Coppola's film Lost in Translation helped accelerate the revival, due to its soundtrack being curated by My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields. By 2007, the movement had led to an increased notoriety of contemporary albums by artists including Maps, Blonde Redhead, Mahogany, Deerhunter, Asobi Seksu, and Ulrich Schnauss. [3] Other notable acts in the movement included Autolux, [16] Silversun Pickups, Amusement Parks on Fire and Film School. [2]

Nu-gaze had declined by 2013, succeeded by a separate shoegaze revival including DIIV, Cheatahs, Wild Nothing, Younghusband, Echo Lake, Teen and Melody's Echo Chamber. [17]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 de Revere, Paul (27 October 2015). "Ride's Nowhere at 25 and the Evolution of Shoegaze". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 3 February 2024. Retrieved 2 December 2025.
  2. 1 2 BLOOM, J ARTHUR. "Music Review: Amusement Parks on Fire - Road Eyes". Tiny Mix Tapes. Retrieved 22 January 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 Rogers, Jude (27 July 2007). "Diamond gazers". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 7 March 2017. Retrieved 2 December 2025.
  4. 1 2 Morgan, Steven (26 October 2016). "Whatever Happened To My Vitriol?". DrownedInSound. Retrieved 22 January 2026.
  5. ↑ Smart, James (13 June 2005). "Ambulance LTD". The Guardian . Retrieved 22 January 2026.
  6. ↑ Strutt, Anthony. "Miscellaneous - Interview". www.pennyblackmusic.co.uk. Retrieved 22 January 2026.
  7. ↑ Cramp, Nathaniel (20 April 2009). "Shoegaze Week: "There's no such thing as Nu‑Gaze"". Drowned in Sound. Archived from the original on 2 September 2024. Retrieved 2 December 2025.
  8. 1 2 Enis, Eli (27 June 2024). "How shoegaze and nu-metal became entwined: A brief explainer". Chasing Sundays. Retrieved 21 January 2026.
  9. ↑ Enis, Eli (18 December 2023). "TikTok Has Made Shoegaze Bigger Than Ever". Stereogum . Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  10. ↑ Martins, Jorge. "They Were Metal Innovators Reinvented as Alt-Rock Promises: Although Their '90s Nostalgia Could've Failed, It Sparked Cult Hits Instead". Ultimate Guitar . Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  11. ↑ "Buzzy "Nu-Gaze" Band Split Chain Sign To Epitaph Records Share Music Video For "(Re)-Extract" feat. Softcult". Epitaph Records . 17 September 2024. Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  12. ↑ Wood, Dylan (12 June 2025). "What is Shoegaze? History, Bands, and Key Characteristics". Splice . Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  13. ↑ Lancia, Claudio. "Mondaze - Linger: :: Le Recensioni di OndaRock". OndaRock (in Italian). Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  14. ↑ "'If Not Winter' by Wisp Review: A 'Nu-Gaze' on a Familiar Genre", The Wall Street Journal, 29 July 2025, archived from the original on 30 July 2025, retrieved 14 September 2025
  15. ↑ "'Nu-gaze' rocker went viral before her band even had a name", The Washington Post, 13 August 2025, archived from the original on 14 August 2025, retrieved 14 September 2025
  16. ↑ Gourlay, Dom (18 July 2005). "Album Review: Autolux - Future Perfect". DrownedInSound . Retrieved 22 January 2026.
  17. ↑ Iqbal, Nosheen (12 April 2013). "Shoegaze: the genre that could not be killed". The Guardian . Retrieved 22 January 2026.
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