An analytical history of the shoegaze genre from its roots in late '80s UK rock to its surprising resurgence amongst Gen Z musicians and pop icons like Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo.

What began as a noisy off-shoot of alternative rock has grown into a globally celebrated style of music with a self-sustaining underground ecosystem and one of the most fiercely dedicated fanbases of any rock sub-genre. This unique breed of music, historically characterized by introverted artists staring down at a mess of guitar pedals by their feet, is more popular than ever.

Tentpole shoegaze albums by My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive are among the most critically acclaimed rock records of all time, and classic shoegaze bands are experiencing career-best record sales. All while new shoegaze songs are receiving unprecedented Billboard charts, A-list pop stars are dabbling with shoegaze sounds, the genre has a stranglehold on alternative TikTok culture, and the international shoegaze underground is more musically fertile and socially diverse than it’s ever been.

Music journalist Eli Enis traces shoegaze’s lineage from its avant-garde inception in the late ‘80s, its zeitgeist takeover in the early 1990s, and unceremonious decline later in the decade; to its subterranean proliferation in the 2000s, its unusual resurgence among totally different audiences in the 2010s, and its wildly popular explosion among teenagers of all identities in the 2020s.

It’s a story about an idiosyncratic sub-genre of music — both beautiful and abrasive, celestial and melancholy, tuneful and experimental — that entire festivals, labels, radio stations, and internet communities have been built around. Shoegaze is a world unto itself, chronicled in When the Sun Hits in all its dreamy, ear-bleeding glory — without leaving one guitar pedal un-clicked.