124 - Simon Reynolds on Shoegaze, My Bloody Valentine, Cocteau Twins, Sonic Youth, Pavement & more

Simon Reynolds joins us to talk about his new book Still in a Dream: Shoegaze, Slackers and the Reinvention of Rock, 1984–1994. Against a backdrop of Margaret Thatcher’s third term in Downing Street & Stock, Aitken & Waterman’s domination of the pop charts a new scene begins to emerge. Starting with the Cocteau Twins & developing to include My Bloody Valentine & more, a noisy & dream like sound which comes to be known as Shoegaze. At the same a more melodic sound appears represented by the likes of the Smiths, Felt, The Pastels & the C86 scene. Over in America Sonic Youth achieve notable success & are joined by Dinosaur Jr & Pavement amongst others. Grunge arrives in the early 90s while Britpop & Oasis appear in the UK< drawing this period to a close. In recent years the shoegaze sound has reappeared by a sleuth of young bands while many of its originators including Slowdive, Lush & My Bloody Valentine have toured in larger venues than they played originally. It takes anything from 5 to 40 hours to prepare each episode of Music Maps - if you’d like to make a contribution to help us cover the costs & time of producing these episodes for you, you can do so at this link: ko-fi.com/musicmapsIt is hugely important for us to get positive reviews & star ratings - if you have enjoyed Music Maps & can spare the time to do either we would hugely appreciate it. You can see our upcoming live events here: https://rocknrollbookclub.co.uk/eventsInstagram: @rocknrollbookclube17X: @simonmusicmapsFacebook: E17rockbookclubHosted, Produced & Edited by Simon CardwellMusic by Andy Maxwell Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.