Grungegaze

Etymology#

During the 2010s, Spotify had used the genre tag “dreamo” to describe the genre, which is a portmanteau of “emo” and “dream” (referencing its reverb-heavy guitars). “Grungegaze” was uncommon during this time. In 2021, Spotify began also tagging the genre as “grungegaze”, which was the common name by 2023. while in 2017 Vice Media had used it to refer to Goon.

Characteristics#

Grungegaze makes use of simple, heavy guitar riffs, thick guitar tones, hazey production and dynamics where verses are soft and choruses are loud. Clash writer Tom Morgan compared the genre’s lyrics to “teenage bedroom poetry”, noting them as “vague” and “undercooked”. Often, vocals are subdued in verses. It is rooted in soft grunge music and fourth-wave emo, incorporating grunge, shoegaze and alternative metal, and making use of emo-influenced melodies and harmonies. incorporating grunge’s energy, and shoegaze’s use of effects units. Everything Is Noise writer Carlos Vélez-Cancel called it “grunge and shoegaze-influenced alt rock”, noting it as caring more about “immersion”. Pittsburgh City Paper called it a fusion of “hardcore, metal, and alt-rock into a new idiom”, calling it a “genre-agnostic landscape”. Trblezine writer Tom Morgan called it “a blend of grunge and shoegaze with emo and hardcore elements thrown in”. Bands in the genre often use a visuals inspired by the Y2K aesthetic, particularly through VHS-inspired videography.

Precursors#

During the 1990s, some bands incorporated elements of both grunge and shogaze, including Swervedriver, Hum, Catherine Wheel, Failure, Smashing Pumpkins, Quicksand and Deftones. Within this scene, many bands subtracted the more experimental elements of the original shoegaze sound, favoring a more mid-tempo metal-influenced rhythmic structure, simpler chords and favoring dynamics. The most influential in this sound was Nothing, with Whirr also being a pioneer. Palermo expressed that with the release of Nothing’s debut Guilty of Everything (2014), the band “felt awkward holding onto anything, like shoegaze or whatever”, and that no separate tag was being applied to it. Patrick Lyons, the article’s writer, discussed the style using the broad terms “heavy shoegaze” or “post-shoegaze”. At the same time, Pity Sex merged shoegaze with elements of emo, particularly its bouncy rhythms. Their debut album Feast of Love (2013) was influential. In a 2023 article, Sacher stated that “Feast of Love imitators continue to pop up today”, calling “emogaze” a “now-crowded realm”. Soft grunge bands often performed alongside, signed to the same labels and had elements in common with the hardcore scene’s shoegaze revival. Because of this, many critics and fans conflated soft grunge artists into shoegaze, despite its early practitioners not being influenced by the genre. In a 2026 interview with PopMatters, Balance and Composure vocalist Jon Simmons credited this to how “somewhere along the line, people started thinking if a band uses reverb then it is shoegaze”.

2013–2016: Origins#

In 2013, albums began to be released that featured soft grunge music but incorporated the influence of shoegaze. These included Narrow Head’s Demonstration MMXIII (27 May 2013), Cloakroom’s Infinity (16 June 2013) and Nevermind Me’s Nevermind Me (9 September 2013). The following year, Leatherneck and Simmer established a grungegaze in Cheshire, England. Nothing pivoted into the genre on their 2014 split album Whirr / Nothing, continued on their second album Tired of Tomorrow (2016), with the tracks “Vertigo Flowers” and “Curse of the Sun”. On their second album Ours Is Chrome, soft grunge band Superheaven transitioned into the genre. BrooklynVegan editor Andrew Sacher called them “grungegaze trailblazers”. In 2015, Ox-Fanzine writer, Tim Masson called the album “one of the most important alternative rock—or, if you prefer, emo-grunge-rock—albums of recent times”, noting that they “progressed… to the point where they themselves can be considered a benchmark for others”. Turnover’s second album Peripheral Vision merged soft grunge with elements of dream pop and shoegaze. The album reached number 14 on the Billboard independent albums chart and was widely influential, Movements vocalist Patrick Miranda stated in a 2025 interview that “Every band wanted to sound like Title Fight Floral Green. Every local band… until Turnover put out Peripheral Vision and then it was like the whole scene flipped”. Title Fight’s third album Hyperview pushed their soft grunge sound more atmosopheric, in a way that bordered on shoegaze. The success of Title Fight, as well as Deafheaven and Nothing, caused shoegaze to become a trend in the hardcore scene.

2016–present: Popularization#

During the late 2010s, Teenage Wrist, Modern Color, Oversize, Endless Heights and Soul Blind began to make grungegaze. One of the most prominent scenes at this time was Texas, which housed Narrow Head, Glare, Trauma Ray, DA/ZE and Rain Check. Enis noted these Texas bands as being particularly “bottom-heavy”. In the early 2020s, Spotify began recommending music that was similar to shoegaze to many users, this coincided with the release of Fleshwater’s debut demo demo2020, who reaped its benefits. Fleshwater and Narrow Head were forefront in the popularization of grungegaze, which began around 2023. By December 2024, grungegaze was one of the most prominent sounds in shoegaze, with its most dominant sound being what Stereogum writer Eli Enis called “boneless Deftones clones”. He also noted traditional-style shoegaze bands as moving towards the sound, particularly Glixen, who he called “one of the most popular – and polarizing – shoegaze bands of the last couple years”. In a separate article from that year, Enis critiqued the genre as being unvaried and oversaturated. By the next year, Sacher had called it “a trend to the point of oversaturation”. In New York City and New Jersey bands based around Douglas Dulgarian’s record label Julia’s War Records including MX Lonley, Shower Surtain, High and Glaring Orchid built upon the grungegaze sound but pushed the vocals rawer and more aggressive than were common in the genre.

Legacy#

In 2021, Bleed released their debut EP Somebody’s Closer, which merged grungegaze with nu metal, pioneering the genre nu-gaze. The members’ other band Narrow Head too began to incorporate these elements on their third album Moments of Clarity. On their 2025 albums, Fleshwater and Oversize similarly pivoted. Hundredth noted influences from grungegaze on their 2025 Faded Splendor. Eli Enis credited Julie and Western Haikus as two bands subverting grungegaze’s dominance in the 2020s.

See also#

• Grunge revival
• Alternative metal