Simon Reynolds to chronicle shoegaze and slacker rock’s reign in new book
Music journalist Simon Reynolds will chart the rise of shoegaze, slacker rock, and grunge in a new work Still in a Dream: Shoegaze, Slackers and the Reinvention of Rock, 1984–1994, to be published this summer.
Positioned as a groundbreaking history of late-1980s underground music, the book promises to capture the era when bands such as My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, Cocteau Twins, and Dinosaur Jr. forged a “second psychedelia” of guitar noise and dreamlike sound. A successor to Reynolds’ post-punk history, Rip It Up and Start Again, this new volume traces the musical and cultural currents from 1984 to 1994, a period that saw the end of the analogue culture of vinyl records and music papers.
“Still in a Dream is a love letter to the music of my youth,” says Reynolds. “And it’s a flashback to the most exciting time of my writing life… when week by week I was on the frontlines of covering a cascade of thrilling developments in underground rock.”
Still in a Dream: Shoegaze, Slackers and the Reinvention of Rock, 1984–1994 will be published in trade paperback, eBook, and audio download formats on 18 June.
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