| 1 | -> ''"To reach out and touch this music would be like putting your hand through a cloud."'' |
| 2 | -->--Lindsay Soladz, [[https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/16211-grimes-visions review]] of ''Music/{{Visions}}'' by Music/{{Grimes}} for Pitchfork |
| 3 | |
| 4 | [floatboxright: |
| 5 | Primary Stylistic Influences: |
| 6 | + PostPunk, AlternativeRock, PsychedelicRock, {{Ambient}} |
| 7 | ] |
| 8 | [floatboxright: |
| 9 | Secondary Stylistic Influences: |
| 10 | + occasionally ElectronicMusic, World Music, FolkMusic and CountryMusic |
| 11 | ] |
| 12 | |
| 13 | Dream Pop. [[SugarWiki/SweetDreamsFuel It sounds really lovely; you can fall asleep to it.]] |
| 14 | |
| 15 | Dream Pop is a specific subgenre of AlternativeRock that emerged in the middle of TheEighties, and is commonly associated with the label Creator/FourADRecords. As befitting its name, dream pop lies in the middle between {{Ambient}} music and pop: It borrows the emphasis on ethereal soundscapes typical of the former and applies it to the catchy melodies of the latter. Theoretically this gives it the best of both worlds, since it avoids both ambient's excessive monotony or inscrutability and pop's shallower tendencies. In troper terms, it's basically the musical equivalent of SceneryPorn. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | While the genre itself appeared in TheEighties, the Music/VelvetUnderground song "Sunday Morning" has been cited as basically the UrExample of the genre, once again supporting the old joke that people who buy Velvet Underground albums will start their own bands. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | Dream pop's indie status means that its bands don't have access to incredibly advanced equipment or funds in their quest for sonic beauty. Typical characteristics of the genre include heavily processed guitars and synthesizers, breathy, high-pitched generally female vocals - the occasional male vocals show up but they tend to be just as breathy - and heavy use of [[EchoingAcoustics reverb and echo]] to give the songs a sort of celestial atmosphere. Basically, you can think of dream pop as the musical equivalent of SceneryPorn with a tendency to PerishingAltRockVoice. Dream pop vocalists tend to use their voice more like an instrument, and thus lyrics tend to be hard to understand and mixed low. Thanks to its association with 4AD, the genre even had its own distinctive visual identity thanks to Vaughan Oliver and v23's work for that label: MinimalisticCoverArt designs employing very blurry imagery and occasional use of DeliberatelyMonochrome. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | Generally, if someone says "dream pop", they're most likely thinking of bands in TheEighties on the 4AD label, such as Music/CocteauTwins, Dif Juz and the genre's own {{Supergroup}}, Music/ThisMortalCoil. These bands represent dream pop's "classic sound" - all instruments and voices soaked in reverb, breathy vocals, introspective themes and creating a wall of sound out of generally sparse instrumentation [[note]]even the more arrangement-heavy dream pop bands like the Cocteaus stuck to the standard guitar-bass-drums-keyboards lineup; only This Mortal Coil really used string sections, and even they stuck to minimal arrangements instead of overproduction[[/note]], adding up to something that, all snarkery aside, is really quite beautiful. Most dream pop bands varied in terms of emotion between [[TearJerker somber and depressing]], [[NightmareFuel terrifying]] and [[SugarWiki/SweetDreamsFuel optimistic]]. Still, not every band on 4AD was dream pop (Music/ThePixies, Music/TheBreeders, Colourbox and Throwing Muses were on the label) and not every dream pop band was on 4AD (Cranes, The Passions, Bel Canto, Galaxie 500 and The Dream Academy among many others were on other labels). While dream pop was intially a pretty unified genre, variations on the basic "ethereal soundscapes + pop melodies" formula soon appeared, in particular bands that focused more on guitars than synths. Pretty soon, the genre started splintering into a ton of other subgenres as well: Low went into {{slowcore}}, Mazzy Star smashed together DreamPop, {{Shoegazing}} and PsychedelicRock, Music/LoveSpiralsDownwards went into electronica, and so on. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | Dream pop was an important influence on the emergence of {{Shoegazing}}, and starting with TheNineties the two genres began cross-breeding and eventually became indistinguishable. You're not likely to find many DreamPop bands that use the "classic sound" of the Cocteaus or This Mortal Coil anymore, although there are a few new bands, such as Music/BeachHouse, that continue the "traditional" dream pop sound. There aren't many of these, but they're pretty popular amongst indie kids. Instead, there's a ton of bands that are somewhere between dream pop and shoegazing, most likely thrown under the umbrella term "post-rock" - a good example of this would be Music/SigurRos. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | Creator/DavidLynch likes this genre, as seen through his production work with Creator/JuleeCruise and his use of This Mortal Coil's awesome cover of "Song to the Siren" in ''Film/LostHighway''. |
| 26 | |
| 27 | The polar opposite of this genre is [[DoomMetal Drone Metal]], which is NightmareFuel in music form. Not to be confused with Ethereal Wave, a LighterAndSofter subgenre of GothRock. |
| 28 | ----- |
| 29 | Bands associated with dream pop include: |
| 30 | [[index]] |
| 31 | * Music/ARKane (the band who [[TropeNamer originally coined the term]] to describe themselves, though their sound also went into AlternativeDance and a [[GenreBusting a whole lot of other stuff]]) |
| 32 | * Music/{{Air|Band}} (also {{Ambient}} and ElectronicMusic) |
| 33 | * Music/TheAntlers |
| 34 | * Music/AuRevoirSimone |
| 35 | * Music/AsobiSeksu (as of their third album, their previous two were Music/MyBloodyValentine-imitating {{Shoegazing}}) |
| 36 | * Music/EmilieAutumn: The album ''Enchant'' is basically a mix between this and BaroquePop. |
| 37 | * Music/AzureRay (with the [[EchoingAcoustics overwhelming reverb]] replaced by folk and indie influences) |
| 38 | * Music/BatForLashes |
| 39 | ** 2006 - ''Music/FurAndGold'' |
| 40 | * Music/BeachHouse (unique combination of this and SurfRock) |
| 41 | * Music/BelCanto |
| 42 | * Music/{{Belly|Band}} |
| 43 | * Music/TheBlueNile (Though the TropeMaker and Codifier of SophistiPop, they owe a lot of their atmosphere to the Cocteau Twins. Where most Dream Pop bands have a tendency to lean more towards lo-fi, these guys are ''very'' much hi-fi. If Cocteau Twins grabbed a vocalist that sang like Music/{{Morrissey}}, and stole all of Music/MichaelBolton's synthesizers, you'd have these guys.) |
| 44 | * Music/BonVoyage (the Music/{{Starflyer 59}} side project), though they switched to SynthPop on their most recent album. |
| 45 | * Music/TheBooRadleys |
| 46 | * Music/{{Boris}} (On ''Attention Please'' only) |
| 47 | * Music/{{Breathless}} |
| 48 | * Music/{{Broadcast}} (mixed with Psychedelia and ElectronicMusic) |
| 49 | * Music/EthelCain |
| 50 | * Music/CandyClaws (self-described "[[Music/TheEverlyBrothers dream, dream, dream, dream]] pop") |
| 51 | * Music/{{Chairlift}} |
| 52 | * Music/TheChameleons |
| 53 | * Music/{{Chromatics}} (Mixed with SynthPop) |
| 54 | * Music/TheChurchBand |
| 55 | * Music/CigarettesAfterSex |
| 56 | * Music/CocteauTwins ({{Trope Maker}}s and {{Trope Codifier}}s) |
| 57 | * Music/{{Cranes}} (notably, unlike their more optimistic or atmospheric comrades, they dived completely into nightmarish PostPunk with the absolute creepiest CreepyChild vocals ever. Later albums are much more optimistic.) |
| 58 | * Music/{{Crosses}} |
| 59 | * Creator/JuleeCruise |
| 60 | * Music/{{Curve}} |
| 61 | * Music/TheDandyWarhols (with a little NoiseRock thrown in, occasionally) |
| 62 | * Music/{{Deftones}} (a cross between AlternativeMetal and DreamPop, with {{Shoegazing}} and {{New Wave|Music}} influences) |
| 63 | ** Chino Moreno's side project Music/TeamSleep, on the other hand, is mostly Dream Pop. |
| 64 | * Music/LanaDelRey |
| 65 | * Music/TheDelays |
| 66 | * Music/{{Delerium}} (also AlternativeDance) |
| 67 | * Music/DifJuz (a completely [[{{Instrumentals}} instrumental band]]) |
| 68 | * Music/NicoleDollanganger |
| 69 | * Music/TheDoves (also Britpop) |
| 70 | * Music/DreamAcademy |
| 71 | * Music/{{Dubstar}} (also AlternativeDance, IndiePop, JanglePop and {{Synthpop}}) |
| 72 | * Music/{{Efterklang}} |
| 73 | * Music/{{Elbow}} (another band that combines it with Britpop) |
| 74 | * Music/{{Faunts}} |
| 75 | * Music/{{Felt}} |
| 76 | * Music/{{Fishmans}} (Started off as [[Main/{{Reggae}} Dub]]) |
| 77 | * Music/FloatingRoom |
| 78 | * Music/FreelanceWhales |
| 79 | * Music/{{Galaxie 500}} |
| 80 | ** Music/{{Luna}} (formed by ex-members of Galaxie 500, NOT to be confused with the [[DoomMetal Funeral Doom]] band of the same name) |
| 81 | * Music/GirlInRed (also IndiePop) |
| 82 | * Music/{{Grimes}} (also SynthPop, IndiePop, AlternativeDance) |
| 83 | ** ''Music/{{Visions}}'' |
| 84 | * Music/{{Grouper}} (mixed with ambient and folk) |
| 85 | * Music/HisNameIsAlive (though they engage in frequent GenreRoulette, this is the most frequent label applied to them) |
| 86 | * Music/{{Hooverphonic}} (mixed with TripHop and AlternativeRock) |
| 87 | * Music/HugoLargo (a beloved if short-lived band notable for its drumless and guitarless lineup) |
| 88 | * Music/{{Iamamiwhoami}} (DreamPop + {{Shoegazing}} + [[ElectronicMusic Electronic]] + ConceptVideo) |
| 89 | * Music/TheInnocenceMission |
| 90 | * Music/JapaneseBreakfast |
| 91 | ** 2016 - ''Music/{{Psychopomp}}'' |
| 92 | ** 2017 - ''Music/SoftSoundsFromAnotherPlanet'' |
| 93 | ** 2021 - ''Music/{{Jubilee|2021}}'' |
| 94 | * Music/KitchensOfDistinction |
| 95 | * Music/LisaGermano |
| 96 | * Music/LoveSpiralsDownwards |
| 97 | * Music/{{Low}} ({{Slowcore}} group with a very atmospheric and dreamy soundscape that sounds a lot like the bands from this genre) |
| 98 | * Music/LowerDens |
| 99 | * Music/LowlifeBand |
| 100 | * Music/{{Lush}} |
| 101 | * Music/{{M83}} |
| 102 | ** 2011 - Music/HurryUpWereDreaming |
| 103 | * Music/MazzyStar |
| 104 | * Music/MenITrust |
| 105 | * Music/MercuryRev (dream pop, but with influences from NoisePop and PsychedelicRock) |
| 106 | * Music/{{Mew}} |
| 107 | * Music/{{Mojave 3}} (formed by ex-Music/{{Slowdive}} members, dream pop crossing over into sadcore and alternative country) |
| 108 | * Music/MsMr |
| 109 | * Music/OwlCity |
| 110 | * Music/PaleSaints |
| 111 | * Music/ThePassions |
| 112 | * Music/PinkFloyd: for early tracks like ''See Emily Play'', ''Julia Dream'' and ''Remember A Day''. |
| 113 | * Music/PurityRing |
| 114 | * Music/{{Radiohead}}, while nominally AlternativeRock have occasionally shown influences from it, such as on "No Surprises", which is both DreamPop and Art Rock. |
| 115 | * Music/RedHousePainters ({{Slowcore}} group with a very atmospheric and dreamy soundscape that sounds a lot like the bands from this genre) |
| 116 | * Music/{{Ride}} |
| 117 | * Music/SchoolOfSevenBells |
| 118 | * Music/SigurRos (dream pop + PostRock) |
| 119 | * Music/SilversunPickups |
| 120 | * Music/{{Starflyer 59}} (A {{Shoegazing}} band with some dream pop influence) |
| 121 | * Music/{{Slowdive}} (A {{Shoegazing}} band associated with dream pop and later evolved into Mojave 3) |
| 122 | * Music/SoccerMommy |
| 123 | ** 2020 - ''Music/ColorTheory'' |
| 124 | ** 2022 - ''Music/SometimesForever'' |
| 125 | * Music/TheSundays (debatable, some people claim they are just a more laid-back version of Music/TheSmiths) |
| 126 | * Music/SweetTrip (combined with shoegazing, {{Glitch}} and ambient techno) |
| 127 | * [[Music/TaraJaneONeil Tara Jane O'Neil]] |
| 128 | * Music/TendonLevey (deranged avant-pop with elements of funk and dream pop) |
| 129 | * Music/ThemAreUsToo |
| 130 | * Music/ThisMortalCoil (not technically a "band", see above explanation; also {{Trope Codifier}}s) |
| 131 | ** 1991 - ''Music/{{Blood}}'' |
| 132 | * Music/VaadatCharigim |
| 133 | * Music/{{Warpaint}} |
| 134 | * Music/WildBeasts, whilst generally labelled as Art Pop, have dabbled in this genre quite a bit, especially on the album ''Smother''. |
| 135 | * Music/WolfAlice |
| 136 | * Music/{{Yeule}} |
| 137 | * Music/TheXX are fairly modern, but unmistakably dreamy, breathy, and beautiful. |
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