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Noise pop
Noise pop
Stylistic origins	Alternative rock; indie rock; noise; pop; drone;
Cultural origins	Mid-1980s, United Kingdom and United States
Derivative forms	Shoegaze;
Other topics
	Dream pop; experimental pop; indie pop; noise rock;

Noise pop is a subgenre of alternative and indie rock that developed in the mid-1980s in the United Kingdom and United States. It is defined by its mixture of dissonant noise or feedback with the songcraft more often found in pop music.^[1] Shoegaze, another noise-based genre that developed in the 1980s, drew from noise pop.

History and characteristics

Noise pop has been described by AllMusic as "the halfway point between bubblegum and the avant-garde"; the combination of conventional pop songwriting with experimental sounds of white noise, distorted guitars and drones. Accordingly, the style "often has a hazy, narcotic feel, as melodies drift through the swirling guitar textures. But it can also be bright and lively, or angular and challenging."^[1] AllMusic cites the Velvet Underground as the earliest roots of the genre, with their experiments with feedback and distortion on their early albums.^[1]

Early American alternative rock bands like Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo, Hüsker Dü, R.E.M., The Replacements and Dinosaur Jr., who mixed pop song structures with extreme guitar distortion and feedback,^[2] were immediate forerunners. The Jesus and Mary Chain's 1985 debut, Psychocandy, is considered by AllMusic to be the archetype for the noise pop genre ("pretty much birthed the style").^[1] Kareem Estefan of Stylus Magazine cited the album for "transforming the use of distortion in indie rock with its screeching abrasion, yet managing to feature some of the catchiest melodies of the 80s."^[3]

Legacy

Later in the 1980s, noise pop was a major inspiration for the British shoegazing movement.^[1] Influenced by The Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine started to experiment with a fusion of 1960s pop music and noise on their EP, The New Record by My Bloody Valentine, paving way to their forthcoming shoegazing sound.^[4] Noise pop continued to be influential in the indie rock scene into the 1990s.^[1]^[5]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f "Noise Pop Music Genre Overview". AllMusic. Retrieved 17 July 2012.
^ The Mix: 100 Essential Noise Pop Songs : NPR
^ Estefan, Kareem (1 September 2003). "Jesus and Mary Chain - 21 Singles". Stylus Magazine. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 25 September 2013.
^ Abebe, Nitsuh. "My Bloody Valentine - The New Record by My Bloody Valentine". AllMusic. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
^ Covach, John; Flory, Andrew (1 July 2022). What's That Sound?: An Introduction to Rock and Its History. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 489. Drawing on the 1980s legacy of groups like Sonic Youth, experiments with noise were by no means confined to Yo La Tengo and My Bloody Valentine, and were central to the work of many indie groups during the 1990s.