Genre
zoomergaze
Top Zoomergaze Artists
About Zoomergaze
Zoomergaze is an emerging microgenre that sits at the intersection of shoegaze’s wall of sound and the digital, image-driven ethos of Generation Z. It’s less a fixed category than a living conversation about how softness and noise, nostalgia and novelty, intimacy and online life can coexist in sound. Born in the late 2010s and defined in earnest through the early 2020s, zoomergaze grew from the shoegaze revival and dream pop’s return to texture, but with a Gen Z lens: bedroom-recording immediacy, lo-fi warmth, and aesthetics shaped by social media, streaming culture, and meme-informed taste-making.
In practice, what distinguishes zoomergaze is not a single formula but a shared atmosphere. The guitars tend to shimmer with reverb and delay, yet the production often embraces digital artifacts: subtle glitches, imperfect takes, and a willingness to push the mix toward a hazy, intimate forefront. Vocals are frequently softened or obscured, almost as another instrument in the mix, trading clarity for mood. Tempo sits in a mid-range pocket, enough to carry a groove but never at the fever pitch of intense dance music. Synths slip in to add a neon glow, and samples or programmable drums can provide a clinical-to-w dreamy contrast. The result is a sound that feels both tactile and ethereal—like music heard through a frosted window on a late-night feed.
Lyrically and thematically, zoomergaze often engages with modern sensibilities: online identity, memory and longing, social fatigue, and the quiet anxieties of growing up in a hyper-connected world. The mood ranges from wistful and nocturnal to defiant and self-affirming, but there remains a persistent sense of seeking connection—whether through a chorus that lingers in your ears or a lyric that feels like a whispered confession to a distant audience.
The movement also reflects a distinctly online aesthetic. Album art tends to lean into pastel gradients, grainy textures, or clean, retro-futurist visuals. Live presentations and music videos frequently exploit projection, soft focus, and color palettes that feel designed for a TikTok scroll or an Instagram feed, reinforcing the sense that zoomergaze is as much about attitude as it is about tone.
Geographically, zoomergaze has found its strongest footing in countries with robust DIY scenes and active online distribution: the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia are prominent hubs, with a growing presence across Western Europe and Latin America. The genre’s influence is less about national schools of sound and more about interconnected online communities that share playlists, release tips, and discovery through Bandcamp, SoundCloud, YouTube, and streaming platforms.
Key artists often cited as exemplars or ambassadors of the zoomergaze ethos tend to be younger, bedroom-to-stage producers who fuse nostalgia with modern production. Representative but not exclusive names include Beabadoobee, whose early guitar textures and intimate vocal delivery echo zoomergaze’s soft-loud nostalgia, and Slow Crush, a band whose hazy, immersive guitar work has resonated with fans of the genre’s dreamier edge. Critics and fans also point to a broad cohort of rising acts who blend shoegaze textures with contemporary pop, indie, and electronic influences, reinforcing the sense that zoomergaze is a growing, collaborative conversation rather than a fixed canon.
In short, zoomergaze is a snapshot of a moment when the quiet, tactile beauty of shoegaze meets the fast, fragmented cadence of online culture. It invites listeners to lose themselves in a cloud of sound while staying keenly aware of the digital age that surrounds them.
In practice, what distinguishes zoomergaze is not a single formula but a shared atmosphere. The guitars tend to shimmer with reverb and delay, yet the production often embraces digital artifacts: subtle glitches, imperfect takes, and a willingness to push the mix toward a hazy, intimate forefront. Vocals are frequently softened or obscured, almost as another instrument in the mix, trading clarity for mood. Tempo sits in a mid-range pocket, enough to carry a groove but never at the fever pitch of intense dance music. Synths slip in to add a neon glow, and samples or programmable drums can provide a clinical-to-w dreamy contrast. The result is a sound that feels both tactile and ethereal—like music heard through a frosted window on a late-night feed.
Lyrically and thematically, zoomergaze often engages with modern sensibilities: online identity, memory and longing, social fatigue, and the quiet anxieties of growing up in a hyper-connected world. The mood ranges from wistful and nocturnal to defiant and self-affirming, but there remains a persistent sense of seeking connection—whether through a chorus that lingers in your ears or a lyric that feels like a whispered confession to a distant audience.
The movement also reflects a distinctly online aesthetic. Album art tends to lean into pastel gradients, grainy textures, or clean, retro-futurist visuals. Live presentations and music videos frequently exploit projection, soft focus, and color palettes that feel designed for a TikTok scroll or an Instagram feed, reinforcing the sense that zoomergaze is as much about attitude as it is about tone.
Geographically, zoomergaze has found its strongest footing in countries with robust DIY scenes and active online distribution: the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia are prominent hubs, with a growing presence across Western Europe and Latin America. The genre’s influence is less about national schools of sound and more about interconnected online communities that share playlists, release tips, and discovery through Bandcamp, SoundCloud, YouTube, and streaming platforms.
Key artists often cited as exemplars or ambassadors of the zoomergaze ethos tend to be younger, bedroom-to-stage producers who fuse nostalgia with modern production. Representative but not exclusive names include Beabadoobee, whose early guitar textures and intimate vocal delivery echo zoomergaze’s soft-loud nostalgia, and Slow Crush, a band whose hazy, immersive guitar work has resonated with fans of the genre’s dreamier edge. Critics and fans also point to a broad cohort of rising acts who blend shoegaze textures with contemporary pop, indie, and electronic influences, reinforcing the sense that zoomergaze is a growing, collaborative conversation rather than a fixed canon.
In short, zoomergaze is a snapshot of a moment when the quiet, tactile beauty of shoegaze meets the fast, fragmented cadence of online culture. It invites listeners to lose themselves in a cloud of sound while staying keenly aware of the digital age that surrounds them.