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My Bloody Valentine
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
My Bloody Valentine is an Irish rock band, founded in Dublin in 1983 by the singer and guitarist Kevin Shields and the drummer Colm Ó Cíosóig. After many changes, the bassist Debbie Googe joined in 1985 and the singer and guitarist Bilinda Butcher in 1987. The name comes from the 1981 horror film My Bloody Valentine, a title that Shields says he did not know when it was suggested to him. The first years were difficult, with records that had little success.
Music and breakthrough
In 1988 the band signed with Creation Records. Several EPs and the album Isn't Anything (1988) appeared there. The next album, Loveless (1991), is regarded as their masterpiece and a milestone of shoegaze. The label dropped the band because of the high production costs. In 1992 it signed with Island Records and recorded a great deal of material, but remained largely inactive. In 1997 the band broke up. In 2007 it got back together for a world tour, and in 2013 the third album, m b v, followed, which received much praise.
Influence
The band's sound is characterised by distorted guitars, subdued androgynous vocals and unusual production techniques. The vocals often disappear into the guitar sounds, so that the music sounds more like a floating whole than like a song with a clear foreground. In this way they became pioneers of shoegaze.
Listening
Only Shallow · My Bloody Valentine, 1991Apple Music ↗
Discography
Studio albums
- 1988Isn’t Anything
- 1991Loveless
- 2013m b v
Mentioned in other articles
- Indie pop and shoegaze Genre
Around 1990 shoegaze emerged: bands such as My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive built walls of distorted, floating guitars, and on stage looked mostly at their effects pedals, at their shoes.