Roots of Lush

The Au Pairs are a British post-punk band that formed in Birmingham in 1978 and continued until 1983 on their first run. The band reformed in 2025, with Lesley Woods as the only original member. They produced two studio albums and three singles. Their songs were said to have "contempt for the cliches of contemporary sexual politics" and their music has been compared to that of the Gang of Four and the Young Marble Giants. The band was fronted by Lesley Woods, who was once described as "one of the most striking women in British rock".

Robin Andrew Guthrie is a Scottish musician, songwriter, composer, record producer and audio engineer, best known as the co-founder of the dream pop band Cocteau Twins. During his career Guthrie has performed guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, drums and other musical instruments, in addition to programming, sampling and sound processing.

Glossolalia and cathedral guitars; the blueprint for dream pop.

The definitive shoegaze band — Loveless remains the genre's north star.

Siouxsie and the Banshees were a British rock band formed in London in 1976 by vocalist Siouxsie Sioux and bassist Steven Severin. The Times called them "one of the most audacious and uncompromising musical adventurers of the post-punk era".

Kitchens of Distinction are an English rock band formed in Tooting, South London in 1986. The trio consist of lead singer and bassist Patrick Fitzgerald, guitarist Julian Swales and drummer Daniel Goodwin.

LA noise-pop who out-Valentined My Bloody Valentine at their peak.

Drop Nineteens is an American shoegaze band from Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 1990. The band was formed by Boston University classmates Greg Ackell and Chris Roof (drums), who recruited Paula Kelley, Motohiro Yasue (guitar) and Steve Zimmerman (bass). Ackell noted that the band was "the American outlier in a largely British scene."

Secret Shine are a British indie band formed in the early 1990s, who were signed to Sarah Records. Their early releases with Sarah and A Turntable Friend followed a pop style, before the band went in a more shoegaze direction with the 1992 release Untouched, triggering comparisons with Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine.