Simon Reynolds announces new book charting the rise of shoegaze

Legendary music writer Simon Reynolds has announced his latest book, Still in a Dream: Shoegaze, Slackers and the Reinvention of Rock, 1984–1994, set for release this summer via White Rabbit Books.

Twenty years after his acclaimed postpunk best-seller, Rip It Up and Start Again, Simon Reynolds tells the tale of what happened next: the underground explosion of the slackers and shoegazers who reinvented rock in their own psychedelic, distortion-dripping image, from shoegaze to dream pop to grunge, that reverberated throughout the late 80s into the early 90s.

Still in a Dream: Shoegaze, Slackers and the Reinvention of Rock, 1984–1994 is out this June and available to pre-order now, including a signed record store edition with a bonus fanzine.

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Across its pages, Still in a Dream reads as a "propulsive and personal account from a journalist who covered this music in real time from the frontlines," recreating a period in time through key figures including My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, Cocteau Twins, Slowdive, Dinosaur Jr. and Pavement, mapping how their music emerged from underground scenes before rippling out into wider culture.

Reynolds positions the era as a golden age of guitar reinvention, where experimentation flourished away from the mainstream spotlight, but also one that existed as a last blast for the analogue culture of vinyl records and music papers, before the Internet changed everything.

The book is the next in a long line of influential writing from Reynolds, whose work has helped define how modern music history is understood.

His previous writing includes: Energy Flash, a landmark exploration of rave and dance culture; Blissed Out, which examined the emotional and ecstatic pull of rock music; The Sex Revolts (co-written with Joy Press), a deep dive into gender, identity and rebellion in rock; Rip It Up and Start Again, his definitive account of post-punk’s radical years; and Bring the Noise, which charted the first two decades of hip hop and its collision with rock culture. 

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