My Bloody Valentine

Like the Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth, and the Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine redefine what noise means within the context of pop music. Led by guitarist Kevin Shields, the group started out as a doomy post-punk outfit but gradually added more melody to their sound by the time of 1988's Isn't Anything, an album that merged the ethereal approach of Cocteau Twins with crushingly loud, shimmering distortion. Though My Bloody Valentine 's notorious lack of movement onstage was branded "shoegazing" by the British music press, soon legions of other shoegazers -- Ride, ...