The Brit Box: UK Indie, Shoegaze and Brit-Pop Gems of the Last Millennium

Similar misconceptions surround shoegaze, at least in terms of gauging its actual popularity. Shoegaze's presence on Brit Box is relatively small, highlighted by cuts from My Bloody Valentine, Catherine Wheel, Chapterhouse, Boo Radleys and Swervedriver. But judging by the large number of current American bands taking cues from the genre — Asobi Seksu, Blonde Redhead and Airiel, among others — it's easy to overstate the genre's ­popularity.

"There's a disarming amateurishness in a lot of 'shoegazing' music, which conveys a vulnerability sorely lacking in much of today's big-business, packaged, marketed, super-knowing commerciality," Berenyi says. "Much of the so-called 'shoegazing' music is more fragile, less manipulative, and trusts the listener to find their own path."

Despite the rash of recent re-­formations, no one interviewed here has a desire to reunite their bands. Even Mark Gardener, vocalist/guitarist of Ride — one of the bands most sought after to reunite, if not the group whose dreamy pop-psych and reverb storms remain the most vital — prefers to let the eras covered by Brit Box remain firmly in the past.

"We kept some sort of level of integrity about what we were doing and we stopped at the right time and all that sort of thing," he says. "It seems to have sort of have paid off, because the whole myth seems to be growing now." Gardener laughs. "Of course, the money would be appreciated; we'd get stupid offers to re-form and play certain festivals and stuff.

"But at the same time, it's kind of done, really," he says. "We're all busy with our own projects. You can re-form, but you can't re-form that time and what's going on."