Dream pop is a genre like no other. The listener is completely compelled with the idea of the sparseness yet complexity of the dream like soundscape that is so distinctive to this genre. Hence the name. Dream pop. There is a society of dreamers, thinkers and pessimists with big ideas who are consumers and creators of this genre.
“Seems to make time seem a little bit slower and air a little bit sweeter” - babel music, 2019
I think this quote sums up the reason why dream pop is such a unique genre. It is a genre i have held close to me at all points in my life since i started to appreciate music. This quote really sums up why I adore it so much.
Dream pop was created as a sub genre of shoegaze. and there is a few crossovers and exceptions in each genre where these rules don't apply completely.
The defining points of shoegaze regarding production are,
loud guitars, heavy use of pedals and layering
80's synths,
over use of reverb on vocals, guitars, snare drums and synths
vocals tend to be back in the mix and sometimes distorted
The defining and differing vital sonic features of dream pop include:
A lot of clean delay and reverb on vocal synths and guitars
washy pad sounds
use of synth layers
mostly clean vocals set forward in the mix
Am example of a dream pop album that has heavily influenced shoegaze elements is Depression Cherry by Beach House. This album has a huge dynamic when it comes to the production however the vocals remain further back in the mix and have a grittier distorted vocal production like shoegaze. However still has there dreamy guitars and translucent synths like dream pop.
Shoe gaze was created during the 1980’s as a sub genre of indie rock. It was created in the United Kingdom and fully bloomed in the early 90’s. Bands associated with the shoegaze genre are bands such as the Cockatoo twins and my Bloody Valentine. The bands were exciting, this new genre of shoegaze was taking indie rock and roll to a new level that involved more guitar pedals washy vocals and the combination of synths. The genre was created through the drive of guitars as a background tone and cleaner clear vocal melodies as the focus of the mixes. During this time guitar pedals were becoming more consumerist rather than something that rock stars had. Musicians were able to make simple pedals and experiment with how they could manipulate the sound of their guitars with the use of more and more pedals (Siamon, 2015). Popular pedals include overdrive, reverb and delay. The delay was used in and out of songs and was sometimes played even out of time. This is how musicians achieved this wall of sound dreamy vibe. This is also how shoegaze got its name. The guitarists in the bands playing this washy music would be constantly looking at their feet and not engaging with the audience. This is because they were changing the sounds on their guitar pedals live constantly and needed to look at their extensive pedal boards to make sure they hit the right pedals at the right time.
The pop element to the dream pop genre comes from the catchy melodies and the typical indie pop song structure. The other pop element that dream pop captures is its ability to be pleasing on the ears, Pop music is typically easy to listen to in a regular BPM and scale. The sound that is represented through these two elements is a familiar notion that the general population are used to hearing (the Guardian, 2013). This is why it is called pop music - its popular is some elements. The main element that dream pop takes is the melody lines. Most dream pop songs have a beautiful catchy melody in the chorus or introduction.
For instance this song by Geowulf is a dream pop song for sure but if you listen to the chorus out of context it could pass for a mainstream radio hook (skip to 50 seconds).
This song possesses a strong melody that is repetitive and short in phrase. But more to the point, the tone is clean and clear the vocals are rounded and sparkly like a radio edit of a pop song would be. This is the selling point for most pop music- the vocal melodies people want something that they can sing along with. The dream side to this track is especially highlighted through the use of a long reverb on the vocal line in the chorus especially. This type of vocal reverb is common in the genre. Its characterises could be described as tinny and sibilant (Dan, 2015). The way in which vocals are performed is also a key element to the genre. They are usually breathy and sweet with long drawn out phrases and vowels (Fumo, 2018). This element of performance vocal wise is very important. The dream tone is defiantly created through a use of both instrumentation and voice. This song is also a great example of the dream pop harmony that is used in a lot of choruses of dream pop song. This usually includes a mid range melody and falsetto airy over toned harmonies. The use of EQ is used to separate these three common voices to make them sound more like apart of the instrumentation. I think this is an important thing to state - vocals in dream pop are produced and used as another instrument. This step by step tutorial on dream pop airy vocal processing really helped me understand how this dream vocal production could be executed. the main thing I learnt about airy vocal production for this source was how to make a reverb longer and thinner using compression. This is a technique I'd like to try my self. Basically the compression is put after the fact and automated to just catch the tinny frequencies and boost them along with the reverb. This is just one way of achieving this effect of airy trebly vocals (Wiesse, 2014)
The defining differences between dream pop and shoe gaze that I have researched and from what I can analyse with my extensive knowledge on sound production and musicality is that there are three main differences:
Noise level
Vocal production
Reverberation
Dream pop today unlike shoegaze has over produced clean and clear vocals (most of the time). This is due also to the leaps and bounds that production techniques have come in the last three decades. However on the other hand, some dream pop bands wish to recreate the muddle slightly over driven tones of shoegaze music. For example check out this song by The Cockatoo twins as a perfect example of original shoegaze.
This really demonstrates the difference in production between shoegaze and dream pop regarding noise level, vocal production and reverb. Producers now are able to use synthetic eq’s and vocal processors such as the CLA vocal processor form waves to achieve a crystal clean vocal take. This is made to make the vocal melodies stand out even more from the wall of sound and noise in the background that comes from synthesisers and guitars. Compared to shoegaze where the vocals were grungy and clear the processing components available in the 90’s were very different to they are now. However this element was still a viable part of the shoegaze sound. The vocals although they were grunge and a little muddy sounding were still crisp. They were rather treble sounding with the EQ’s cutting from around 200hz (gearslutz, 2009).
In comparison to the vocal processing being clean and clear the guitar and synthesiser aspect of dream pop is heavily influenced by that of shoegaze. The guitar tones and and use of synthesisers to create dream like sound that is a sensation in itself. The droning guitars and easy sloppy bass lines create this beautiful washynes that is hard to enrapture in many ways other than the layering of synths and over saturated guitars.
This example of a modern dream pop band Alvvays demonstrates the dream pop production techniques nicely regarding reverb, vocal production and noise.
The way this song begins demonstrates the clean, clear reverberated synth sound that is iconic to dream pop that is one aspect vastly different to shoegaze. This is creates a softness to the introduction of the song that then builds up into the verse where the obviously proessed vocals come in. I think this is perfect example of dream pop considering the aspects it takes from shoegaze as well as pop music. The vocal melody is catchy but floaty and soft.
The introduction to this song is a perfect example of the Dream pop guitar tone. Over process with reverb and delay sparse notes being played in a melancholy fashion over brooding sweeping synth and rhythm guitar.
The use of reverb on both guitar and vocals is definitely an aspect of shoegaze that was taken by the dream pop age. Reverb being applied to everything as every effect was in fact how the swelling sound came to exist. First being applied as a clean verb to the vocals on a channel then the vocals being sent to a delay then the delay to another reverb channel is a common production techniques used in dream pop vocal production. This is also applied to synthesiser and guitars. The use of multiple different reverb units were used in the 80’s and 90’s to achieve this effect. Now dream pop artists have access to DAW technology and can reproduce clean and distorted reverb with ease. This has lead to the development of being able to layer clean reverb over and over again without creating noise. This song is defiantly an exception is other way regarding the vocal production to dream pop. It is more like Shoegaze as the vocals are slightly distorted in parts and far back in the mix.
The dream pop side to this genre is especially highlighted through the use of a long reverb on the vocal line in the chorus especially. This type of vocal reverb is common in the genre. Its characterises could be described as tinny and sibilant (Dan, 2015). The way in which vocals are performed is also a key element to the genre. They are usually breathy and sweet with long drawn out phrases and vowels (Fumo, 2018). This element of performance vocal wise is very important. The dream tone is defiantly created through a use of both instrumentation and voice. This song is also a great example of the dream pop harmony that is used in a lot of choruses of dream pop song. This usually includes a mid range melody and falsetto airy over toned harmonies. The use of EQ is used to separate these three common voices to make them sound more like apart of the instrumentation. I think this is an important thing to state - vocals in dream pop are produced and used as another instrument. This step by step tutorial on dream pop airy vocal processing really helped me understand how this dream vocal production could be executed. the main thing I learnt about airy vocal production for this source was how to make a reverb longer and thinner using compression. This is a technique I'd like to try my self. Basically the compression is put after the fact and automated to just catch the tinny frequencies and boost them along with the reverb. This is just one way of achieving this effect of airy trebly vocals (Wiesse, 2014)
An aspect that is used heavily in dream pop us the use of synth's. These sounds are usually highly reverberated and based around a sine wave (reverb machine, unknown). This article goes through step by step how Beach House execute there layered synth sounds with out creating unintentional noise and by use 'in the box' technology. This is some thing that has defiantly expanded the dream pop genre ten fold. They produce the essential sound that can only be created through the use of synths. This is one of the most defining production techniques used in the genre. The synth sounds are usually layered by three different synths. One creating the ambience and supporting the lower frequencies in the bass line. One synth then creating a main lead sound usually a square wave based from an initial string sound and another creating some sort of noise and really filling out those mid range frequencies. A definition of their retro sounding synth Beach House describe as 'Grandma Synths'. They are referring to vintage synthesisers used in the 80's shoegaze scene. This is a stylistic point in the production case of beach house that not all dream pop bands have the luxury of having hence why they replicate the sounding using soft wear to recreate them (reverbmachine, unknown).
This element of the production side of dream pop where making old school sounds to incorporate in their wahsyness and background is something quiet significant to the genre. reproduced organs are huge in the dream pop tone. However they are usually manipulated in someway regarding the reverb, noise or cleanliness of the sound. Much easier to do inside a DAW rather than using hardware!
The percussion section in Dream pop music is also based around the shoegaze style. This using involves a lot of high end symbol and reverberated snares. A great example of dream pop drum sound is in this instrumental version of Beach House's 'Wishes'. Its very evident now that reverb is the selling point of dream pop. But when is comes to drums there is many ways they can be produced and still fit in the genre. There is a huge tendency for dream pop bands to include really lo-fi sounding drums with no mid range and just high and low frequencies. For example, this song by Hazel English has a strong back beat that is also loft sounding. The drums sound like they are underwater that boomy kick drum and washed out snare sound. The tone is muffled through the verse and until the chorus there is little variation in the beat. This is a simple production technique that is used frequently in dream pop of a simple 4/4 beat that is heavy on the kick and snare with a few floaty whispy sounding hats. The production on the kick drum is use to boots the baser frequencies a lot as there is a lot of high end in the rest of the production regarding syths, vocals and guitar. This is unlike most pop music where the kick drum is punch thick.
So the genre as a whole is defiantly becoming more main stream. Compared to in the 80's when shoe gaze and dream pop was created out of angst and was melancholy (McNeil, 2016). Now many artists are taking on dream pop elements in their indie rock songs. Such as Jack River and up and coming female artists who is taking the world by a storm with her upbeat 80's dream pop inspired beats, production in her vocals and the used of too much reverb. She is able to used these elements to create pop ballads in this sense her genre is classified as dream pop, indie pop and juts straight up pop. I think that dream pop is even evolving into its own operate genres. There is main stream dream pop, 80's inspired and chill dream pop which all are based around this genre.
Bibliography:
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Dredge, S. Pop music is louder, less acoustic and more energetic than in the 1950s. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/25/pop-music-louder-less-acoustic
Dream pop vocals. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.reddit.com/r/WeAreTheMusicMakers/comments/3wxxxp/dream_pop_vocals/
Fumo, D. (2019). How to Record Dream Pop in Your Home Studio. Retrieved from https://reverb.com/au/news/how-to-record-dream-pop-in-your-home-studio
McNeil, L. (2016). Don't Wake Me, I'm Dreaming ~ The Meaning of Dream Pop - KCPR. Retrieved from http://kcpr.org/2016/05/01/dont-wake-im-dreaming-meaning-dream-pop/
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