Dream Pop

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Umbrella Genre: Rock

Stylistic Origins: Psychedelia, Surf Rock, Synth-Pop, Gothic Rock

Date and Location of Development: The early 1980s in the United Kingdom

In 1981, Elizabeth Fraser officially joined Robin Guthrie and Will Heggie to round out the trio of The Cocteau Twins, a Scottish band. Inspired by the likes of punk bands such as The Birthday Party, and progressive goth pop singers such as Kate Bush, the band released two studio albums that harkened on those genres. The existence of dream pop– or at least its sound– came before The Cocteau Twins. A song that comes to mind is Kate Bush’s debut 1978 single, “Wuthering Heights,” which featured lush instrumentals and chilling falsetto vocals.

Recognized as one of the first dream pop albums, 1984’s Treasure from The Cocteau Twins featured lush vocals over an ethereal drum machine. A year prior, in 1983, British band, This Mortal Coil released “Song To The Siren,” a cover of Tim Buckley’s 1970 folk song. Throughout the ‘80s, The Cocteau Twins released multiple EPs, and two more studio albums prior to the ‘90s. In 1990, they released their critical opus, Heaven or Las Vegas . Much of their work featured tremolo, which is an electronic music sound effect that’s similar to flanging to create an underwater sound.

The music video for “Carolyn’s Fingers” by The Cocteau Twins in 1988.

The British duo A.R. Kane is believed to have coined the term “dream pop” to describe theirs and The Cocteau Twins’s sound. They released their first studio album, 69 in 1988. This avant-sounding album is one of the many factors that lead to the genre of shoegaze– which nowadays is simultaneously lumped with dream pop. However what makes shoegaze more distinguishable is the guitar feedback and distortion, as well as the sight of the foot pedal being used in concerts, which was much more prevalent in A.R. Kane’s 69 .

In the 1990s, the Irish quartet, My Bloody Valentine, rose to prominence. Their second studio album, 1991’s Loveless is credited for morphing the sounds of dream pop with noise, shoegaze, and avant rock. That album has appeared on multiple best of lists not only for the respective genres of shoegaze and dream pop, but also for the entire decade– with some publications such as Pitchfork listing it at No. 1.

The music video for “Dreams” by The Cranberries in 1992.

During the ‘90s, other bands from Ireland and the United Kingdom got in on the dream pop craze. The Cranberries enjoyed global success for their songs “Dreams” and “Linger.” Lush’s debut studio album, Spooky , was produced by Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins. Throughout the decade and into the 2000’s the elements of dream pop started to evaporate with remnants emerging in other subgenres such as ambient and trip hop. Those were becoming the prominent electronica fusions of multiple pre-existing genres.

Pop music of the 2000’s and 2010’s experienced sprinkles of dream pop being visited. It was not until the Baltimore band, Beach House became popular amongst the millennial internet where dream pop returned to its full form. The band’s self-titled debut album dropped in 2006, and by 2010 they received their biggest hit to date, “Zebra.” In 2021, their 2015 song “Space Song” became a sleeper hit in 2021 thanks to Tik Tok. The song also appeared in an episode of the Netflix series, ‘Wednesday’ in 2022.