where did the “mbv is influenced by cocteau twins” claim even come from?

ive heard this claim about a million times, its even referenced on their spotify page. I personally don’t hear many similarities between both bands and kevin has said in interviews that they weren’t influenced by them. i feel like a lot of people like to think of mbv as this reverb-heavy band like cocteau twins but really according to kevin they didn’t really use any sort of reverb besides reverse reverb. what are your guys’ thoughts on this?

in MyBloodyValentineby hjLevitt

91%

23d

View all comments

RUDeleted

23d

probably extrapolating Cocteau's influence on shoegaze as a whole and then applying it to MBV via some sort of transitive property.

Rainy-taxi86

23d

Exactly that. I think the issue with Shoegaze is that it isn't a monolithic thing. The aesthetics of Slowdive and MBV couldn't be further apart and yet they are "genre mates" simply because they both are guitar driven, not sounding like what was mainstream back then, getting a-typical sounds out of the guitar, and don't take the vocal always center stage.

I find MBV far more leaning into the zone of Hüsker Dü or Sonic Youth and also far more challenging to listen to. It is certainly not a given that if you like Slowdive or Lush, you would also be into MBV.

BillyCromag

-11

22d

Sonic Youth couldn't write a good song to save their lives. Wow they made their guitars feed back.

They claimed a space in US indie rock, then tried to gatekeep. The anti-MBV.

Lincoln_Wolf

22d

Just...no. No.

Octopunq

21d

Bruh moment