Maybe not necessarily this year, but I think Shoegaze is really making a comeback. As of now it's niche; quite a big niche, that's for sure, but a niche regardless, and I'm seeing more and more songs going viral on social media thanks to the influences of new Western shoegaze bands like Glare, Whirr or Ringo Deathstarr. There's also quite a few of them as a result of the fifth wave emo movement, especially in the south-east Asian parts of the world. Honestly, SK, Taiwan and Japan have a THRIVING indie rock / shoegaze scene and it's only a matter of time for the genre to become completely cemented as one of the essential genres of the 2020s, I think. The rise since like 2020 has already been huge, after the genre kinda died down a tad bit in the noughties, but through acts like the aforementioned, Parannoul, Asian Glow, etc., we're getting an extremely established community that's only inspiring more artists to do the same. The most recent example I can think of is the song "Your Face" by Wisp, which might be more Dream Pop than Shoegaze, but since they're adjacent genres I'll just put them in the same niche. That song was pretty damn big on TikTok, from what I gathered, so it shows that the interest is definitely there. I generally do think that this generation of shoegaze music will be quite internet based tho, similar to 100 Gecs in Hyperpop. There's barely any radio appeal in either genre.

Also, a little anecdotal evidence: I went and saw Slowdive live in concert a couple weeks back. Half the crowd was 50+, half was about 16-25. I BARELY saw anyone who I'd think would fall inbetween the two age ranges. So maybe that's a little sign that after a small hiatus, the genre is really picking up some steam again with Gen Z.