My Bloody Valentine were an Irish–British rock band known for their creative use of guitar distortion and vibrato. Sharing their name with that of a Canadian slasher film, they formed in 1984 in Dublin and continued into the early 1990s. Original members were guitarist/singer Kevin Shields and drummer Colm O'Ciosoig. The band's lineup during their heyday also included singer–guitarist Bilinda Butcher and bassist Debbie Googe.

The band were approached by Creation Records and, upon being told "not to worry about anything, just do it," they signed, entered the recording studios, and emerged eight months later with the EP You Made Me Realise, which was the band's breakthrough release and was voted 2nd for John Peel's Festive 50 in 1988. The group followed with the EP Feed Me with Your Kiss and the LP Isn't Anything (1988), all of which carried an influence of Sonic Youth and Suzanne Vega – a perfect marraige of grunge and ethereal folk–pop. The thick, swirling, multi–layered guitar sound developed by My Bloody Valentine would later be termed shoegazer by the British press because of the band's tendency to look down while performing on stage. The tag was applied to a number of new alternative pop–rock or rock outfits of similarly heavily layered and distorted guitars and boyishly nonchalant, at times wistful vocals like those generally sung by Kevin Shields or soft, hushed vocals by Bilinda Butcher.

The follow–up LP Loveless (1991), the best known LP of their career, is generally considered representative of their sound: a distinct blend of warped, effects ridden guitar sounds, ambience, and folk tunes. This time the main vocal duties was taken by Bilinda Butcher.

After leaving Creation Records in 1992 and signing with Island Records, the band did not produce another release, and their final recorded song made available for release was a cover of "Map Ref. 41N 93W" by Wire, appearing on Whore: Tribute to Wire in 1995. Rumors spread among fans of albums being recorded and then shelved.

Debbie Googe left the band to form Snowpony, although she had not played bass on a My Bloody Valentine recording since You Made Me Realise. Colm O'Ciosoig eventually left and recorded an album with Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star. Kevin Shields collaborated sporadically with other artists, most notably Experimental Audio Research, Curve, Sugar and Primal Scream. He claimed in a fall 2003 NPR interview that Island Records had stopped financing My Bloody Valentine after they had spent half a million pounds of Island's money.