Dream pop and the specific listening postures it produces is something I've become more aware of over time.

Dream pop is a horizontal genre in a sense that I find useful. The best dream pop is experienced lying down, or almost so — in bed, on a couch, in a state of physical repose. This is different from the vertical posture of music that makes you want to stand up or move your body in the normal rock idiom.

The horizontal listening posture isn't passive — it's a specific form of attention that opens up different aspects of the music. When you're lying down, you have more surface area in contact with the acoustic environment; low frequencies become more perceptible through bone conduction. The music literally enters through more points of contact.

I've started paying attention to what posture music produces in me as a diagnostic. Music that makes me sit up is doing different things than music that makes me want to lie down, and the difference is meaningful for how I think about and describe what I'm hearing.