Dark Wave
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| Dark Wave | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins: | new wave, gothic rock, synthpop, neofolk, neo-classical, post-industrial, post-punk |
| Cultural origins: | late 1970s / 1980s Europe (most notably, England, Germany, France and Italy). |
| Typical instruments: | guitar, bass, synthesizer, drums, drum machine, piano, violin, flute |
| Mainstream popularity: | Small to medium |
| Derivative forms: | death pop |
| Subgenres | |
| ethereal, neo-classical, new german death art | |
| Other topics | |
| Notable releases | |
Dark Wave, also written as Darkwave, is an umbrella term which refers to a movement that began in the late 1970s, coinciding with the popularity of New Wave. Building upon the basic principles of New Wave, Dark Wave evolved through the addition of dark, thoughtful lyrics and an undertone of sorrow. Dark Wave is inseparably connected with the stylistic developments of the late 1970s and the 1980s. In the 1980s a versatile subculture developed within the Dark Wave movement, whose members were called wavers.
In a narrower sense Dark Wave has been used for music that mixes elements of different genres like gothic rock, synthpop, post-industrial, neofolk or medieval. A few examples that are representative for these overlaps are The Sisters of Mercy, In The Nursery, Sopor Aeternus or Diary of Dreams.
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[edit] Dark Wave as an umbrella term
The first usage of the term appears to have been in the 1980s, to describe the dark variant of New Wave music, e.g. dark synthpop (also called electrowave in Germany), gothic rock or the French coldwave, and refers to the dark/moody electronic music of bands like Anne Clark, Fad Gadget, Gary Numan, Psyche and Depeche Mode or the early gothic rock bands (in those days they weren't frequently called "gothic" outside of the UK) such as Bauhaus, Joy Division, The Cure and Cocteau Twins.
After the New Wave movement faded at the end of the 1980s, Dark Wave survived and experienced a fresh impetus with the music of bands such as Deine Lakaien, The Frozen Autumn, Love Is Colder Than Death, the early music of Love Like Blood, The Garden Of Delight, Wolfsheim and others. All of these bands were inspired by the wave music of the 1980s.
[edit] Dark Wave as a genre term
In a more narrow sense, the term Dark Wave refers to a medley between different music genres, especially between rock music (coldwave, gothic rock) and electronic music (synthpop, ambient and industrial music). This use of the term endures to the current scene. Attrition, Clan of Xymox, Die Form, In The Nursery and Pink Industry were some of the main bands playing this music in the 1980s and, while associated with the gothic, Dark Wave and industrial scenes, they had previously been something of an ill-fit in the those scenes.
However, in the early 1990s, when German groups like Project Pitchfork, Deine Lakaien and Diary of Dreams, for example, became internationally popular, the term Dark Wave began to be used more as a genre term.
At the same time, a number of German artists, including Das Ich, Goethes Erben, Relatives Menschsein and Lacrimosa, developed a more theatrical style, interspersed with German poetic and metaphorical lyrics, called Neue Deutsche Todeskunst (New German Death Art).
Other bands like Silke Bischoff, In My Rosary, Engelsstaub, Annabelle's Garden and Canticum Funebris mingled synthpop or goth rock with elements of the neofolk or neoclassical genre. A curious act is the German artist Sopor Aeternus & The Ensemble Of Shadows which combined gothic rock with folklore and medieval sounds.
Since 1993/94, in the United States, the term Dark Wave became (as the one-word variant Darkwave) largely associated with the Projekt Records label because it was used as the name of their printed catalog and was used to market and promote German products of artists like Project Pitchfork in the US.
The Projekt label featured bands such as Lycia, Black Tape for a Blue Girl, Love Spirals Downwards and Autumn's Grey Solace, all characterized by slow, moody ethereal female vocals - which had been an element in the music of some of the 1980s bands like Cocteau Twins or Attrition. This music is often referred to as Ethereal Darkwave. The label has also had a long association with Attrition who appeared on the label's earliest compilations. Another label in this vein was Tess Records in the US, which featured This Ascension, Faith and the Muse and, from 1997, Clan of Xymox, who had returned to a sound more like their 1980s sound following almost a decade as the more synthpop Xymox.
[edit] Wave-untypical influences
A number of other US bands mixed elements of Dark Wave and Ethereal Wave with more modern electronic music to a high level of popularity. Switchblade Symphony, Love Spirals Downwards and Collide, for example, incorporated large elements of trip hop, while the The Crüxshadows have combined a range of contemporary dance music elements with their synth-based gothic sound.
[edit] Criticism
Some within the Gothic scene, including UK scene historian Mick Mercer [1], have criticised this use of Dark Wave as being nothing more than a way of avoiding using the term gothic. They argue that Dark Wave and electrogoth are largely the same thing.
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