Darkwave

The term darkwave refers to a medley between different musical genres, especially between rock music (coldwave, gothic rock) and electronic music (synthpop, ambient and industrial music). Although it was first used as an umbrella term to describe New Wave groups in the late 1970's and early 1980's which had incorporated darker, more sorrowful elements into their music, the more narrow 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. As the 1990s drifted in the new millenium, darkwave has come to be more associated with more rock-oriented groups, a prime example being Nine Inch Nails.

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.

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