DarkWave in the 1980s

The first usage of the term appears to have been in the 1980s, to describe the dark and melancholy variant of New Wave and Post-punk music, e.g. the early Gothic rock (in those days the genre wasn't frequently called "gothic" outside of the UK), the French Coldwave or dark Synthpop (also called Electrowave in Germany), and refers to the dark and moody music of bands such as Bauhaus, Joy Division, The Cure, Siouxsie & the Banshees, The Chameleons, Cocteau Twins, Anne Clark, Fad Gadget, Gary Numan, Psyche or Depeche Mode. In the course of time, different Dark Wave genres, especially Coldwave, Gothic rock and others, blended up with electronic music (Synthpop, Ambient and Post-industrial). 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 Post-industrial scenes, they had previously been something of an ill-fit in the those scenes.



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