Let's Talk About Darkwave.

I used to be a guitar player. I sucked. I got into bass a few years ago. Ended up in a band recently. I am trying to creep darkwave into our experimental punk band (thats what they want to do). And it is working. None of us really know how to play genres too well. But when I bust out Molchat Doma or Desmond Doom on Bass. It seems to work well.

To me the first band I heard I would class as darkwave would be Deine Lakaien, as I think Diary of Dreams could be classed as goth rock side of darkwave in your classification.

Came here for some tips for darkwave and accidentally learned about the Dewey Decimal System too.

Honestly, I was expecting more music theory, as based on the thumbnail

Thank You for posting omg

I thought Lust for Youth was a goth band just by their sound but when i saw them i was so surprised to see them dressed like average British soccer fans

Do you know which minor scale is mainly used? I tend to mainly use Mixolydian, but darkened considerably with Locrian mode.

If you haven't id love to see a video on Cold Wave too. From what ive seen this term can refer to sevear sounds that arent necessarily taxonomically related, as in part of the same branch, but im
not sure. Like, i wouldnt necessarily count Lebanon Hanover, Kalte Nacht and OTO as all the same thing (?). Yet they are all called explicitly just cold wave.

Minimal wave is a much more complicated entity that seems to feature a mixture of genres; cold wave, EBM, synthpop/electropop, dark wave, etc.
And certainly minimal wave is booming right now.
Butch its as i say imo a very syncretic entity

My honest thought is that people shouldn't split hairs like this. Music changes and grows over time incorporating new elements. When we try to put boarders on music like this we build up a wall around an area of expression and tell artists not to cross it. That kills art.

I can feel the confusion about these genres when people ask what type of music I make 😅 I usually answer gothic rock coz in majority of my songs I use quite a lot distorted guitars, bass guitar not synth bass and my voice is on the lower side, like bands like Sisters of Mercy had.

However, some of my songs are very synth heavy so I just tell people to listen and define it by themselves, I say its some type of goth music anyways 😅

DARK lives NOT matter....... we STILL DEATH

I fell in love with this video 😍🥰

How could someone have that complexion on their face?

Thank you and thanks to this video I’ve just subscribed

I discovered darkwave music. I discovered that in the late 2010s. One of the groups of that genre I discovered was a neoclassical darkwave duo Midnight Syndicate, who had one song called "Grisly Reminder". I think it's a great genre of music! I'm into darkwave more than any other type of music lately. It helps me with my depression.

I need to check out some of these bands, Thanks Kelly!

I love Dark wave 💜🖤

I love you ❤ for this video …

All of these over sub-categorizations seem a bit of a vain attempts for some bands to get noticed or promoted in the recent years... It's a good thing if an accurate description leads you to new promising act. When you are 1-click from being able to decide for yourself, makes this whole thing a bit of pointless endevour.
It's not like 20 years ago when zines had great impact on our choices.Then you might hope to listen few minutes to the desired album at the music store and take the risk based mostly on that.

It's noteworthy how most of the greatest names in the scene don't even care how their music is being described in such terms...

I was under the impression it was a subgenre of synthwave but that's likely just because that's how I discovered it. I discovered that synthwave exists thanks to dance with the dead, gunship and a few others. Cthulhu was the first gunship song I heard and it would totally count as darkwave imo, but it could still be called synthwave. Then I was semi disappointed in a lot of their other tracks because they were a bit popier sounding. And not instrumental however I've grown to love some of their stuff. Anyways sorry ramble to prevent anyone from actually reading because it's long. I'm working on a weird concept album that's lovecraftian horror related (I'm writing some books that are using his material and re imagining it, making it more serialized and connected) it's mostly about innsmouth and gets pretty gritty in its subject matter as the town is overtaken by the cult willingly turning over the young women of the community as baby making hostages to the deep ones, being were the hybrid fish people come from. It's about obed marsh making his deal with Dagon at the reef and the consequences being more than he anticipated. It gets dark lol but that's the point. Oof that turned into a shameless plug of something only 10% finished ...I hate being autistic some days

apparently darkwave is categorised as dark post punk in Spotify so it's kinda sad my favourite subgenre is not on there

I'm both a goth and a metalhead. I've been listening to Goth Rock and Metal for 14 years.

I love Death Rock, Darkwave, and Old Goth Rock and modern.. I'm so glad that you mentioned She Past Away, they are my favorite Darkwave band, I'm wearing their shirt currently.

I go from listening to Bauhaus or She Past Away to listening to Prog Metal or Death Metal etc.. I like branching out.

Great discussion and video 🕯️🎃🕯️

Category 1 synthpop ,coldwave ( england , france)

Category 2 post- punk ( england, east eu, yugoslavia, russia )

Category 3 industrial music ( germany ,Neue Deutsche Härte , east euro)

Category 4 dark cabaret in No Wave , New York

mother synthpop is , Post-punk.

Looks like Joy Division and New order.

And Category 3 , industrial music.


Important thing is , dark wave is not from gothic metal , ( metal rock)


Darkwave origin is punk , no metal music

Awesome video. Honestly I just love music, all of it. The problem with genres is they define, yet they also limit.

meh.... you can not marginalize this sub genra... sorry, its hard to describe it unless you lived it..... this is like compairing mc donalds with home made burgers.........

Hello, I just found your channel. I’m really new to this style of music and just looking for some bands to continue my journey and you definitely sound like a person that knows what’s what.

I very much enjoy She Wants Revenge and I recently found Molchat Doma, looking for other bands, and I would prefer a band that sings in English and more recent rather than an old band (79/80/90s)

Curious on your thoughts of what I should listen to ☺️

Thanks in advance.

I always thought darkwave was coldwave but without that post punk / icy chorus guitar sound and focused more on repeated heavy bass.

Hi, Kelly! Video was super interesting to me as someone who doesn't identify with the Goth community. I've been working on piano arrangements of, what I consider to be, Darkwave music and I was surprised (in a good way) to hear more about the Goth side of the genre than the synth/EDM side. I spent a majority of my childhood and college years listening to various styles of EDM (Dubstep, European EDM. I was a teen in the 2010s). It wasn't until I found Purity Ring in college that I got into darker synth stuff; and even then, some of their content (Another Eternity) is still pretty atmospherically light as far as sound goes! I'm by no means outright saying Purity Ring is Darkwave, but they were like my gateway into this style of music I was completely unfamiliar with. Since then, I've been listening to a lot of Mr. Kitty, Crystal Castles, Crim3s, and Sidewalks and Skeletons; all of which, imo, touch on Darkwave and Ethereal Wave;

So, personally I draw a distinction for Darkwave as a dark antithesis to Synthwave; Synthwave, meaning, the atmospherically light genre that takes inspiration from 80s synth music. A great example (for me) to highlight this contrast is "Dystopia Now" by Mental Minority. What's important to note immediately from the beginning of the song is the "wavy" synth in the bass line, the excerpt from George Orwell's 1984, and even the title of the song gives way to the dark atmosphere.

Another song I consider Darkwave (well before its time) is "Maniac" by Michael Sembello, from the movie Flashdance. It shares the same "wavy" synth in the bass, the vocals are "augmented" or altered, and while the kick and snare are on 1/3 and 2/4 respectively, there's several other percussive elements going on throughout the piece that makes "Maniac" feel, well, maniacal, desperate, and driven.

I don't know if anyone will see this comment or read it. I just wanted to share my thoughts (not to debate) and experiences with music.

🙋‍♂️Hi Cadaver Kelly🧛‍♀️I'm Morbid Mays😁🧛Just starting my deep dive into goth/darkwave💯🎯Synth is my Drug🎯Long Live 🤘IAN CURTIS🤘

Great video...finally!l! Its called DarkWave..yes Darkwave.ask Robert Simth ,Souxie Sioux, , Professor Avalanche or Xymox....i know cause my GF was a Darka / Darkwaver ....back in the days!!!.. Example ...listen to Pornography album ( The Cure ) one of the best DARKwave sounds by them..so dark, cold, depressing , melancholic et al.

Subbed solely on your name. And I don't know about DW.

@Cadaver Kelly
Thoughts on HIM and Ville Valo's solo band that started in 2020? Thanks 😊

Cool

It's interesting as back in the day it was called (post punk early 80's UK) dark wave then goth was termed and that is how it stayed and now I am hearing the dark wave term being revived which I thought was a better term but who cares as it's the music that counts.

Isn’t goth a punk byproduct or does she mean death rock?

I've seen dark eerie synthpop called darkwave by a elder goth. Like Frozen Autumn's "Is everything real". No guitar just dark synth and ghostly vocals. Which another goth music theory guy calls goth minimal wave.

And then there're those artists who also uses industrial and EBM elements. Quite often there will be remixes of goth, darkwave, post punk/rock from artist doing industrial, EBM and Industrial techno.
Also the use of surf rock, spaghetti western sounds and dub mixing is not uncommon it seems. It all ties together, which is quite interesting.

🖤

Good video I love most Darkwave bands. As I get older I stopped putting attention about the musical labels, I just enjoy the music... I was thinking Category #3: Neoclassical Darkwave, Dark Folk, that are based on Classical Gothic compositions on minor keys. Category #4: Ethereal Wave, but this could belongs better into the Dream Pop subgenre and even the Nugaze style coming from Shoegaze, but most Goths are not into Shoegaze.

Imo if its guitary lead its darkwave, if its synth lead its coldwave

Draumadis by kaelan mikla

John Carpenter's music is definately darkwave right?

What's coldwave? One of my favorite bands kły is described as black metal with elements of coldwave.

That's awesome you got quoted in an article!!!

Would Actors be Category 2?

👁👄👁oh hi hello welcome im still confused on what dark wave is i dont understand

She's so smart. I just classify it all as either Goth Rock or Industrial.