Meanings
alternative dark wave
- uncountableentertainmentA musical movement that originated in the late 1970s, combining elements of new wave and gothic rock with dark, thoughtful lyrics and an undertone of sorrow.
As well as mainstream pop you'll find dance, funk and all kinds of club music, world music and even very select genres such as darkwave medieval, darkwave gothic to darkwave neofolk.
2002, Jules Brown, Dinah Gardner, Hong Kong and Macau, page 3151 more example
Since the 1980s, several goth substyles have mixed the Batcave heritage with other musical genres into new goth substyles. New wave was gothed into darkwave, classic rock into gothic rock, and metal into gothic metal. […] The term darkwave originated in the 1980s as an indicator of the “dark” counterpart of new wave.
2015, Isabella van Elferen, Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock, Goth Music: From Sound to Subculture, Routledge, →ISBN, page 25
Origin
From dark + -wave, meaning the “dark” counterpart of new wave.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
French dark wave
- dark wavemusical movement combining elements of new wave and gothic rock
Portuguese darkwave
- darkwavemusical movement combining elements of new wave and gothic rock
Cite this entry
darkwave. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/darkwave
“darkwave.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/darkwave. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “darkwave,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/darkwave.
Source: darkwave on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.