The origin and reappearance of Gothic style can be written in thousands of words. In short, Gothic itself does not only refer to music, it originated from medieval architecture and gradually penetrated into various cultural ranges and even life forms. As music, since 1970s, it has become an independent form and divided into various styles. So what is the relationship between Goth and Dark Wave? The traditional view that dark waves are a branch of Gothic music is very inaccurate. In terms of time, the name dark wave appeared much later than Goth, so there is no doubt that dark wave and Goth come down in one continuous line, but dark wave covers more areas than Goth. I'm not going to discuss this academic issue. Music is the key. It is much easier to classify goth and dark waves as one kind of music.
Foucault, a challenging and rebellious French thinker before the 20th century, died in 1984 and was lamented by later generations as "human beings stopped thinking". One of his great thoughts and theories is to completely transform the "madness" in the eyes of ordinary people, that is, to turn what we regard as a medical phenomenon into a civilized phenomenon. Madness is not a disease, but a sense of alienation that changes with time. It is purely the result of the combination of rationality and irrationality, the viewer and the observed.
The most "crazy consciousness" music type in modern music culture belongs to dark wave (or dark wave). No matter from the sensory dimension, ideology, or even in the context of civilization, dark waves always embody "all signs of madness": sober madness is black. Imagine, which "normal" and kitsch mind is willing to live in the dark and feel the beauty of black from the heart?
Any objective phenomenon is based on a specific social background and cultural evolution. The production of music is a direct reflection of people's current emotions in a specific social life state. Because all kinds of desires hidden in people's consciousness are not allowed and recognized by society and reality, they will inevitably produce ultimate emotions such as pain, despair, loss and emptiness. After a long period of suffocating reality suppression, more and more people can't bear the burden of vulgar life, which eventually leads to a complete mental breakdown. Nervousness, neurasthenia and schizophrenia have become common problems in today's society. These sacred flowers in human civilization, which used to be proud of sensitivity and painful because of family ties, were finally attacked by irresistible evil storms. They weaken day by day, wither day by day until they are extinct. Darkness is the bitter groans, tired Sanskrit, struggling crying and hanging curse of these cynical souls before they die. Dark waves undoubtedly sounded the death knell for the infinite expansion of human desires and the infinite decline of humanistic morality, and undoubtedly put an end to the mysterious destruction and killing of real natural space by human society. The appearance of dark wave and its retrospective development will eventually become inevitable.
Dark wave originated in the mid-1980s, and its mother was Germany in Europe (this horrible country). Now it is spread all over northern Europe, southern Europe, the United States, France and other countries and regions. The music style of Dark Wave was established with the establishment of Projekt Company in the United States in 1980s. From the disintegration of the industrial movement, the cool and natural transition of Gothic music culture in the early 1980s gave birth to the rebirth of darkwave. Its most solid humanistic foundation is a large number of die-hard "mental lunatics" who have a sense of death and take low-key decadence as their life instinct. They have integrated various post-industrial (post-industrial noise) music materials and actively married Goth's widow, the dark culture of medieval Europe. Then, industrial noise and Gothic music culture were eroded and turned into their own infrastructure energy, and then another crystallization of predecessors' concentrated wisdom-keyboard was added, which expanded the classical music used in Gothic music and gave birth to their own unique grand and sad children-the "dark age" began. (It is completely different from the dark century from the 4th century to14th century. The former is a new, cold, noisy and maverick music era, and the latter is called the dark age of art by later artists after the brutal expansion of Christianity under the protection of Constantine the Great of Rome, so the Middle Ages are often ignored or not mentioned at all. However, with the return of the great ship of history, people now begin to re-examine and study some splendid cultures in the Middle Ages, and the shadow of the Middle Ages often appears in their music and cultural works, which can be seen. ) At first, the most striking feature of dark wave was the compatibility between industry and classicism. It skillfully combines the serious musical attitude in classical music with elegant artistic style and the strong subversion of stubborn, rigid, feudal and fettered real social ills in industrial music. The perfect and imaginative combination of grafting makes Dark Wave prove to the world that music is not only the arrangement of notes, but also emotion, atmosphere, whimsy and illusion. The music world of Dark Wave is full of gloomy, dark, lonely, cold and gloomy low-key echoes. This charm, symbolizing the end of the century, slowly wandered among all living things, becoming a medium for dialogue between human beings and nature, and becoming a just visiting where people dare to face themselves naked and go to the dark side of human nature to beg for peace of soul. Dark waves are a symbol of sound, a beautiful ruin, a mourning requiem, and a mysterious black and shiny trip to Mercury.
Today, as a sub-culture of the world, Dark Wave deeply attracts underground fans all over the world with its unique dark temperament, and still maintains the unique operation mode of independent music in the mode of communication (that is, it is produced and distributed by independent record companies, promoted by underground/non-mainstream music magazines, represented by independent record companies and sold by small record stores). However, this embarrassing situation caused by the exclusion of mainstream culture has become the standard measure and definition of the value of independent music by many dark music gold diggers today. Due to the limited number of records released, pure underground music posture and mysterious temperament, each dark wave record presents a high price and a hard-won market, which makes people think hard (fortunately, it can be downloaded from the Internet).
In the late 1980s, the new era was introduced into the adaptation of medieval music. This undoubtedly injected fresh blood into the traditional European music at that time, and also brought inspiration to the dark music. In the 1990s, world music was introduced. I wonder if this is a deviation from the original dark wave or a new inspiration. As artists, darkwave's members don't just create music. Many of them even examined and created a large number of medieval music manuscripts, poems and classics from the comprehensive perspective of European history, culture and religion, and a large number of them were directly applied to music production. Their accurate grasp of medieval music has risen to the dividing line between aesthetics and concepts. It is the serious attitude of the creators of Dark Wave that makes their music more profound and intriguing. When the reborn modern people want to have a sense of reality again, to be attached to the mystery of nature and to communicate with nature again, then "sacrifice", "symbol" and "magic" should make themselves no longer "illusory". Dark wave, a newly developed highly individualistic culture, shows us the truth understood by listening to mysticism, just like a proper singing of the dark ages in the Middle Ages, a projection of the past and a prophet of the golden age in the future.
The cello set off by the natural dark atmosphere in Dark Wave has such a sad tone that it can capture any complicated and unbearable emotion and perfectly express the sensitivity of sadness. The delayed voice is strange and gloomy, and the singing in the paradise of fairyland-like women is so ethereal and sad. Coupled with the inexplicable guitar timbre and tuned strings, the atmosphere created is as solemn as a rainy day with pain. I don't know the so-called magic, which further strengthened the ancient way of revenge against evil. Darkvave's darkness enveloped countless poetic night sky with the haze of murder. The night in the primitive wilderness is shrouded in dense fog, and it is a light and mutilated limb that has been chewed up. All these are spread on every level of the band's works, whether it is the heavy body tied with bass, the sad wail of guitar or the low-key singing of the lead voice, all of which show a theme: darkness that devours everything everywhere. Their grotesque imagination dives into the vague and mysterious amniotic fluid of human beings, bloodily digs out the dark side of human nature and devours it. Just like the lyrics of a delicate and barbed sword, it has crept into the deepest part of your heart unconsciously, gouging out the rotten nightmare that you have long forgotten.
After a long gestation period in the 1980s, the genre of dark music became more and more perfect and mature, and finally broke out on a global scale in the 1990s. In the mid-1990s, Dark Wave constructed various complex and diverse styles from the original Dan Xian background, industrial stream of consciousness and classical opera singing form, like a biological net. New songs, dark environment music, dark industrial music, sounds of nature, dark medieval music, death ballads, neoclassicism and other forms are everywhere showing a thriving scene. Avant-garde, art rock, even heavy metal, death metal, black rap (how is that possible? ) without exception, it was attacked by the black hand of the dark wave and became rigid. In a sense, dark waves no longer belong to the category of rock music, but set up a new door, forming a rival situation with traditional rock music. At this time, Germany has completed the task of being the original birthplace of dark waves, and the prosperity of flowering in different places has become an indisputable fact.
First of all, the classification of dark waves mentioned below is only based on its most obvious form and consciousness. Each type has an extension of music vector, and different types also blend with each other. Every band has always mastered different music. Therefore, this classification is only the basic element to divide each band type.
The origin of dark wave may be because dark wave and Goth were popular in China at about the same time (about 1999-2000), and their musical consciousness was quite similar, so some people defined Goth as the source of dark wave. But personally, I think Goth is a guitar rock type originated from post-punk, and it pays attention to the exploration of dark claustrophobia. Dark waves come from electrons-the word wave explains the electronic origin of dark waves. The early Black Wave was also a strong style of electronic dance music, and now electronic music has always been an important part of the Black Wave, regardless of Europe and America. The consciousness mentioned by dark wave is not limited to dark complex. The following is a simple classification.
1. Gothic style /EBM. Undoubtedly, this kind of music is an important part of dark waves, and its musical form is electronic music plus Gothic black voice, creating a strong black atmosphere. Typical bands are artworks, girls under glass, threats, etc. With electronics as the framework, it can also be integrated with industry and metal, extending different music types, such as Das Ich, which integrates the voice of industry, and Die Form, a famous SM group (SM is the ideology that Gothic Wave Band often discusses). In addition, due to the long-term development of this kind of music, there is also a trend to move closer to the mainstream, such as L\'ame Immortelle, Girls under Glass and other Gothic pop bands.
2.Etheral/Ambient, fairy sound/atmosphere. This is the earliest darkwave that most China fans come into contact with. Elegant female voice, the atmosphere created by synthesizer, and erratic melody create a blurred and illusory feeling, which is sometimes classified as a new era. Dark Wave's signature band, Black Tape For A Blue Girl, is a master of this kind of music, and its old band, Lycia, Love spiral down (a band with charming and warm female voice), which is a typical label of Projekt, is also a representative of this kind of music style. In addition, such bands also use real musical instruments to create a beautiful feeling, such as using a light string for a blue girl in the music of Black Belt. At the same time, there are also bands that focus on female voices and guitars, such as Cocteau Twins and Mira, which will move closer to dream pop.
3. Neoclassical, neoclassical. It expresses the orthodox "classical sense" (not "classical"). The basic elements are classical music factors such as strings, wind music, female coloratura and vocal chorus, which reflect orthodoxy, simplicity and elegance. Stoea and O 'filia's Dream of Hyperion is a representative of neoclassicism. Classical musical instruments can also create a large number of non-mainstream ideological bands, such as the simple Anima in Fiamme, the evil and tragic Sopor Aeternus and so on.
4. Neo-Goth, a new song. The musical style evolved from the remains of the old Goth, such as Bauhaus and Cristina's death, and was classified because it was close to the dark consciousness. The form is to transform the old Goth with strings and electronics, and polish its rough dark style to perfection. Typical bands are Ikon, faith &; Muse, etc.
5. Gothic folk music. The fusion of folk songs and Gothic songs, fresh folk songs also have the darkness and coldness of Gothic, and the lyrics are more narrative than Gothic songs. Typical bands include human drama, Voltaire under Projekt.
6. Medieval music. They tend to use a lot of ancient musical instruments, such as organ, drum and reed flute, and their voices are simple or as sacred as religion. Moreover, such bands especially like to browse ancient music (such as religious hymns Salva Nos, Gaudalier, folk music SATA Rolla, Totus Floreo) ... They can often be heard in different albums of medieval bands and interpreted into various styles. Of course, their names may be due to language reasons. According to the different music consciousness of the band, it can be roughly divided into medieval court/religion/folk music. Typical bands include Ataraxia, the first Italian medieval band, The Soil Bleeds Black and Freiburger Spielleyt, the enthusiastic German medieval instrumental group Raven, Filia Irata, and the religious music group Estampie. In extreme cases, it contains heavy metal elements. In addition, special attention should be paid to medieval electronic (but not Gothic) music with electronic rhythm. They like to try sacred religious singing combined with fashionable electronic rhythm. Typical bands are Qntal, UNIOMISTICA and so on. At the same time, there is another style that combines medieval music with dark atmosphere music to create a grand and vast effect. This style is called Dark Medieval, and the representative bands are Ordo Equitum Solis. The dead can dance and other bands also adopted this style, which is classified separately here because of its strong national characteristics.
7. A dark environment, a dark atmosphere. Coupled with the dark industry, it can best reflect the dark wave and dark music type. There are countless such two bands under CMI. The configuration of dark atmosphere is a grand and broad sense of space created by a lot of heavy atmosphere and vocal chorus, which is embodied in Arcana and Ordo balancio. In addition, the dark atmosphere also integrates other types, such as dark industry, neoclassicism, new folk songs, experimental electronics and so on.
8. Dark industry, dark industry. Typical bands in the early days include the brighter Death, MZ 4 12 and so on. Facing the theme of death, monotonous industrial noise directly oppresses the nerves, but it is different from industrial music in volume and experimental attitude. And dark industry and dark environment, extreme metal fusion, also have countless evil combinations.
9. Death ballad/new ballad, death ballad/new ballad. A huge and mysterious family in the dark wave system. The product of entanglement between folk songs and industrial bands (the typical dead band in June and its family have deep roots with industrial bands), stiff voice, dry guitar and harsh industrial voice make this kind of music far from folk songs in audibility. And the ideology discussed is too complicated. Death ballads and their children's enlightenment ballads include many unorthodox ideas, such as post-industrial social forms/Nazi and centralization/pagan worship/mysticism ... typical bands such as Death in June and The Moon Hidden under the Cloud. In addition, this genre has developed into a new folk music style close to folk music. The freshness and softness of folk songs have replaced the rigidity of industry. They love to use classical instruments, which are softer and more delicate than Gothic folk songs, such as in bands such as Gowan Ring. World Snake Company is the preferred brand of this kind of music. German brand EIS &；; Licht is also an important base for new folk songs that have emerged in recent years. (Neo Folk is very popular recently, and there are many topics about it, hehe)
10. Ethnic fusion, ethnic fusion music. This music style can be said to span the two fields of dark wave and new era, and it is closely related to medieval music, world music and folk music, but there are also differences (see "The Witch Station" for details). Love to use ancient musical instruments and national musical instruments, the synthesizer creates a lot of distant but not empty feelings, and the voice is simple and distant. Topics discussed include non-western ancient civilizations and religions, mysticism and seclusion complex. Typical bands include top bands below 4AD, Dead Can Dance, solo female lead singer Lisa Gerrard, and a bunch of bands called Post DCD, such as Moors, VAS, Impressions of Winter and so on.
1 1. Post-industry, post-industry/anti-industry. Eliminate the extremely inhuman giant industrial beat in industrial music and replace it with musical elements such as classical music and vocal music as a response to traditional industrial music. Represents an Endraum.