Dark cabaret may be a simple description of the theme and mood of a cabaret

Cabaret

Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...

 performance, but more recently has come to define a particular musical genre

Music genre

A music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other types of music...

 which draws on the aesthetics of the decadent, risqué German Weimar-era

Weimar Republic

The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...

 cabarets, burlesque

Burlesque

Burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects...

 and vaudeville

Vaudeville

Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...

 shows with the stylings of post-1970s goth

Goth subculture

The goth subculture is a contemporary subculture found in many countries. It began in England during the early 1980s in the gothic rock scene, an offshoot of the post-punk genre. The goth subculture has survived much longer than others of the same era, and has continued to diversify...

 and punk

Punk subculture

The punk subculture includes a diverse array of ideologies, and forms of expression, including fashion, visual art, dance, literature, and film, which grew out of punk rock.-History:...

 music.

Sources

Cabaret

Cabaret

Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...

 proper had long associations with counter-culture and dealt with disturbing themes, as exemplified by The Threepenny Opera

The Threepenny Opera

The Threepenny Opera is a musical by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill, in collaboration with translator Elisabeth Hauptmann and set designer Caspar Neher. It was adapted from an 18th-century English ballad opera, John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, and offers a Marxist critique...

by Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...

 and Kurt Weill

Kurt Weill

Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...

, with one of its best known songs "Mack the Knife

Mack the Knife

"Mack the Knife" or "The Ballad of Mack the Knife", originally "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer", is a song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their music drama Die Dreigroschenoper, or, as it is known in English, The Threepenny Opera. It premiered in Berlin in 1928 at the...

" ("Moritat von Mackie Messer") which tells the story of a murderous anti-hero

Anti-hero

In fiction, an antihero is generally considered to be a protagonist whose character is at least in some regards conspicuously contrary to that of the archetypal hero, and is in some instances its antithesis in which the character is generally useless at being a hero or heroine when they're...

, or the 1933 song "Gloomy Sunday

Gloomy Sunday

"Gloomy Sunday" is a song composed by Hungarian pianist and composer Rezső Seress and published in 1933, as "Vége a világnak" . Lyrics were written by László Jávor, and in his version the song was retitled "Szomorú vasárnap"...

" ("Szomorú Vasárnap") by Hungarian composer Rezső Seress

Rezso Seress

Rezső Seress was a Hungarian pianist and composer. Some sources give his birth name as Rudolf Spitzer.Rezső Seress lived most of his life in poverty in Budapest, when, being Jewish, was taken to a labour camp by the Nazis during the Second World War...

 with the more recent urban legend

Urban legend

An urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true...

s which have grown up around it. It was therefore natural that later artists drew upon it for inspiration: Nico

Nico

Nico was a German singer, lyricist, composer, musician, fashion model, and actress, who initially rose to fame as a Warhol Superstar in the 1960s...

's 1974 album The End... is an early example of such influence, especially in songs such as "You Forgot To Answer" and "Secret Side", while influenced artists associated with goth and punk music specifically include Nina Hagen

Nina Hagen

Nina Hagen is a German singer and actress.-Early years:Hagen was born as Catharina Hagen in the former East Berlin, East Germany, the daughter of Hans Hagen , a scriptwriter, and Eva-Maria Hagen, an actress and singer...

, Sex Gang Children

Sex Gang Children

The Sex Gang Children are a positive punk group that formed in the early 1980s in England. Although the original group only released one official studio album, they remain one of the more well-known bands out of the early Batcave scene and have reformed for new albums and touring various times...

 and The Virgin Prunes. Cabaret also influenced individual songs, such as "Peek-a-Boo

Peek-a-Boo (song)

"Peek-a-Boo" is a song by English alternative rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees. It was released in 1988 as the first single from the band's ninth studio album Peepshow...

" by Siouxsie and the Banshees (1988) which draws on circus

Circus

A circus is commonly a travelling company of performers that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists...

, burlesque

Burlesque

Burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects...

 and masquerade

Masquerade ball

A masquerade ball is an event which the participants attend in costume wearing a mask. - History :...

 imagery and features accordion samples.

Dark cabaret as a style

One of the earliest bands to play mainly or exclusively in a style which might now be described as dark cabaret were the Tiger Lillies

Tiger Lillies

The Tiger Lillies are a three-piece band, formed in 1989 and based in London. They have toured worldwide and won acclaim with their opera Shockheaded Peter....

, formed in London in 1989. In the 1980s satirical cabaret had been revived and popularised by London-based bands such as Fascinating Aida

Fascinating Aida

Fascinating Aïda is a British comedy singing group and satirical cabaret act, which has retired twice, most recently in 2004. After the death in 2007 of the group's pianist and musical director, Russell Churney, all plans for a new show were shelved. Some of their most famous songs include...

 and Kit and The Widow

Kit and The Widow

Kit and The Widow are a double act, performing humorous songs in the vein of Tom Lehrer or Flanders and Swann; they also cite Anna Russell as an influence. They are Kit Hesketh-Harvey and Richard Sisson . They have performed at the Edinburgh Fringe and in West End theatres, and accept private...

 but the Tiger Lillies incorporated themes of blasphemy

Blasphemy

Blasphemy is irreverence towards religious or holy persons or things. Some countries have laws to punish blasphemy, while others have laws to give recourse to those who are offended by blasphemy...

, prostitution

Prostitution

Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...

 and bestiality in their songs, sung by Martyn Jacques

Martyn Jacques

Martyn Jacques is a British musician, most notable for being a founder of the independent band Tiger Lillies. He is a lyricist, vocalist, and musician who plays accordion, piano, and ukulele....

 in a menacing style with a falsetto

Falsetto

Falsetto is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentous edges of the vocal folds, in whole or in part...

 voice. A collaboration between Rozz Williams

Rozz Williams

Rozz Williams was an American vocalist and musician of several varieties, most famous for fronting the band Christian Death, then later Shadow Project with musician Eva O, though his main project throughout his career was the industrial, Premature Ejaculation...

 and Gitane Demone

Gitane Demone

Gitane Demone is a singer and musician. She was a member of Christian Death in the 1980s, and is currently a solo artist.-Pompeii 99 and Christian Death:...

 - both former members of Christian Death

Christian Death

Christian Death is an American deathrock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1979. The band was founded and fronted by Rozz Williams. Christian Death is most notable for their first album Only Theatre of Pain....

 - entitled Dream Home Heartache

Dream Home Heartache

Dream Home Heartache is an experimental dark cabaret collaboration album featuring Rozz Williams and Gitane Demone, both former members of Christian Death. It was released in late 1995 by Triple X Records after being recorded between March 28 and April 5, 1995 in the Netherlands...

after a song by Roxy Music

In Every Dream Home A Heartache

"In Every Dream Home a Heartache" is a song written by Bryan Ferry, originally appearing on his band Roxy Music's second album.Lyrically, the song is a sinister monologue, part critique of the emptiness of opulence, partly a love song to an inflatable doll. Musically this is complemented by a...

, was recorded in the Netherlands and released in the United States in 1995 and was described by reviewers as "cabaret noir" or "glam cabaret". Following her 1996 debut solo album Quintessentially Unreal, San Francisco-based singer/pianist Jill Tracy

Jill Tracy

Jill Tracy is a singer, pianist, writer, composer, and performance artist based in San Francisco.Known for her dark, evocative, cinematic style, Jill Tracy states that some of her biggest childhood influences were film score composers such as Bernard Herrmann, and classic suspense tales, including...

 released her second CD, Diabolical Streak, in 1999. Canada's Shift

Shift (magazine)

Shift was a Canadian magazine, devoted to technology and culture. It has now ceased publication as a print magazine. Its website continued to publish new content for at least a year after the print title was discontinued, but is no longer in operation....

magazine called the album one of the "Top 10 Neo-Cabaret albums of all time."

Emergence of the genre

The term dark cabaret appears to have only become popular following the release of a 2005 compilation album entitled Projekt Presents: A Dark Cabaret by Projekt Records, a label chiefly associated with the goth genre. The album included "Flowers" from Dream Home Heartache sung by Rozz Williams together with, among others, "Evil Night Together" by Jill Tracy

Jill Tracy

Jill Tracy is a singer, pianist, writer, composer, and performance artist based in San Francisco.Known for her dark, evocative, cinematic style, Jill Tracy states that some of her biggest childhood influences were film score composers such as Bernard Herrmann, and classic suspense tales, including...

, "Sometimes, Sunshine" by Revue Noir, and "Coin-Operated Boy

Coin-Operated Boy

"Coin-Operated Boy" is a single by The Dresden Dolls duo, taken from the self-titled debut album The Dresden Dolls. It was produced by Martin Bisi and released on December 13, 2004 by Roadrunner Records. "Coin-Operated Boy" was written by Amanda Palmer...

" by The Dresden Dolls

The Dresden Dolls

The Dresden Dolls are an American musical duo from Boston, Massachusetts. Formed in 2000, the group consists of Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione...

. Formed by Amanda Palmer

Amanda Palmer

Amanda MacKinnon Gaiman Palmer , sometimes known as Amanda Fucking Palmer, is an American performer who first rose to prominence as the lead singer, pianist, and lyricist/composer of the duo The Dresden Dolls...

 and Brian Viglione

Brian Viglione

Brian Viglione is the drummer for The Dresden Dolls. Additionally, he was a prominent member of New York City's cabaret punk orchestra, The WORLD/INFERNO Friendship Society...

 in 2000, The Dresden Dolls described their music as "Brechtian punk cabaret", a term coined by Amanda Palmer in early 2003 in part to preclude being labelled by the media as goths. Nevertheless, with their musical style and appearance in white face makeup and reduced period clothing, The Dresden Dolls and their fans quickly became the most readily identified with the newly evident dark cabaret genre, garnering the most mainstream attention. Subsequently, bands began categorising themselves and their performance as dark cabaret, such as San Diego's The Tragic Tantrum in the US or Ray Childish in Graz

Graz

The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...

, Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

.

The appearance of an identifiable dark cabaret scene coincided with the rise of neo-burlesque

Neo-Burlesque

Neo-Burlesque is the revival and updating of the traditional burlesque performance. Though based on the traditional Burlesque art, the new form encompasses a wider range of performance styles; Neo-burlesque acts can be anything from classic striptease to modern dance to theatrical mini-dramas to...

 starting in the 1990s. The two have become linked following the appearance of performers such as the Chicago burlesque orchestra Apartment (1997–2005) and the emergence of gothic bellydance

Gothic bellydance

Gothic Bellydance is a recent and rapidly growing dance art movement, currently becoming very popular in both the amateur and professional dance communities of the United States and Europe. -History:...

. Collaboration with burlesque performers was given by Brian Viglione as the inspiration for The Dresden Dolls' look.