Dark cabaret

Dark cabaret is a music genre that draws on the aesthetics of burlesque, vaudeville and Weimar-era cabaret, generally played by groups with origins in rock music.

The genre traces its roots to 1930s Weimar Republic experimental cabaret of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, and their influence upon 1960s rock bands including the Doors. In the 1970s, the dark cabaret genre began to emerge with Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel's The Human Menagerie (1973) and Nico's The End... (1974). During the 1980s, the genre was adopted by groups with origins in post-punk, new wave and gothic rock, including Marc Almond, the Virgin Prunes, Nina Hagen and Sex Gang Children. These disparate forms of the genre were largely codified during the 1990s, through the works of the Tiger Lillies, as well as Rozz Williams and Gitane Demone's Dream Home Heartache (1995). During this decade, the neo-burlesque movement began, which allowed acts in the 2000s such as the Dresden Dolls, the World/Inferno Friendship Society, Jill Tracy and Katzenjammer Kabarett to gain mainstream attention. Amidst this period, the genre's influence from embraced by some prominent groups in the indie rock and emo pop genres.