Dark wave (also known as darkwave) is a music genre that emerged from the new wave and post-punk movement of the late 1970s. Dark wave compositions are largely based on minor key tonality and introspective lyrics and have been perceived as being dark, romantic and bleak, with an undertone of sorrow. Common features include the use of chordophones such as electric and acoustic guitar, violin and piano, as well as electronic instruments such as synthesizer, sampler and drum machine. Like new wave, dark wave is not a "unified genre but rather an umbrella term" that encompasses a variety of musical styles, including cold wave, ethereal wave, gothic rock, neoclassical dark wave and neofolk.

In the 1980s, a subculture developed primarily in Europe alongside dark wave music, whose followers were called "wavers" or "dark wavers". In some countries, most notably Germany, the movement also included fans of gothic rock (so-called "trad-goths").

Since the 1980s, the term "dark wave" has been used in Europe by the music press to describe the gloomy and melancholy variant of new wave and post-punk music. At that time, the term "goth" was inseparably connected with gothic rock, whereas "dark wave" acquired a broader meaning, embracing bands and solo artists that were associated with gothic rock and synthesizer-based new wave music, such as Bauhaus, Joy Division, the Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Sisters of Mercy, Anne Clark, Depeche Mode, Gary Numan and the Chameleons.

The term darkwave originated in the 1980s as an indicator of the dark counterpart of new wave. Bands such as Cocteau Twins, Soft Cell, and Depeche Mode are exponents of this first generation of darkwave. Darkwave... employs relatively slower tempos, lower pitches, and more minor keys in its musical settings of melancholy texts than new wave.

— Isabella van Elferen, Professor of Musicology, Kingston University, London

The movement spread internationally, developing such strands as ethereal wave, with bands such as Cocteau Twins, and neoclassical dark wave, initiated by the music of Dead Can Dance and In the Nursery. French cold wave groups such as Clair Obscur and Opera Multi Steel have also been associated with the dark wave scene; Rémy Lozowski, guitarist of French cold wave band Excès Nocturne, described his music as new wave noire ("dark new wave").

Simultaneously, different substyles associated with the new wave and dark wave movements started to merge and influence each other, e.g. synth-wave (a kind of new wave with synthesizers, also referred to as "electro-wave") with gothic rock, or began to borrow elements of post-industrial music. Attrition, Die Form (France), Pink Industry (UK), Psyche (Canada), Kirlian Camera (Italy) and Clan of Xymox (Netherlands) performed this music in the 1980s. Other bands such as Malaria! and the Vyllies added elements of chanson and cabaret music. This sort of dark wave music became known as cabaret noir (or "dark cabaret", a term popularized by U.S. dark wave label Projekt Records).

German dark wave bands were partially associated with the Neue Deutsche Welle (i.e. German new wave), and included Xmal Deutschland, Mask For, Asmodi Bizarr, II. Invasion, Unlimited Systems, Moloko †, Maerchenbraut, Cyan Revue, Leningrad Sandwich, Stimmen der Stille, Belfegore, and Pink Turns Blue.