page_title: Dark cabaret
section_title: Emergence of the genre
hierarchical_section_title: Dark cabaret / Emergence of the genre
caption_attribution_description: Amanda Palmer performing with The Dresden Dolls at Kings Arms Tavern in Auckland, New Zealand
context_page_description: Dark cabaret may be a simple description of the theme and mood of a cabaret performance, but more recently has come to define a particular musical genre which draws on the aesthetics of the decadent, risqué German Weimar-era cabarets, burlesque and vaudeville shows with the stylings of post-1970s goth and punk music.
context_section_description: The term dark cabaret appears to have become popularized with the release of a 2005 compilation album entitled Projekt Presents: A Dark Cabaret by Projekt Records, a label chiefly associated with the dark wave genre. The album included "Flowers" from Dream Home Heartache sung by Rozz Williams together with, among others, "Evil Night Together" by Jill Tracy,  "Sometimes, Sunshine" by Revue Noir, and "Coin-Operated Boy" by The Dresden Dolls. Formed by Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione 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, Katzenjammer Kabarett in France, or Ray Childish in Graz, Austria.
  New sects of dark cabaret have emerged from the previous theatrical dark cabaret. With a more aggressive side and a punk or metal background, with some bands also closely associated with the punk cabaret subgenre, for example: Stolen Babies or Harlequin Jones.
  The appearance of an identifiable dark cabaret scene coincided with the rise of Neo-Burlesque 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. Collaboration with burlesque performers was given by Brian Viglione as the inspiration for The Dresden Dolls' look.
caption: The Dresden Dolls' Amanda Palmer
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