What is Darkpop?
1.
Darkpop was primarily an abstractly post-punk type of music that coincided with things like Gothic rock/deathrock and the New Romantics in the late '70s and early '80s (though especially the latter). This means artists inside or outside the mainstream that had dark (yet accessible) sensibilities, but weren't quite Goth or New Romantic (even though there is considerable overlap, admittedly).
Darkpop might include: Fad Gadget, The Smiths, Depeche Mode (mid-'80s to about 1990), some early Ministry. (Note: Ministry originally vacillated between Gothic rock and light, mainstream, New Romantic pop.)
See
