For over three decades The
Cure have explored that place where the mainstream and alternative rock worlds collide, crafting a unique body of work that their army of fans continues to adore. Formed in Crawley, England in 1976, the band has experienced several lineup changes, with frontman, guitarist and main songwriter Robert Smith—known for his death-white facial makeup, crimson lipstick, and teased black hair—being the only constant member. The members of The Cure first started releasing music in the late 1970s. Their first album, Three Imaginary Boys (1979), and
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early singles placed them as part of the post-punk and New Wave movements that had sprung up in the wake of the punk rock revolution in the United Kingdom. During the early 1980s the band's increasingly gloomy and introspective music made them vanguards of the gothic rock movement. After the release of 1982's Pornography, the band's future was uncertain and frontman Robert
Smith was keen to get past his reputation as “the master of mope rock.” With the 1982 single "
Let's Go to Bed" Smith began to inject more of a pop sound into the band's music. The Cure's popularity increased as the decade progressed, especially in the United States, where the songs "Just Like Heaven", "Lovesong" and "Friday I'm in Love" broke into the Billboard Top 40 charts on the strength of the band’s newfound sensibility.
By the start of the 1990s, The Cure were one of the most popular alternative rock bands in the world and began to experiment once again with their sound with less than spectacular results. However, in 2000, Smith unveiled the band’s best-reviewed album in years, Bloodflowers. That same year, Smith launched a world tour by announcing that it would be the band’s last. But the bandleader soon began to hedge on that promise, saying all the subsequent attention and sudden acclaim made him strangely...happy. By 2004, the band had sold an estimated 27 million albums. As of 2007, The Cure had released twelve studio albums and over thirty singles also making them one of alternative rock’s most prolific bands. Smith, the once-described “guru of gloom,” has to admit that he has quite a sunny future ahead of him.
