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The Cure
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
The Cure are an English band from Crawley, south of London. The group began in 1976 as Malice, were called Easy Cure in 1977 and have been The Cure since 1978. Singer and guitarist Robert Smith is the only member who has always been part of the band. The Cure grew out of post-punk and became one of the bands that shaped gothic rock.
Music and breakthrough
The first records, with the single Killing an Arab (1978) and the album Three Imaginary Boys (1979), were dry, fast guitar pop. With Seventeen Seconds (1980), produced by Smith and Mike Hedges, the sound became darker and emptier. A Forest, the first single from that album, released in April 1980, became the band's first hit, reaching number 31 in the UK. Guitar and bass repeat short motifs in a sea of reverb, and Hedges used several flangers to make the guitar float. Faith (1981) and above all Pornography (1982) made the sound heavier still. Smith's black clothes, tousled hair and lipstick became the uniform of the goths.
Influence
In the 1980s The Cure alternated dark albums with pop singles. Disintegration (1989) reached number 3 in the UK, and Lovesong, which reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100, became their only American top ten hit. The band has sold more than thirty million records and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019. In 2024 Songs of a Lost World was released, the first album of new work in sixteen years, and it reached number 1 in the UK.
Listening
A Forest · The Cure, 1980Apple Music ↗
Discography
Studio albums
- 1979Three Imaginary Boys
- 1980Seventeen Seconds
- 1981Faith
- 1982Pornography
- 1984The Top
- 1985The Head on the Door
- 1987Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me
- 1989Disintegration
- 1992Wish
- 1996Wild Mood Swings
- 2000Bloodflowers
- 2004The Cure
- 20084:13 Dream
- 2024Songs of a Lost World
In School of Rock
The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.
- Mixtape 4: When Rock Was Still PopNL Reader
- Mixtape 7: The 1980sNL Reader
Mentioned in other articles
- New wave Genre
The movement runs from guitar bands such as The Cure, The Police and The Smiths to synth bands such as Tubeway Army and Depeche Mode.
- Gothic rock Genre
The Cure appear with A Forest on the album Seventeen Seconds (1980).