The members of The Cure first started releasing music in the late 1970s. Their first album, Three Imaginary Boys (1979), and 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 dark and tormented music helped form the gothic rock genre. After the release of 1982's Pornography, the band's future was uncertain and frontman Robert Smith was keen to move past the gloomy reputation his band had cultivated. With the 1982 single "Let's Go to Bed" Smith began to inject more of a pop sensibility into the band's music. The Cure's popularity increased as the decade wore on, especially in the United States, where the songs "Just Like Heaven", "Lovesong" and "Friday I'm in Love" entered the Billboard Top 40 charts. By the start of the 1990s, The Cure were one of the most popular alternative rock bands in the world and have sold an estimated 27 million albums as of 2004. As of 2007, The Cure have released twelve studio albums and over thirty singles, with a thirteenth album, 4:13 Dream, due in October 2008.

The Cure are often identified with the gothic rock subgenre of alternative rock, and are viewed as one of the form's definitive bands. However, the band has routinely rejected classification, particularly as a gothic rock band. Robert Smith said in 2006, "It's so pitiful when 'goth' is still tagged onto the name The Cure," and added, "We're not categorisable. I suppose we were post-punk when we came out, but in total it's impossible. I just play Cure music, whatever that is." Smith has also expressed his distaste for gothic rock, describing it as "incredibly dull and monotonous. A dirge really."

While typically viewed as producers of dark and gloomy music, The Cure have also yielded a number of upbeat songs. Spin has said "The Cure have always been an either/or sort of band: either Robert Smith is wallowing in gothic sadness or he's licking sticky-sweet cotton-candy pop off his lipstick-stained fingers."

The Cure's primary musical traits have been listed as "dominant, melodic bass lines; whiny, strangulated vocals; and a lyric obsession with existential, almost literary despair." Most Cure songs start with Smith and Gallup writing the drum parts and basslines. Both record demos at home and then bring them into the studio for fine-tuning. Smith said in 1992, "I think when people talk about the 'Cure sound,' they mean songs based on 6-string bass, acoustic guitar, and my voice, plus the string sound from the Solina." On top of this foundation is laid "towering layers of guitars and synthesizers". Keyboards have been a component of the band's sound since Seventeen Seconds, and their importance increased with their extensive use on Disintegration.

Members

* Robert Smith - lead vocals, guitar, keyboards (1976-present)
* Simon Gallup - bass guitar, keyboards (1979-1982, 1985-present)
* Porl Thompson - guitar, keyboards (1976-1978, 1983-1993, 2005-present)
* Jason Cooper - drums, percussion (1995-present)

Past members:

* Lol Tolhurst - drums, percussion, keyboards, drum machine, other instruments (1976-1989)
* Michael Dempsey - bass guitar, vocals (1976-1979)
* Matthieu Hartley - keyboards (1979-1980)
* Phil Thornalley - bass guitar (1983-1984)
* Andy Anderson - drums, percussion (1983-1984)
* Boris Williams - drums, percussion (1984-1994)
* Roger O'Donnell - keyboards, percussion (1987-1990, 1995-2005)
* Perry Bamonte - keyboards, guitar, six-string bass (1990-2005)

Discography

Studio albums:

* Three Imaginary Boys (1979)
* Seventeen Seconds (1980)
* Faith (1981)
* Pornography (1982)
* The Top (1984)
* The Head on the Door (1985)
* Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me (1987)
* Disintegration (1989)
* Wish (1992)
* Wild Mood Swings (1996)
* Bloodflowers (2000)
* The Cure (2004)
* 4:13 Dream (2008)

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