The Cure are an English rock group formed in Crawley, West Sussex in 1976. The ensemble has experienced several line-up changes, with frontman, vocalist, guitar player and principal songwriter Robert Smith being the only constant member. The Cure first started releasing music in the late 1970s with their debut record Three Imaginary Boys (1979); this, along with several early singles, placed the ensemble 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 songs helped form the gothic rock genre.

After the release of Pornography (1982), the band’s future was uncertain and Smith was keen to move past the gloomy reputation his lineup had earned. With the 1982 single “Let’s Go to Bed” Smith started to inject more of a pop sensibility into the band’s music. The Cure’s popularity widened as the decade wore on, especially in the United States where the material “Just Like Heaven”, “Lovesong” and “Friday I’m in Love” entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart. By the start of the 1990s, The Cure were one of the most popular alternative rock bands in the world. The band is estimated to have sold 27 million units as of 2004. The Cure have put forth thirteen studio albums and over thirty singles while the course of their career.