why do you think the band appeal do such a diverse mix of people?

[Dillinger]

something that has always seemed quite unique about the cure is that they appeal to such a range of people and races, very few bands can do this. you just have to look at the boad to see this to pick out a few of the most regular posters theres david from peru, tof from france, japanese baby from finland, caley from USA and me (my real names connor btw it always feels weird being addressed by my generic username) from wales in the uk. how do you think they stretch beyond just the uk and usa? and into all social classes? the diversity in the catalogue certainly helps but i am curious as to why you think they have crossed so many borders so succesfully. many of the fans are in countries where english is the second language and some of the fans dont speak it well yet still they become fans, i think this is testement to how well the cure can get their emotions across through music. i know david and tof can speak good english and japanese baby probably makes the most well wrote posts on the entire board but many arent so good with english. what do you all think?

sorry if this is in the wrong section, it doesnt really fit any but i put it hear as it is kind of about their music. this what i do when its 1am the nightr before exam week and im trying to squeeze a few more minutes out the break before the horrors of school and exams 

[Oso Blanco]

japanese baby probably makes the most well wrote posts on the entire board but many arent so good with english.

Are you sure you're from Wales?

[strange_day]

I think its because the music is so diverse as well as the lyrics, i dont think any band could go from something like 100 Years to Lovecats in the space of a year. Thats whats so brilliant about them, theyve picked up on pretty much everything and haven't let a certain style of music dominate what they do.

As Far as lyrics go, Robert writes about things which people can really relate to, about real life, but also very emotional things which people dont ever talk about. Its definately more universal than say, if he was writing about English politics, which in the 80's and particularly now it would be so easy to do. Hes never patronised the people who listen to the music either, like so many atrists do - talking down, just to make it more comercial and i suppose a lot of people really appreciate that attitude, especially when you look at today's chart music, which seems to be designed for people who dont actually like music.

[dsanchez]

One reason is that The Cure have passed throught different styles. There you have to punk/rock from "Killing Arab", the total darkness of "Cold", the pop with "In Between days", the "psychodelia" with "Fascination street" and even electronic mixes. That's why The Cure is really so complete band and probably the reason why they call so much attention.

And of course, the red-lipstick look from Robert Smith as a distintive sign gives even more curiosity, certanly.

By the way I have to disagree with japanisebabe writing not so good english. I would say my english sucks and her is definitely one of the best written english around here (despite she's from Finland). And of course her posts/opinions are definitely the best elaborated from the forum 

[rjl]

It's probably their multi-faceted nature that appeals to people.

People have emotions... all kinds of emotions. The Cure's music covers that entire spectrum quite well, and that definitely has a certain appeal to people. Also, no matter how playful or downbeat the song currently playing is, there is an indescribable introspective nature to it. The happier songs seem to center around the actual experience/emotion of joy, instead of some Van Halen "party-girls-tequila-cars" suckfest. The darker songs never come across as "look at me, I am so miserable. Look at me!".

This multi-faceted nature also comes across in the music and arrangements. You don't have to speak a word of English, and the meaning of most of the songs are more than apparent. Granted, a lot of songs, by a lot of artists are like that, but with the Cure, there is NO ambiguity or misalignment of music and message.

They also have a signature sound that permeates nearly everything they do, even as that sound evolves over the years. Sort of like David Bowie, or Black Sabbath, or Radiohead, or Iron Maiden, and so on. You can hear a fragment of one their songs, and you know it's them. Or someone completely ripping them off. From their most minimal three-piece arrangements to their most layered and dense five to six member line-ups, you can tell it's a Cure song.

They borrow very little from other artists. There's very little classic "rock" sound to them, or any blues influence, or pretty much anything that closely resembles anything that people tend to borrow from and make their own.

Wow, I'm really rambling. Anyhow, I believe that there is something appealing - whether conciously or not - about the timeless nature of their songs, achieved by keeping the lyrics purely in the emotional realm (no pop culture references, no overt political messages) and by creating and working with a sound all their own (making it impervious to passing fads or trends. Well, if you pretend that LGTB and The Walk never really happened, I suppose...).

I've known plenty of people who were never that into them, or outright HATED them/mischaracterized them as "ridiculous doom and gloom" who ended up liking them (quite a bit in some cases). I also had a friend who was never (and last I checked, still isn't) into music at all, and he ended up buying Disintegration on tape when we were in middle schoole, and fell in love with it. That tape also go me quite hooked.

[Dillinger]

japanese baby probably makes the most well wrote posts on the entire board but many arent so good with english.

Are you sure you're from Wales?

on message boards and stuff i generally just write what comes to mind first which is why the posts are often incoherrent and poorly wrote.


i agree on the "doom and gloom" thing and how people end up suprised. hot hot hot!!! is always my reply to them people

[Janko]

 

THE CURE ARE A SOCIAL EXPERIMENT...



PS

no, they arent...
every big band has fans all over the world, and all over social system...

[lostflower4]

poorly wrote.

You're still failing to rectify yourself...

Ever heard of the word "written"?

[Janko]

poorly wrote.

You're still failing to rectify yourself...

Ever heard of the word "written"?

FARQUAD92 SHOULD WRITE ONLY IN WELSH LANGUAGE (Cymraeg)

IF THAT DOESNT IMPROVE ONE'S SPELLING, NOTHING WILL...

[Dillinger]

i suffered through 5 hours of exams today(and used the cure in the descriptive part of the exam, ironically the one section containing something im interested in is the one i done worst in), give me a break! 


its cool you know about welsh janko, im far from fluent though. i didnt take it as a GCSE so havnt done it since last school year and i wasnt too good then. i live in the border town too, not the (few) places were welsh is really prominent. infact i remember worryingly little, its a complete **** to learn haha.


i would like to take this opportunity to assure curefans and its members that i am not an idiot with no literary skills, just a lazy person who only uses them when necessary 



back on topic though; do you think the love may be atleast a little to do with them being british? alot of people really like britain, its music, culture etc. especially in some parts of europe and south america it seems. ive never understood why though

[lostflower4]

I think the answer is simple. The music is so great, and also diverse. I've heard Robert describing this phenomenon before. Often times, you can get an idea of what song is about just by the music itself.

Heck, even I don't know what Robert's singing half the time. I admit I'm lazy about looking up lyrics. Lyrics have never been that important to me anyway. It's always music first for me, and that's a huge reason why The Cure are my favorite band. Few bands are musically as good as them. Well, maybe on this site I could get by with saying "No band is as good as them."

[japanesebaby]

i can't really think of anything original to add, i guess much of it has been said already.

I think the answer is simple. The music is so great, and also diverse. I've heard Robert describing this phenomenon before. Often times, you can get an idea of what song is about just by the music itself.

i was going to say something similar to this. and as a non-english speaking fan i think i can assure this: way back when you didn't even know english well enough to really understand everything, you just somehow "got it" anyway. the music spoke to you with an exceptional clarity. you just somehow started to pick it up despite the language barrier, the sincerity of the artist carried you across it.

there are other bands i can name that have had and keep on having a huge personal meaning for me but none of them gets close to the cure, none are both as musically diverse and musically convincing as the cure is. i do get these wild streaks sometimes when i'm more or less completely compelled by some other band or album for some time, but these always come and go - and come again... and go again. but the cure streak is the one that just seems to stay there - and i think that's simply because of the quality and the diversity of the music. whatever the mood or the situation, you always find an album/songs that fits your inner state.
so even though it's a total clichée to say so, the cure IS the soundtrack of your life, the only one capable for that task.

i guess the cure also seems to have had some special magic to activate fans and bring them together. the only thing i've personally  regretted is that i live in a country where this never really happened as much as elsewhere. anyway, in global perspective i think cure fans have been pretty active and self-aware group of people over the years - people have come and gone but it has kept going.
maybe it's because it's easy and simply so rewarding to be a devoted fan when the artist has remained devoted and avoided many of those embarrassing lows and other traps that many other artists have fallen into over the years.

well ok this was very unimaginative but i guess the answer is simply quite obvious.

[Janko]

WHILE WE'RE AT IT:

ROBET IS VERY LITERATE AND HIS SONGWRITING COULD EASILY PASS AS POETRY!

[japanesebaby]

WHILE WE'RE AT IT:

ROBET IS VERY LITERATE AND HIS SONGWRITING COULD EASILY PASS AS POETRY!

a really good point. thus curesongs are generally two-fold pleasures: you can often somehow interpret the mood and spirit and "message" of the language in the songs without actually understanding one single words of the lyrics. and when and if you finally do look into the lyrics as such, in most cases you can expect a literally ambitious ride.
and since 1+1 makes 2 (or 2+2 makes 4 as i understand the english speaking nations tend to say - strangely! ) this does tend to enhance the overall experience.

another for long unupdated book: 'Songwords 1979-1989'. and ok you can say it's not that important anyway, the lyrics can be easily found from album leaflets and from the web. of course. but anyway, i really like it all particularly in a form of a real book. reading a book is a much more personal experience than reading something from your computer screen...
and it's simply good reading. sometimes it can be really
did anyone ever tried reading the lyrics out loud as if they were written as poetry? trying to forget they are lyrics, trying on purpose to get rid of the accentuation and phrasing that comes along from the rhythm of the music? i'm really not generally into reciting poetry out loud just for myself  but i admit that i sometimes like to experiment with cure song lyrics in this way.
just try to forget that and see how you could re-phrase the text - it's quite illustrative sometimes, one can find out new details that were never really enhanced and never paid that much attention to. and one can try changing what motives/themes to emphasize and suddenly notice new ways to interpret certain things in there.
'lullaby' is my absolute favorite, for reciting a cure song hehehe - you can get really great performancesw out of it! 

[Janko]

WELL, DONT GO FURTHER FROM "10:15 SATURDAY NIGHT"

THE WORDS ARE SO GOOD YOU CAN ALMOST HEAR THE WATER DROP!