#25 "Boys Don't Cry" by The Cure

I can still remember watching the video for "Boys Don't Cry" in my buddy's house back when we were kids. Alternative music, then called "progressive" or "new wave," was just starting to make a stir. Suddenly videos by the likes of REM, The Smiths, New Order, and Depeche Mode were being interspersed with the works of contemporary giants like Madonna, Michael Jackson, and Bryan Adams. We didn't know what to think. These people looked odd. Their voices were not what we were used to. And though I was probably not old enough to understand, I could tell there was a deeper emotional and intellectual content to these artists. I mean... come on. I didn't have to be a rocket scientist at the age of fourteen to realize that there was probably a little something more to REM's "Fall On Me" than there was to "Summer of '69."

I wasn't really into the alternative stuff when it first came out. I was raised on The Beatles and Billy Joel, The Eagles, Queen, and Linda Ronstadt. When I was getting into my teens, my brother started listening to Black Sabbath, AC/DC, and Rush. A few years later I would discover Led Zeppelin. Maybe it was our parents' divorce that drove us to darker, heavier stuff but the artificial and atmospheric keyboards of a lot of new wave music just didn't hit me. The Cure, however, were always a little different.

To this day I still think that the reason that Robert Smith and friends endured for so long was because they were guitar-driven. Their music certainly reflected some styles and trends of the times, but it wasn't defined by it. Keyboards and programmed synthesizers were all over the 1980's, and not in a good way. Since some of those early alternative bands were so connected to them, when the keyboard trend started to vanish, they did too. The Cure, though, stuck around for a long time. Next to REM, they have to be considered the most successful act of that era.

"Boys Don't Cry" is typical Cure in that it's sad. Robert Smith is certainly the king of mope-rock and this single gave the world its first taste of that. It's upbeat though and centers on the old adage "boys don't cry" which seemed to make it accessible and almost instantly recognizable. The speaker is basically regretfully saying goodbye, acknowledging his failure, and moving on while "hiding the tears in my eyes." The video was great too. It was these little kids singing in front of a screen on which the shadows of the real band were cast. A really cool concept and one that introduced MTV to the more unique and interesting videos that alternative artists would make.

"Boys Don't Cry" can be found on the singles' collection "Staring at the Sea." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.