Robert Smith (musician)

Robert James Smith (born 21 April 1959) is an English musician. He is the lead singer, guitarist, primary songwriter, and only continuous member of the rock band the Cure, which he co-founded in 1978. He was also the lead guitarist for the band Siouxsie and the Banshees from 1982 to 1984, and was part of the short-lived group the Glove in 1983. Smith is known for his guitar-playing style, distinctive voice, and fashion sense, with the lattera pale complexion, smeared red lipstick, black eye-liner, a dishevelled nest of wiry black hair, and all-black clothesbeing highly influential on the goth subculture that rose to prominence in the 1980s. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Cure in 2019, and in its 2023 issue of the list, he was ranked the 157th greatest singer of all time by Rolling Stone magazine. Robert James Smith was born in Blackpool, Lancashire, on 21 April 1959, the third of four children of Rita Mary (née Emmott) and James Alexander Smith. He came from a musical family; his father sang, and his mother played the piano. Raised as a Catholic, he later became an atheist. When he was three years old, his family moved to Horley, Surrey, where he attended St Francis' Primary School. When he was six, his family moved to Crawley, West Sussex, where he attended St. Francis' Junior School. He later attended Notre Dame Middle School from 1970 to 1972, and St Wilfrid's Comprehensive School from 1972 to 1977. He and his younger sister Janet received piano lessons as children. Smith said, "[Janet] was a piano prodigy, so sibling rivalry made me take up guitar because she couldn't get her fingers around the neck." He told Chris Heath of Smash Hits that from about 1966 (when Smith turned seven years old) his brother Richard, who is 13 years older, taught him "a few basic chords" on guitar. Smith began taking classical guitar lessons from the age of nine with a student of John Williams, who he said was "a really excellent guitarist". However, he said, "I learned a lot, but got to the point where I was losing the sense of fun.

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Related concepts (3)

Goth subculture

Goth is a music-based subculture that began in the United Kingdom during the early 1980s. It was developed by fans of gothic rock, an offshoot of the post-punk music genre. Post-punk artists who presaged the gothic rock genre and helped develop and shape the subculture include Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bauhaus, the Cure, and Joy Division. The goth subculture has survived much longer than others of the same era, and has continued to diversify and spread throughout the world.

Robert Smith (musician)

Punk rock

Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced short, fast-paced songs with hard-edged melodies and singing styles, stripped-down instrumentation, and often shouted political, anti-establishment lyrics. Punk embraces a DIY ethic; many bands self-produce recordings and distribute them through independent record labels.