10 Rockers That Went Pop (And Nailed It)

Most goth musicians didn't have to worry about getting airtime on the charts any time soon. The kind of dark and depressing music that filled up nasty clubs in the wake of post punk were more about the morose side of life and sulking than actually writing any Top 40 radio single. The Cure were never ones to go along with the program though, and Disintegration is about as pretty as it is heartbreaking.

Coming out of the '80s with some of the more definitive post punk albums under their belt like Boys Don't Cry, Disintegration is the culmination of the band's poppier tendencies, picking up where songs like Just Like Heaven and In Between Days left off on tracks like Pictures of You or Last Dance. Whereas most goth bands were more likely to talk about the turmoil they felt day after day, Robert Smith always had a romance streak going throughout his music, and something like Lovesong cuts to the core of what he was always about, speaking of his undying devotion to his lover.

Disintegration doesn't forget the enthusiast though, like the macabre story taking place on the song Lullaby and Plainsong piling on the melodrama so thick that Five For Fighting were able to rework it into their own song 100 Years decades after the fact. It might not be the most cheery of genres to get into, but the music of Robert Smith can cut through even a heart as black as goth rockers.