In the heart of Southern England, in the post-war suburb of Crawley, in the late 1970’s, Laurence Tolhurst, Michael Dempsey and the infamous Robert Smith came together to form The Cure, one of the most musically influential bands of this era. Over 30 years have passed since the genesis of that band, and despite the finical, ever-shifting taste of popular music, The Cure (and permanent vocalist Robert Smith) remain as prominent and respected as ever.

Although it’s been four years since The Cure last released an album of new music – the melancholy, meandering Bloodflowers, which is Grammy nominated – their style has been adopted by many new bands: Hot Hot Heat, The Rapture, and Cursive all pay tribute by imitating The Cure’s sound.

"The only thing I find strange - but I'm getting used to it now - are the Cure references,” said Hot Hot Heat bassist Dustin Hawthorne in an interview with ChartAttack.com. “I don't get it and I don't think anyone in the band does." Most comparisons refer to the vocal similarities between Smith and Steve Bays, Hot Hot Heat’s lead singer. Hawthorne should shut his mouth and thank his lucky stars his band is being compared to The Cure at all – Smith and his cohorts will continue to live on as legends long after MTV2 drops Hot Hot Heat like, well… a hot potato.

Other bands, including, but not limited to, 311, Reel Big Fish, AFI, Alkaline Trio and The Get Up Kids, have paid homage to Smith and his legacy by covering his songs – most of which didn’t do The Cure an iota of justice. 311 may have managed to top the charts and sneak onto a (bad) movie’s soundtrack with their version of “Love Song,” but only by butchering the piece and turning it into a bland Bohemian bore – fitting perfectly, I suppose, into their library of originally written songs. What’s really a shame are the hordes of teens raised solely on MTV who surely believe that “Love Song” is an original 311 release – a misguided fact which should be enough to enrage even the most casual Cure listener. Do us a favor, kids: When the 311 video comes on, the television goes off. Deal?

With the release of a new, self-titled album and the kickoff of the Curiosa Festival starting in West Palm Beach late July, which The Cure headlines (joined by Interpol, Mogwai, Muse, and The Rapture, among others), the fervor incited by them doesn’t seem like it will be letting down anytime soon. So what is it that continues to drive the popularity behind a band that my parents listened to?

“It’s really nice having younger bands like what you do,” said Smith in a July interview with Spin magazine. “…It’s reached a kind of critical mass point. We’re not doing anything different.” And maybe that’s exactly what makes The Cure so damn appealing all these years later: when they first got together and began making music, they set a high standard for creating intense, vibrant, dark, sometimes quirky, sometimes jazzy, always easily relatable music – and it’s a standard they have yet to abandon.

Admittedly, The Cure has never been cool in an accepted sense – many of Smith’s lyrics were inspired by classical literature, including pieces written by Vladimir Nabokov, Franz Kafka and Albert Camus; of course, Sting and the Police got away with obscure literary references to Nabokov, too, and Sting is still pretty cool, y’know, for an old guy – but that’s a whole different story.

It’s not even that Smith’s lyrical content is unlike anyone else’s – it’s merely that he somehow seems to span the circumference of human emotions unlike any other lyricist. When he sings of love, his listeners mirror his passion; when he wallows in misery and despair, his listeners are equally as disheartened.

In fact, The Cure’s fan base has been integral to keeping the band alive throughout the years. The band has always been pigeonholed as gothically morose - a stereotype not diminished by Smith’s penchant for black clothing, bright red lipstick and heavy black eyeliner. However, Smith attests that the Goth crowd is a minority. "The fact that we're as successful as we are kind of points to the idea that we do appeal in a much broader way than we're generally given credit for," he said in a 1996 interview with Dean Goodman. And it’s true. Most everyone has heard, and probably liked, at least one Cure song – even if, woe betide them, it was just a shoddy cover (exempting The Get Up Kid’s cover of “Close to Me,” because it’s the only decent one so far).

So, to sum it all up, what is it that draws us to The Cure still, all these years later? They were good at what they did when they started – and they’re still good at what they do now. Despite what seems like a threat from Smith to break up after almost every new release, The Cure has dogged it out through thick and thin – if you don’t appreciate them now, you’ve got plenty of time to get to it. They’re certainly not going anywhere anytime soon.