The Cure is a British rock band created in 1978. With its leader Robert Smith, they played several different genre of music throughout rock psychedelic, pop, or gothic music. They firstly released Boys don’t cry in 1979, before including it in an eponymous album in 1980 but the track will become one of their most famous hit only after its third release in 1986...
Boys don’t cry deals apparently with a boy who regrets the way he behaved with his girlfriend after they broke up. Yet, when we focus more on the lyrics, the apologies moved into a resigned speech as if the singer knew that it’s useless to trying to apologise.
Thus, the first verse says :
Many sentences show the singer’s resignation as in “ But I know that it's too late
And now there's nothing I can do ” or “ But I know that it's no use
And you've already gone away ” in the second and third verses.
The lyrics are surrounded by 4 chords I think nobody has forgotten, making the song very melancholic and giving it a mournful appearance.
Boys don’t cry echoes to the masculinity a man must have to be considered as one. Thus, the chorus shows that, the singer prefers to lying and pretend to not being hurt instead of showing his feelings and crying :
To conclude, Boys don’t cry shall not be considered as a song about regret but rather about not looking back. We think this song, can in a certain way, be perceived as committed because it denounces the fact that boys have emotions too but society prevents them to show them, at the risk of not looking enough as a “ true man ”...
