A long time ago, in a coun­try far far away (Eng­land), a man named Robert James Smith started a lit­tle musi­cal group called The Cure. They started out small with no one know­ing who they were or what they were doing. In the 1980’s they started wear­ing makeup and dress­ing in black, mir­ror­ing their goth-influenced music that they were mak­ing at the time. They started get­ting famous, releas­ing their break­through album from 1987, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me. Songs like “Just Like Heaven” and “Why Can’t I Be You?” pro­pelled them into the Amer­i­can Top 40. After that they just got more suc­cess­ful until it all crescen­doed with Wish, and you could say they’ve had a steady decline, much like R.E.M., ever since.

For the whole time the band never really changed, appearance-wise — makeup, black cloth­ing, teased hair. Smith, who’s approach­ing 50, still pretty much has the same look that he acquired in the early 1980’s.

Why does he still look like this?

David Bowie had his glam phase and he out­grew it. Michael Stipe of pre­vi­ously men­tioned R.E.M. even wore makeup for awhile but then he gave it up. What gives, Robert?

Well, maybe he’s a bet­ter look­ing man WITH makeup. Not that he’s a good look­ing guy to begin with, but yikes, if the makeup improves your look, then con­tinue on, sir. If not, grow up. You just look silly now.