Once again, a song from decades past has proven its timelessness. Parade has reported that “Boys Don’t Cry” by The Cure has become one of the most popular songs on TikTok, despite being released over 45 years ago. The new wave hit’s resurgence has placed it in the social media platforms’ Top 50 most-streamed songs. TikTok shows that it has been used in over 78,000 videos.
“It sits among some of today’s more recognizable tunes,” Parade writes. However, listeners appear to resonate with the lyrics written 45 years ago by Robert Smith, Michael Dempsey, and Lol Tolhurst that tell the story of a man hiding his sadness after losing is romantic partner.”
Most clips focus on the heart-wrenching refrain.
“So I try to laugh about it
Cover it all up with lies
I try to laugh about it
Hiding the tears in my eyes
‘Cause boys don’t cry
Boys don’t cry.”
Although the song has emerged as an unlikely hit in recent weeks, The Cure vocalist Robert Smith recognized its lasting cultural impact during the band’s headlining set at Glastonbury in 2019.
“I was singing [‘Boys Don’t Cry’] at Glastonbury and I realized that it has a very contemporary resonance with all the rainbow stripes and stuff flying in the crowd,” Smith said during a Rolling Stone interview. “When I was growing up, there was peer pressure on you to conform to be a certain way. And as an English boy at the time, you’re encouraged not to show your emotion to any degree. And I couldn’t help but show my emotions when I was younger. I never found it awkward showing my emotions. I couldn’t really continue without showing my emotions; you’d have to be a pretty boring singer to do that. So I kind of made a big thing about it. I thought, ‘Well, it’s part of my nature to rail against being told not to do something’.”
“Boys Don’t Cry” is a perfect example of The Cure’s knack for putting poignant lyrics to a happy beat. The song is in A major and bops along at 160 beats per minute, featuring a consistent drum pattern that makes it highly danceable.
“With its chiming electric guitar riff over a chord pattern and vocal melody redolent of both 1960s pop and 1970s punk, ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ captured the mood and vibe of the time in a radio-friendly two minutes and 35 seconds,” Guitar Player states.
The chord progression, as mentioned, is not a standard style for pop or rock. It moves largely diatonically from A to B minor to C# minor to D, then walking back down. Typically, chords move further than a step, but in this case, the chord changes are I-ii-iii-IV.
Even the refrain eschews any sense of a standard V to I cadence. It simply rocks between the iii and ii chords, eventually landing back on the tonic as Smith sings the most popular line.
Check out this performance from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame above while you check out the sheet music for “Boys Don’t Cry” by The Cure:
