The Cure is the name of which of these options?

Originally called The Easy Cure, the band was formed in 1976 by schoolmates Robert Smith (vocals, guitar), Michael Dempsey (bass) and Laurence "Lol" Tolhurst (drums).

The group specialized in dark, nervy guitar pop with pseudo-literary lyrics, as evidenced by the Albert Camus-inspired "Killing an Arab."

A demo tape featuring "Killing an Arab" arrived in the hands of Chris Parry, a representative at Polydor Records; by the time he received the tape, the band's name had been truncated to The Cure.

Parry was impressed and arranged for its release on the independent label "Small Wonder" in December 1978.

Early in 1979, Parry left Polydor Records to form his own record label, "Fiction", and The Cure was one of the first bands to sign with the label.

"Killing an Arab" was then re-released in February of 1979, and The Cure embarked on its first tour of England.

Out of all the bands that emerged in the immediate aftermath of punk rock in the late '70s, few were as enduring and popular as The Cure.

The band became well-known for its slow, gloomy dirges and Robert Smith's ghoulish appearance, a public image that often hid the diversity of their music.

At the outset, The Cure played jagged, edgy pop songs before slowly evolving into a more textured outfit.

As one of the bands that laid the seeds for goth rock, the group created layers of guitars and synthesizers, but by the time goth caught on in the mid-'80s, The Cure had moved away from the genre.