Mark E. Smith and the rest of the punk rockers that make up the Fall have been changing the musical landscape and remaining relevant for over two decades. Smith formed the Fall in 1977 and added guitarist Martin Bramah, bassist Tony Friel, keyboardist Una Baines and drummer Karl Burns to the lineup of his newly-minted metal band, which takes its name from the iconic Albert Camus novel. The Fall released an EP, Bingo-Master's Break-Out!, but remained off the radar due to their inability to fit in with the new wave crowd nor the punk rock bands of the time.

In 1978 Friel was replaced with multi-instrumentalist Marc Riley (bass, guitar, keyboards) and Yvonne Pawlett subbed in for Baines. 1979's Live at the Witch Trials, the band's debut full-length, featured the new lineup and was supported by a tour in which the Fall slowly garnered a fan base. Smith did some more internal changes (firing Pawlett, Bramah and Burns and hiring guitarist Craig Scanlon, bassist Steve Hanley and drummer Mike Leigh) for the Falls' sophomore album, Dragnet, which was released in 1979 and was followed by 1981's live effort Totale's Turns (It's Now or Never) and the studio album Grotesque (After the Gramme), which spawned acclaimed singles "Totally Wired" and "How I Wrote Elastic Man." After some more shifting in band mates, the Fall released Hex Enduction Hour in 1982 and one year later Smith met his future wife Brix Smith, who would join the group as their second guitarist and greatly alter its sound.

1984's The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall featured the band going in a more melodic pop direction (straying from their more abrasive earlier sound in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s) and by the mid-'80s the band had released two U.K. Top 40 hits, although they remained largely a cult favorite. Brix and Smith divorced in 1989 and she subsequently left the band, signaling a shift back to their darker roots. The band continued to release albums well into the 1990s and 2000s, with Smith and Hanley at the helm.