The one genre Sting knew was never going to last: “I’m not saying that music always ends up wimpy”
Nothing about The Police was meant to last by the time that Sting reached the early 1980s.
The band had been fighting all the time, and while that might have been fun to help break up the tension every now and again between shows, it was only a matter of time before Sting felt he could get his songs out some other way whenever he made his records. There was a lot more for him to work with other than the standard rock and roll fare, but he did feel that a lot of the biggest genres in the world didn’t have the slightest chance of ageing all that well.
Then again, Sting was trying his best to sample a little bit of everything whenever he tried out a new song. He was used to playing all kinds of genres of music well before The Police even formed, and even if there were a few experiments that might not have worked in the context of the band, who’s to say that he couldn’t make something that sounded more jazzy or take a chance on a song that had a bit more of a classical edge to it?
That was the whole reason why he wanted to go solo in the first place, but that doesn’t mean that people were going to forget the hits, either. Everyone will remember where they were when they heard tunes like ‘Roxanne’ for the first time, and despite Sting getting a rich baritone in his later years, it was much easier for him to get the audience engaged if he hit some of those classic screaming notes again.
But that was more reserved for a different genre at the time. The biggest names in heavy metal had already begun to take over the world well before Sting started working, but when looking at The Police’s trajectory, they didn’t really have that much in common with the genre. The Clash and Sex Pistols definitely had a little bit in common when looking at the nervy energy behind their tunes, but Sting wasn’t going to spend his time trying to make something that sounded like Black Sabbath.
There were many more interesting styles for him to try out, and he figured that heavy metal really was bound to hit the skids once every musician grew up a little bit, saying, “Heavy metal is not very long-lasting for most groups, because when you play music for awhile, it matures you in a way that’s not aggressive. I’m not saying that music always ends up wimpy. I just think it can make you grow as a person to maturity.”
That’s not the first time that metal hasn’t received the respect it deserves, either. The biggest names in the genre were practically punching bags whenever they made their mark in the early 1970s, and even when bands got lumped into the category like Led Zeppelin, they did everything in their power to outrun the genre for fear of what kind of reputation they would get later.
But it’s not exactly an insult for any band to be categorised as metal. Sure, it might sound immature for someone who doesn’t know any better, but metal didn’t pride itself on being anyone’s favourite style of music. These were songs that were made by outsiders trying to find fellow outsiders, and if Metallica could still have some self-respect when playing ‘Enter Sandman’ today, it wasn’t because they hadn’t grown up.
Like all genres, metal can morph itself into a lot of different forms, and even if Sting couldn’t appreciate it, it’s not like it was going to go away, either. The biggest names in the world had tried their hand at making the heaviest riffs possible, and even if it was hard for some fans to take, there’s a certain beauty in making those dark songs that make the hairs on your arm stand up.
