Sting shows he can survive solo

By Kelsey Sullivan

Remember Ringo Starr after the Beatles? Or Stevie Nicks without Fleetwood Mac?

How about Sting after The Police? Maybe that should be The Police before Sting.

Unlike musicians who have become archaic without their bands to back them up, Sting, lead singer for The Police in the ‘70s and ‘80s, has successfully defeated this curse.

Since Sting set out flying solo in 1985, after almost a decade with The Police, he has started a popular and brilliant solo career.  This individual work, as well as Sting’s work with The Police, has made him a memorable and respected musician for the past 20 years.

Sting’s willingness to work with what he calls “impure music” is a driving force behind his popularity. Sting seems to find staying within the limits of a musical genre boring. Instead, he borrows from many genres for his sound, which has made Sting distinct and recognizable.

Sting’s renown began in the late ‘70s and ‘80s with The Police. The British trio of Andy Summers, Stewart Copeland and Sting hit the charts with numerous songs such as “Roxanne,” “Every Breath You Take,” and “Message in a Bottle.”  The Police’s sound — reggae-emphasized rock — made their music memorable and palatable.

After the band members went their separate ways in the early ‘80s, Sting set out on his solo career. Unlike other band-turned-solo-musicians, Sting had much more than a group name and record to help his new career — he had his incredible creativity.

Too often, musical innovation becomes sonic clichés through the decades. Sting, however, has not fallen into the trap of hiding behind the secure boundaries of mainstream pop music. Since the days of The Police, Sting has released six solo albums, each following a pattern that breaches the boundaries of pop music and floods into others, including jazz, country and gospel.

With Sting’s first solo release, “The Dream of the Turtles,” jazz saxophonist Branford Marsalis created a jazzy sound on many of the tracks. Continuing this pattern with his most recent release, “Mercury Falling (1996),” Sting combined music sources to include a country-sounding track, “I’m So Happy I Can’t Stop Crying,” along with gospel and Celtic sounds.

Sting’s lyrical poetry and his musical diversity has given him a sound that has surpassed generations and crossed the usual barriers of mainstream pop music.

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