Dear Sting,
Do you mind if I call you Gordan? Gordan Matthew? Gordan Matthew Thomas? Gordan Matthew Thomas Sumner? Now I understand why you changed your name to Sting.
I’m writing you today in defense of rock music. I can’t believe I just read your quote in Time Magazine: “Rock music has come to a standstill. It’s not going forward anymore. It only bores me.” You said this about why your new album, Songs from the Labyrinth features music from the 16th century composer John Dowland. What a blatant contradiction. I guess I was mistaken, but doesn’t all your music (with the exception of your albums with The Police) sound like it came from the 16th century? I listened to Ten Summoner’s Tales and I didn’t confuse it with modern day rock music.
The first cassette I ever owned was The Police, Synchronicity. What a great album. It was also one of the few albums that stuck with me throughout my life. I can remember being eight years old, listening to Police songs and watching music videos of Roxanne, Every Breath You Take and Message in a Bottle over and over. I never thought I’d be ashamed for it. I was young and impressionable, but I though you were a real rock star.
As I matured, I became an avid music fan. I started listening to any new band I could get my hands on. I watched MTV like it was going out of style and visited record stores on a regular basis. The Police broke up and you were becoming a solo artist: A rock star spreading his wings to pursue the solo career that would bring him true Rock n’ Roll greatness under a single moniker, Sting. The Police were slowing Gordon down and Sting would move music forward like no other artist had before.
Your solo “greatness” started in the 1990′s and continued into 2000 in the form of dull, adult contemporary hits including All This Time, Brand New Day, Fields of Gold, and Desert Rose. During those years, my best experience with your music was watching your Puff Daddy/ Mase collaboration in honor of Biggie Smalls on the VMA’s or playing drinking games to Roxanne. Kudos on getting me equally drunk when chugging to either the “put on the red light” or “Roxanne” verses. I actually purchased Ten Summoner’s Tales in high school, listened to If I Ever Lose My Faith in You and Fields of Gold, and then gave the album to my mother. I think she ended up tucking that CD away to collect dust next to Michael Bolton’s Time Love and Tenerderness and Celine Dione’s Christmas album.
Now you are saying that rock music is at a standstill? You! Music has never been more accessible, more diverse, and more forward-moving than it is today. Consumers have the best tools at their fingertips to find music, preview music, purchase music, discuss and debate music. We purchase albums with the click of a button and we subscribe to services to stream music to our desktops. We overload our hard drives and buy backup hard drives to store more music. We throw out our cd’s and cd players and replace them with network music players like Sonos, Roku and Squeezebox to play our digital music throughout our homes. We search the internet for new bands to love and then find their contemporaries. We’ll listen to those and then click to see their influences. Then we’ll find other listeners that listen to those same songs and take their recommendations. Then we buy it all. All in the never ending quest to satisfy our thirst; to find our music while sitting on our asses.
Okay, so I know what you’re thinking. What does our buying behavior have to do with rock music being at a “standstill?” I’ll tell you. It evens the playing field. We don’t listen to the radio anymore and MTV only plays Laguna Beach. Every little artist can now compete with the big guys with immediate digital distribution to all of us. I understand that you’re a busy man, so you don’t have time to search for music like I do. You’re probably squeezing in your music listening between yoga, tantric sex, and appearances on shows like Studio 60, accompanied by the lute. (Oh, and that was forward thinking rock music moment if I’ve ever seen it. Snore).
Well I’ve got news for you. Rock music isn’t what you hear on the radio, Gordie. It’s not all Nickelback and Rob Thomas. We rock fans are finding incredible bands that begin with the word “the,” like The Strokes, The Black Keys, The Thermals, The Decemberists, The Arcade Fire, The Secret Machines, The Constantines, The Whigs, and The Von Bondies. We’re listening to women led bands like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Heartless Bastards. We’re listening to bands with animal names like Wolf Parade, Band of Horses, and Modest Mouse. Rock is boring you say? You should listen to the Drive-By Truckers, Beck, Lucero, My Morning Jacket, Built to Spill, Kings of Leon or for the love of god, Wilco.
Rock is alive and thriving, Gordo. If you want to see boring, rock music at a standstill, take a stroll down memory lane and put your discography in the six disc changer. You are the poster boy for boring, rock music. You started off so strong and then faded into Kenny G territory with your adult contemporary crapolla. Now you’re covering some 16th century guy accompanied with an instrument called a lute? Rock on.
If you’re going to criticize rock music for being boring, please take it upon yourself to do something about it. Paul Simon is still recording quality records. Bono is able to put out consistent stuff with the Edge and crew while saving the world. Even Neil Diamond gave it a shot with Rick Rubin. All you can do is pick up a lute? Quit complaining and be STING for chrissakes. The lute will never save rock music.
Sincerely,
HearYa
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
I have not hated all Sting albums, while I do find much of it esoteric (i.e. meaningful only to Gordie himself) and pretentious (what do you expect from someone living in a castle?).
His music has gone from biting and relevant (Police) to eclectic and elegant (Dream of the Blue Turtles, Ten Summoner’s Tale – wtf is a summoner?) to soothing, complex, but ultimately irrelevant background/chamber music.
He has gotten older, as has his audience. That’s pretty much it. There is extreme skill, depth and complexity in some of his post-Police music (listen to “Mad About You” from Soul Cages), but it takes patience, and it sure as hell is not for the average Von Bondies fan.
As I’ve learned by being an Elvis Costello fan, sometimes you just can’t go back home. You either roll along with an artist, and commit to understanding their evolution, or you listen to their older stuff and mourn how much it sucks to get old.
I loved the Police and I liked some of his solo shit and I don’t mind that he went all lame on us. He’s at least done it with a little more style than Phil Collins but who the hell is he to shit on the current state of music?
Exactly, Woody. I had nothing against him until he said that rock music is boring in an effort to promote his boring album. He’s recording an album of cover tunes. It’s not as in-your-face as Rod Stewart covering CCR because it’s a 19th century musician, but he’s still a tribute record…with another version of Fields of Gold.
I didn’t realize Sting was trashing rock & roll. Kind of reminds me of the time Billy Corgan said he wanted to get into electronic music because he was bored with the guitar and felt it was too limiting. Always a bad sign. It’s like saying you’re getting tired of boobs.
Speaking of Sting, “All This Time” played randomly on my iPod the other day and I truly enjoyed it. I actually played it twice in a row. Of course, I also routinely watch Laguna Beach, so I’m a bit of a whisker biscuit.
Thank you for saying whisker biscuit.
Sting’s solo stuff requires some patience, no doubt. But I agree it’s a little lame to be trashing rock and roll when he himself does not offer a solution. It’s easy to hide in the adult contemporary genre and complain about all the others who have nothing new to say.
Rock and roll when it was new was breathtaking, controversial, evil, dangerous, noisy, and damned fun. It ushered in a complete cultural renaissance that changed the way we lived and defined a generation. The Beatles evolution during the 60s refined and defined the boundaries of what was possible. Some stayed with the roots, some decayed and became irrelevant (Elvis) others kept reaching for different sounds, taking advantage of technology (usually in forgettable ways e.g. 80s). In the 90s and 00s, it seems to be about the blending of various genres; hip hop and reggae, alternative and country, polka and death metal, etc etc. Who can create the most engaging and eclectic, yet still cohesive musical vision? New, I suppose, but really we are just creating combinations of other things we have heard. We are not breaking new ground. Some say it is no longer possible. I am not sure if that is true, but it would be sad.
Underneath it all, we need melody, harmony, and good old fashioned talent. Strong pipes on the vocalist, tight rhythm section, solid skins, etc. Or of course just a really expensive studio with lots of cool electronic noisemakers and a lotta time to mess with it.
What Sting might be saying is that there’s been nothing truly NEW for a long time, maybe since the rock and roll renaissance of the 50s and 60s. Say what you will about recent bands- and there are some great ones – Give me a recent band that rocks and I will give you the three other bands they sound like, and were derived from- influences who are usually freely admitted to by the artist. There’s been precious few bands/artists like Van Morrison (an oft-copied original who claims “No guru, no method, no teacher”), or Nirvana (do you remember the first time you heard “a denial … a denial… a denial… a deniallllllllll), or the Beatles, where you hear and it and say “what the HELL is that? That is really really new! I gotta have it.” Yes, I know the Beatles themselves combined Everly Brothers harmonies and Cochrane guitars with etc.etc., and that no music is truly new – our ears are all built the same and only certain stuff sounds good – but tell me a band that evolved more and presented more ideas to the world than the Beatles in the few-year gap between “I want to hold your hand” and Abbey Road?
What Gordie might be saying in his pretentious, rich-ass, castle-living tantric way is, WE NEED SOMETHING DRASTIC. All of the bands mentioned in this blog are good, and are in my mix (some of them thanks to Oz) but revolutionary? Hell no.
That Stingy himself is not giving it to us may make his arrogant statements a bit hypocritical, but I’m not sure the hypocrisy or personal feelings of helplessness of the messenger detract from the truth of the statement, or the need for a new music messiah.
I know I’m a bit late with the comment, but I just wanted to thank you for saying in print what I’ve been spewing out of my mouth for years. Of course, you said it more eloquently (I usually just mutter “Liked The Police, hate Sting”) but I could not agree with you more. What makes me chuckle even more is that Gordon is going around performing the lute-ified version of “Fields of Gold” on every morning show under the sun, yet it isn’t even on the album. How’s that for a “Look at me! Look at me!” persona? Whatever blows your skirt up, I guess.
Opinions are like a-holes, everyone’s got one. However, looking at what’s being played on MTV and the radio these days, I cannot help but be bored because over half of the “rock and roll” songs sound the same, sans, a few licks, hollas, and ivory tickling. I also agree with Sting that rock and roll music has come to a stand still. Out of all of the new bands and/or songs these days, can you name any that will have the impact similar to the likes of Zeppelin, Rush, Pink Floyd, Queen, The Police, and CCR? This has nothing to do with the bands but a simple function of the development of music. Until someone comes up with something so new and magical, then it might do the music industry some good to go back and see if some of the old music holds more surprises. I don’t see why trends in clothing fashion cannot hold true for music? A few months back I saw Sting perform a tribute to James Taylor. No backup band, just Sting and an odd guitar. I really didn’t care for the song but Sting’s performance was so unqiue that it was a lot of fun hearing and watching his performance. Yes it was 16th Century-ish, no it could not survive radio play, but it was the most unique and new performance that it was very entertaining.
I think that’s what Sting was getting behind, that there are only so many cord and notes that a guitar, bass and drums can play and there are only so many arrangements for them until you repeat yourself. So, why not change instruments to try and tap into the subconscious for something new. Anyhow, that’s just my opinion. Namaste!
There are too many rock bands out there – no one stands out. Is there one band that has a distinctive style, something very different from the guitar thrashing / one dimensional power chording the staple diet of the rock youth of today?
I am therefore in agreement with Mojosaan. Punk and New Wave (also electronica) was a reaction against the overly large numbers of stadium rock bands of the 1970′s music was becoming sterile and boring. Even David Bowie was moving radically away from the heavy Glam Rock he was famous for during that decade. he evolved with each album, reaching new levels of mastery with each successive album. Come on, put on 3 albums by Tool, The Killers and what do you have? These guys are throwbacks to their 1970′s forerunners. Music has to grow, evolve and change. That was the appeal of rock music. Something new would always happen, new trends and styles would be established – you had Beatlemania, Psychedelic Rock, Mod Rock (Bands like the Faces), Punk Rock, New Wave, Grunge, Electronic Rock (Nine Inch Nails) and so on…
This is the problem we have today. People think ‘if it is a rock band’ – whopee! the more noise they can generate – the better. Anyone, and I mean anyone, can make a noise on a guitar set to Death Metal or Heavy Metal. I tried it myself from a friend (who was into those genres) and it sounded like something. Only problem is / was – I can’t play even one note of guitar. So there.
i’am really impressed!!
Spot on. Sting on the current state of music is like hearing your Grandfather suffering from demensia talk about how they just landed someone on the Moon. Totally clueless. He is a shameless, SHAMELESS, self-promoter, as his remark was perfectly timed to the release of the “lute album.”
His music is below Kenny G–at least Ken knows his place on the music-credibility totem pole.
Long live Wilco, The Arcade Fire, et al.
I know that I am late in this game but the letter was pretty right on. I am a 48 yr. old female and I love all kinds of music. I love Itunes. It is a relief to pick and choose your own music. I have discovered so many new and interesting bands. Stings, you have so much to learn.
After the Soul Cages he really started to lose it. Man! with all that talent, you would think he could come up with something brilliant these days. But no. He thinks he is so above it all. He thinks he can get everybody grooving to 16th century music. He is such a letdown. Almost embarrasing!
Quite frankly, I doubt his most loyal fans could stay awake to his lute.
Though I certainly don’t agree with Sting that rock music has gotten boring,* I am incredibly glad he’s made this recording. I’m (by trade) a specialist in early music, and to have someone as visible as Sting (whether or not he’s still particularly relevant as a rock musician) is, in my book, a superbly awesome thing. The lute playing on his Dowland record is not the most historically-minded, nor is Sting’s voice the sort I’d expect to be singing Dowland; all the same, I found it quite musically satisfying. (hope none of my musicologist friends hear me saying that).
The fact that it ain’t loud doesn’t mean it’s not groundbreaking. And, seriously, there’s musical merit in looking backwards. We still listen to those old Police records – and to Zeppelin, the Beatles, and any number of older rock groups. Why not look back at even older popular music?
Sure, it won’t rock your face. But whoever said all music had to?
Can’t music – sometimes – just be beautiful?
*(at least not entirely – I haven’t listened to non-college rock radio since high school, but there are lots of bands doing really incredible stuff, and there are still too many haven’t heard.)
@nate
so you are an early music specialist (by trade) and “found it quite musically satisfying”?
o tempora o mores…
I think Sting refer this bluntness of his as his frustration of today’s common music. No more hard things to learn from them. Hard means something different, something brave, or something irony. Many rock songs, except instrumental, have same theme, same point of view, same things that’s just make them predictable. If you see his philosophy about music, you’ll understand that. He risk himself to be out of his comfort zone because he wants us to know what is something that lost lately from the rock music. Two strong song from him that I think show his thinking are All This Time and If I Ever Lose My Faith In You. Try to understand him a little more. He is one of those breakthrough musicians. He knows about music more than us. So, don’t just judge the person from his/her rude comment.
But, that’s your choice to like him because of it. I think he will understand your points, but don’t too emotional across him if he doesn’t agree, since he is rather uncommon to be understand.
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