Albums by The Police
ALBUMSynchronicity (Remastered 2003)The Police
ALBUMGhost In the Machine (Alternate Sequence Edition)The Police
ALBUMZenyatta Mondatta (Remastered)The Police
ALBUMReggatta De Blanc (Remastered 2003)The Police
ALBUMOutlandos d'Amour (Remastered)The Police
The Police's Popular Music Videos
Every Breath You Take
The Police
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
The Police
Don't Stand So Close to Me
The Police
Wrapped Around Your Finger
The Police
Message In A Bottle
The Police
Roxanne (Live at the Grammys 2007)
The Police
Synchronicity II
The Police
Walking On the Moon
The Police
Don't Stand So Close To Me (Christmas Version)
The Police
King Of Pain
The Police
Artist Playlists
The Police Essentials
This London reggae-rock trio dominated the early MTV era.
The Police: Deep Cuts
Sly storytelling wrapped in sleek, punchy New Wave.
The Police: Influences
From a punky reggae party to world domination.
Inspired by The Police
Rock-reggae fusions and killer rhythm sections.
Artist Biography
The Police covered an impressive amount of sonic ground during their initial seven-year run as a band. In the process, the trio—former teacher Gordon “Sting” Sumner, onetime Curved Air drummer Stewart Copeland, and veteran guitarist Andy Summers—proved that commercial rock music could be both ambitious and accessible. After forming in London, The Police debuted in 1978 with Outlandos d’Amour, a punk- and reggae-influenced LP with a melodic pop core that yielded the New Wave classic “Roxanne.” The band used that album and its signifiers—Sting’s keening yelp and live-wire basslines, Copeland’s intricate backbeats, and Summers’ slashing riffs—as a jumping-off point for experimentation; on subsequent LPs, the group explored laidback dub (“Walking On the Moon”), lively jazz-rock (“Driven to Tears”), and moody, grayscale synth-rock (“Invisible Sun”). These panoramic creative visions coalesced on 1983’s multiplatinum smash Synchronicity, a sophisticated rock album with tasteful synth flourishes and the obsession-focused No. 1 hit “Every Breath You Take.” (That song would be sampled by Puff Daddy on his 1997 hit with Faith Evans and 112, “I’ll Be Missing You,” giving The Police hip-hop cred.) After going on a break in 1984, The Police resurfaced in 1986 for several Amnesty International benefit concerts and then reunited for a proper large-scale reunion tour in 2007 and 2008 before splitting up once again. The band’s genre-blending rock approach lives on today via bands such as Vampire Weekend—and Sting himself still switches up Police songs live during his solo gigs.
Hometown
London, England
Genre
Rock