The Police

The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977, consisting of Sting on lead vocals and bass, Andy Summers on guitar, and Stewart Copeland on drums. Emerging from the late-1970s punk scene, the trio quickly moved beyond its roots to develop a distinctive sound built on reggae rhythms, jazz-inflected musicianship, and taut new wave songwriting, becoming one of the first bands from that scene to achieve massive mainstream success.

Their catalog includes some of the era’s most enduring singles, from the tense, hypnotic «Roxanne» to the controversial-themed «Don’t Stand So Close to Me» and the sprawling, atmospheric «Message in a Bottle». The band’s final studio album, Synchronicity, produced «Every Breath You Take», a song whose stalker-narrative lyrics are often misread as a love song and which remains one of the most played and covered tracks in popular music.

Copeland’s polyrhythmic drumming, Summers’ chorus-drenched, harmonically adventurous guitar work, and Sting’s melodic bass lines and songwriting gave the band a sound that stood apart from both punk and mainstream rock, influencing countless artists in new wave, alternative rock, and beyond. The band split in the mid-1980s as Sting pursued a prolific solo career, though all three members reunited for a world tour in 2007–2008.