ArielX
ArielX
Follow

Sting Says Today's Rock is a Bore

Posted over 5 years ago
"BERLIN: Sting says contemporary rock music is so stagnant that he prefers to sing 16th century English ballads. The former teacher who shot to fame as lead singer, bassist and composer in the 1970s and 80s for The Police told German newspaper Die Zeit that he prefers singing songs of Elizabethan lutenist and composer John Dowland to the rock music of today. His album of Dowland lute music Songs from the Labyrinth has topped classical charts on both sides of the Atlantic and entered the UK album chart at No. 24. "Rock music has come to a standstill – it's not going forward any more, it only bores me," Die Zeit quoted Sting as saying. The 55-year-old singer, real name Gordon Sumner, had a string of hits with The Police with songs like Roxanne and Don't Stand So Close To Me. He has since also had a lucrative solo career with songs like Englishman in New York. "Forty years ago it was my dream to break out of Newcastle and never be poor again," he told the magazine. "I'm very privileged. I'm a successful musician, live in a beautiful house, and have a wonderful family." Hm. What say you?
0

Comments (19)

  1. ciaran
    ciaran says Let's play Give Us A Clue. 1 word 1 syllable That's right - TWATT!
    Permalink posted 11/07/2006
  2. blueone51
    blueone51 says Well, if anyone would know boring it would be Sting.
    Permalink posted 11/07/2006
  3. dragonhead
    dragonhead says Rock music has come to a standstill? Stupid arse. Maybe his music came to a standstill some time around 1984, but for the rest of us it's been moving forward quite steadily thankyouverymuch.
    Permalink posted 11/07/2006
  4. dylanharlem101
    dylanharlem101 says Your profile pic. is an Alex Gray painting. I've seen some of his work through my sister, he is absolutely amazing, I think he sometimes paints with his wife and they both produce some very excelling pieces of work w/ such vivid color. Purely amazing. :D
    Permalink posted 11/07/2006
  5. ivylander
    ivylander says Translation: My record sales are tanking.
    Permalink posted 11/07/2006
  6. fastnbulbous
    fastnbulbous says While I like the first Police album and part of the second, they in no conceivable way contributed to music "going forward." They simply copied other artists, and with their bottle blonde hair, prog/jazz chops and superior marketing team, took the borrowed styles to the bank. Pretentious twat indeed.
    Permalink posted 11/07/2006
  7. tiwon
    tiwon says Does anyone really care what he thinks? This is 1/3 of the trio who brought you "All For Love and One For All" or whatever that schmaltzy piece of shit is called. Let's also not forget his increasingly bland output. His wailing from the ivory tower sounds like that of a very privileged person.
    Permalink posted 11/07/2006
  8. Good
    Good says I love the insinuation that only popular musicians at the peak of their earnings have valid opinions about music culture. So like, some 21-year-old kid from New Jersey who wears eyeliner and jacks Cap'n Jazz riffs and sells a million records knows more about what's up with music than a guy who hasn't stopped making music for what, probably 30-some years now? Y'all are crazy--- today's rock music is unabashedly obsessed with the signifiers of eras past, most definitely to an unhealthy degree. In this time particularly, when the systems of our fathers and grandfathers are sputtering and breaking down in disastrous ways almost daily, we need rock and roll to help us face the unknown with courage-- but right now rock has nothing to say about the unknown. Ask rock about the future and rock will most likely starting talking about which previously-obscure stylistic niche from 20+ years ago is about to be strip-mined for inspiration. Rock, in the past, has been the trumpeter for social change, but right now, when it's sorely needed, rock is too self-conscious to say anything potentially embarassing. Regardless of whether or not "If I Ever Lose My Faith In You" is my jam, I think you guys are dismissing his point without even considering it-- I mean, I'm not into 16th Century ballads or whatever, but trying to expand people's perspective beyond the last 20-30 years is something that would do us all a bit of good. Human beings have been around HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of years and we'd be well served to take lessons from some of that experience beyond the post-television portion of it. if we're going to extract ourselves from the psychological & economic slavery our parents and grandparents have sold us into, we're going to have to have much bigger imaginations. Art is exactly the way to expand each other's imaginations and push people to consider bigger things, but in general, rock's really having no part of that right now. Until more musicians openly resist gentrification of the art by porky little capitalists who prize profit and job security above social responsibility, rock music is just another cheap anaesthetic for overworked drones.
    Permalink posted 11/07/2006
  9. ivylander
    ivylander says Uh, I don't think that's the argument. It's not mine, at least. Look, every art movement of any longevity alternates between periods of progression and consolidation. Popular music is in a period of consolidation now, it seems pretty clear. No way of knowing when or how it's going to bust out, but it will. In the meantime, there are a number of interesting refinements taking place during this consolidation. There are also a lot of people who are playing it very, very safe. The only way to tell the difference between the first and second groups is to use your ears. I would grant you that most music falls into the latter category, and that much of your critique of contemporary rock is quite valid. But dismissing it all out of hand is hardly necessary or charitable to your fellow music-makers. What I was responding to was the spectacle of a somewhat pompous megastar proclaiming that rock is shit at the same time that, quite coincidentally, his very self-consciously not-rock CD has come available for sale. A trifle self-serving, perhaps?
    Permalink posted 11/07/2006
  10. ArielX
    ArielX says Some great responses here. I'm definitely taking this all in.
    Permalink posted 11/07/2006
  11. Good
    Good says The way I see it, Sting wouldn't have made a non-rock CD before he started to believe that rock was shit. It's quite possible that Sting has been saying rock is shite for a while, but that until he has a new CD for sale on a label that's hired a publicist to call people up all day and tell them what Sting is doing, no one feels the need to report on what Sting is saying. Sting can't just call up the magazines and tell them to publish his opinions any time he wants.
    Permalink posted 11/07/2006
  12. ivylander
    ivylander says Sting has always been very good at publicity. I'm with you in the belief that he probably felt moved to record the music he did (no reason for cynicism there). He quite probably doesn't like most contemporary rock. But famous and opinionated (not to mention famously opinionated) figures often have an instinct when it comes to knowing what buttons to push. I reckon he's one of 'em. And I think he'd do well to open his own ears a bit.
    Permalink posted 11/07/2006
  13. tiwon
    tiwon says It's not so much that he doesn't feel like performing rock music anymore - that's fine by me. It's the fashion with which older artists decry the genre, without supplying much in the way of evidence. I believe that there are plenty of musicians past their earning potential and creative apex who have very valid or at least constructive criticisms of music. I just don't find Sting's little blurb to be all that compelling. If Sting wants rock music to be exciting, - and I believe this goes the same for Good of Cex - he will find the artists which excite. If not, he will be inspired elsewhere. Better yet, be the excitement you want to see. I don't believe Good's argument, but at least he had the good sense to elaborate on his feelings about the subject beyond a curt "no sir, I don't like it." That I can respect, though I can't help but feel that he is acting as Sting's apologist. Despite Good's obvious love of Semiotics and philosophy of art as an instrument of social change, he misses the point that Sting has always been raiding the past's "signifiers" to put some "cool" in the mix. Whether the signified is the Punk and Reggae fad of two years prior, Jazz-Pop of twenty years prior, or the lute music of centuries ago, is irrelevant. Additionally, his musical output has not been very concerned with the notion of social change for quite some time (athough I applaud Mr. Sumner as a world citizen for his non-musical work.) In fact, I cannot think of a time when art has not raided the storeroom of "cool" for inspiration and ideas, and I find Good's whole line of argument to be shortsighted. I actually welcome that theft, because it ties the present and the future to the past, and I think that is healthy. It is the skill and the verve with which you craft that sets you apart, not the materials. And in the end this is my own opinion and response - everyone has the right to feel the way they do. Thanks for dissenting, Good of Cex.
    Permalink posted 11/07/2006
  14. koifishkid
    koifishkid says I think there is some validity to what Sting is saying; sometimes I get so frustrated with current music that I listen to Vivaldi for a week straight. It's usually a phase that indicates I need to buy some new CDs. Maybe Sting needs to head out to the Virgin Megastore (or whatever they have in England).
    Permalink posted 11/07/2006
  15. ivylander
    ivylander says Maybe I look at the subject a little differently because I'm coming back after a period away. Throughout most of the Nineties, I listened to very little rock. It was mostly Brazilian, African, Latin. It wasn't about anything apart from the fact that I couldn't find much in mainstream (or even "independent") rock that was very interesting. I really tried. I wanted to like the Pixies, Husker Du, Smashing Pumpkins, because I liked the idea of them. But my ear found them pale echoes of stuff I'd heard before. (Sorry for any fans that are offended.) Either things have improved over the last few years, or I've somehow stumbled onto a way to find what's good out there, because I'm finding much more to like. (Something to do with the diminishing influence of the major record labels, mebbe?) Full details are on my MOG page. At any rate, this seems like an odd time to be saying that rock in general blows. Ten years ago it would have made a lot more sense to me.
    Permalink posted 11/07/2006
  16. ciaran
    ciaran says And even if rock is stuck in a bit of a rut (which I'm not too sure about) there is so much other good contemporary music out there. Soul, hip hop, jazz, house, drum & bass - Sting just can't keep up maybe....
    Permalink posted 11/07/2006
  17. outerotter
    outerotter says An opinion from a slightly different direction -- I am a big big fan of Dowland's lute songs; they include some of the most beautiful melodies I've ever heard. But the idea of hearing Sting play them scares me. A lot. If he finds that music inspirational, good for him; it's certainly better than the watered-down lite jazz/world music fusion he was into before. But for god's sake there's no reason for him to release a record of it -- there are plenty of people who can do it straight who are much better musicians than he is, and though I haven't heard Sting's version I'm pretty confident he's not doing a real creative remix job like Uri Caine did with Mahler (and Bach, though with less success).
    Permalink posted 11/07/2006
  18. outerotter
    outerotter says Please try to read through the slashes in my last comment; I didn't realize it's interpreting hyphens in its own stupid way, and I can't see how to edit a post. I just went to Deutsche Grammophon's web site and heard some samples, and they are about as hideous as I expected. Don't quit your day job, Gordon.
    Permalink posted 11/07/2006
  19. ArielX
    ArielX says The slashes thing: yeah, I 've had that happen to me as well. I've seen others attacked, also. Crap. They oughtta fix that.
    Permalink posted 11/14/2006

Comment on this Post

Login using email and password below.

Forgot Password?

OR login using Facebook Connect

Connect

Don't have an account?
Join MOG. It's Free!

 

© 2006-2012 Mog Inc. All Rights Reserved