I was a member of this list when it was very active, back in the early 1990s. There was lots of discussion, especially of the then-recent Sting albums, which at least at the time sounded be pretty decent. There seemed to be a lot of momentum and enthusiasm from the still relatively recent Police era. There was always hope and anticipation of a reunion.
In retrospect, it seems obvious to me that Sting's albums were pretty uneven, and sometimes just awful: I know at least a few members of the list thought so at the time, but perhaps some of us just appreciated the familiar voice. (And I gave up after the one with "Desert Rose" on it, whatever that was.) After what I considered a very lacklustre "reunion" in which no new music was produced—how can three musicians tour the world without coming up with anything new?—it seems that's kind of the end of the discussion.
I haven't really chosen to Sting or the Police in years, and though I usually don't change the channel when a song comes on, it's increasingly rare to hear one of their tracks anywhere. I guess it's partly that I'm not a "classic rock" kind of person; there is a lot of amazing new music available today, and easier to find than ever. So my question is: has the band simply passed into pop music history now? They're not top-of-mind in the popular imagination any longer, for obvious reasons. Sting hasn't released new music in years, as far as I'm aware (maybe the others have, but with the exception of the few years immediately following '86, they've been ignored). This list is dead; when I received the latest digest today, it seemed three of the four messages were spam or related.
Is there any point in thinking about this band, thirty years after Synchronicity?
(As I'm on the digest, it's likely I won't receive any replies to this for weeks, unless I'm cc'd.)
Chris
