10 Perfect Rock Singles Of The 80s
7. The Police: Every Breath You Take (1983)
If there's a song that defined the '80s, it was Every Breath You Take. It exists outside the realm of music, instead living in a world of romance movie montages and break up sequences. It's the quintessential love ballad. The tender bass melody; emotive guitar progression; gently swelling string sections, and Sting's heartfelt vocals can only lead you to one conclusion: this is the purest expression of love in modern music.
Well, not exactly... You'd be forgiven for thinking so, every indication would suggest it. But far from being a seductive expression of love, the lyrics actually have a fairly sinister undertone. Sting's break from his former wife, was partly the result of his infidelities. Feeling constantly watched and condemned for his actions, he fled to the Caribbean - because that's what rich people do post-breakup. Although this instigated the writing process, Sting also drew on the notion of Big Brother. The early '80s was rife with conversation about surveillance technology becoming an intrusive force in our lives. The double meaning amounts to a track about an obsessive stalker.
When you listen to the words with this in mind, it's not hard to transpose its connotations onto the idea of modern surveillance in 2022. Between all our smartphones and Amazon Alexas there probably isn't much that doesn't go unnoticed. Try imagining Jeff Bezos singing these lyrics...