10 Rockers That Went Pop (And Nailed It)

As the '80s opened up, the Police machine was getting too big for any of the three members to really sustain anymore. Even though Sting gets a lot of credit for keeping the band's songwriting going, these were three opinionated musicians who were looking to do more than just throw together a traditional pop song for the hell of it. So if they were going to find themselves at the big time, they were going to do it on their own terms.

For all of the praise that Synchronicity gets for the song Every Breath You Take, the rest of the album is a lot more complex than people realize, taking the sounds of synthesizers in different directions and even incorporating elements of jazz into the mix like on the song Murder by Numbers or the acid rock freakout Mother. Although a song like King of Pain may have seemed like a generic pop song at the time, there's almost too many moving parts to it, with Sting saying that it was crafted almost like the Beach Boys had done with the song Good Vibrations, taking bits and pieces of music and frankensteining them into a song.

Regardless of the amazing job that they did though, the accompanying tour wasn't something that they wanted to repeat again, deciding to disassemble the band and move on to other projects. The Police could have easily been around for another decade pumping out more hits like this, but sometimes it's better to keep your artistry intact than just chasing after the money for the rest of your life.