New generation of male pop stars topping charts

By Elysa Gardner
USA Today

John Mayer's second album, "Heavier Things," entered at No. 1, buoyed by the hit single "Bigger Than My Body." Gannett News Service

Sting and John Mayer belong to an endangered species: the male singer-songwriter as pop star.

It's a category that has included some of music's most conspicuous giants, from Bob Dylan, James Taylor and Stevie Wonder to such mainstays of 1970s and '80s rock as David Bowie, Elton John, Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen. But with exceptions such as Sting's hit "Desert Rose," from his quadruple-platinum 1999 CD "Brand New Day," their presence on top 40 radio recently has been close to nonexistent.

The past 15 years have seen few new male solo acts, though several recent pop cycles spawned a bevy of female minstrels. Mayer's triple-platinum 2001 debut, "Room for Squares," seemed incongruous.

Sting, who has released his 12th studio effort, "Sacred Love," helped inspire a new generation of male singer-songwriter pop stars. Advertiser library photo

But today's male troubadours face a more complicated media landscape than the one that greeted Sting, who recently turned 52, and his peers.

"There's fabulous talent out there," says the pop veteran, sitting in the den of his apartment overlooking Central Park. "But it's not nurtured the way it used to be. It's all about having a hit record, then another one and another one."

One theory about the disappearance of male singer-songwriters is that they have been subsumed into popular bands, with groups such as Coldplay, Matchbox 20 and the Dave Matthews Band providing forums for their frontmen.

Jack Johnson, who grew up on O'ahu's North Shore, has sold more than 1.5 million copies of his debut CD, Brushfire Fairytales." Advertiser library photo Making a list of influential singer-songwriters? Don't omit Jack Johnson. The North Shore O'ahu-connected surf folkie has sold more than 1.5 million copies of his debut CD "Brushfire Fairytales" since its 2001 release. He notched a No. 3 debut on the Billboard Top 200 album chart in June with his second disc, "on and on." Other candidates include Johnson touring buddy Ben Harper and rising vox/guitar dudes Jason Mraz and Josh Kelley. Johnson will be headlining his environmentally friendly Kokua Festival at Kualoa Ranch on Jan. 3. — Derek Paiva, Advertiser entertainment writer

"Desert Rose" was certainly an anomaly among pop singles, incorporating Arabic vocals by French-Algerian singer Cheb Mami. Sting adopted a promotional strategy that might have been deemed suspect in an earlier era: He allowed the song to be used in a Jaguar commercial.

"Every expert said that this song couldn't be a hit in America, so Sting went around the gatekeepers," says Bill Flanagan, senior vice president of the MTV Music Group.

The songs on "Sacred Love," which address romantic and social issues in light of current events, are even more adventurous in their use of electronic and world-music textures and R&B nuances. Mary J. Blige joins Sting on the pining "Whenever I Call Your Name." "I'd love for it to be a single," Sting says of the duet.

The impulses that have sometimes made Sting's music irksome for programmers may have enabled him to endure radio's shifting trends. "Sting has built a following that has come to expect some experimentation or unpredictability," says Alan Light, editor of the music magazine Tracks. "He'll work with jazz players or Cheb Mami or Mary. That flexibility is allowed as a solo artist. You don't have to negotiate with band members."

Chatting in the living room of his less-spacious pad downtown, Mayer, who counts Sting among his musical idols, says how he also confronted reluctance at radio while gaining attention on the Atlanta club circuit in the late '90s.

"A program director told me she really liked my record, which was a demo then, but (said), 'It's Limp Bizkit and Incubus now,' " he says. "Then when I got signed, people talked about my record as if it were just a first shot. I thought, time out — this might be the only shot I have, and I think it's a good shot."

Mayer supported "Squares" by touring extensively, an approach considered vital for both budding singer-songwriters and survivors such as Sting, who quips that he still keeps a suitcase "permanently packed." Mayer left the road after winning a Grammy for pop male vocal performance in February to make "Heavier Things," but returned in early July, winding up a week before the Sept. 9 release of "Heavier."

The toil paid off when the album entered at No. 1, buoyed by the soaring single "Bigger Than My Body."

But Mayer's own sense of accomplishment stems less from embracing new technology than avoiding old cliches. "I spent two or three years prior to "Room for Squares" in this coffeehouse singer-songwriter atmosphere, where all you have is an acoustic guitar and you'd better be able to come up with something clever. It was about making people go, 'Wow, what an unforeseen word turn!' "

Before recording "Heavier," Mayer "spent time listening to music that really made me hurt, made me feel like all I had was so much prose. I thought, I'm affecting my heart with my brain too much. I want people to actually hear how I feel. There are things on this new record that are so in sync with how I feel that I can't wait to sing them."

Sting agrees that to progress as a singer-songwriter, "I have to go deeper, to explore parts of me that I would have perhaps hidden before." That goal is especially clear on "Sacred Love," which he worked on while writing a memoir, "Broken Music." Due Oct. 28, the book traces the first 25 years of his life, ending just before The Police's success, and he plans to promote it in conjunction with the album. "I'm going to be signing books, kissing babies, everything," Sting says. "People used to say you have to be careful not to be overexposed. But I think that now you're either overexposed or not exposed at all."