 In his retrospective assessment Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic argues that the notion of the Police as a punk rock band was true only "in the loosest sense of the term".He states the band's "nervous, reggae-injected pop/rock was punky" and had a "punk spirit" but it "wasn't necessarily punk".A "power trio," the Police are known as a new wave and post-punk band, with many songs falling in the reggae-fusion genre.