Maroon 5
Maroon 5 is an American pop rock band from Los Angeles, California.[3][4] It consists of lead vocalist Adam Levine, rhythm guitarist and keyboardist Jesse Carmichael, lead guitarist James Valentine, drummer Matt Flynn, keyboardist PJ Morton and multi-instrumentalist and bassist Sam Farrar. Original members Levine, Carmichael, bassist Mickey Madden, and drummer Ryan Dusick first came together as Kara's Flowers in 1994, while they were in high school.
Maroon 5
After self-releasing their independent album We Like Digging?, the band signed to Reprise Records and released the album The Fourth World in 1997. The album garnered a tepid response, after which the record label dropped the band and the members focused on college. In 2001, the band re-emerged as Maroon 5, pursuing a different direction and adding guitarist Valentine.[5] The band signed with Octone Records, an independent record label with a separate joint venture relationship with J Records and released their debut album Songs About Jane in June 2002. Aided by the hit singles "Harder to Breathe", "This Love" and "She Will Be Loved", the album peaked at number six on the Billboard 200 chart[6] and went quadruple platinum in 2005. In the same year, the band won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist.[7] In 2006, Dusick left the band after suffering from serious wrist and shoulder injuries and was replaced by Matt Flynn.
The band's second album It Won't Be Soon Before Long was released in May 2007.[8] It debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart and the lead single "Makes Me Wonder", became the band's first number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2010, the band released the third album Hands All Over, to favorable reviews, re-releasing a year later to include the single "Moves like Jagger", which topped the Billboard Hot 100. In 2012, Carmichael left the group and was replaced by musician PJ Morton, as the band released the fourth album Overexposed, with the song "One More Night", topping the Billboard Hot 100 chart for nine consecutive weeks.
In 2014, Carmichael rejoined the band alongside Morton to record the fifth album V (roman numeral pronounced "five"), with the band signed to Interscope Records and Levine's own label 222 Records. Following the release of V, it reached number one on the Billboard 200. In 2016, Maroon 5 recruited their long-time collaborator Sam Farrar, as the band continued for the sixth studio album Red Pill Blues, which was released in November 2017. With the addition of Morton and Farrar, the band's lineup increased to seven members. The successful singles of both albums "Sugar" and "Girls Like You" peaked at numbers two and one on the Hot 100 chart respectively. The band's seventh album Jordi, was released in June 2021. Maroon 5 has sold more than 135 million records, making them one of the world's best-selling music artists.[9] In January 2023, it was announced "Moves like Jagger" is the second most downloaded song of all time.[10][11]
History[edit]
1994–2001: Kara's Flowers and the formation of Maroon 5[edit]
Adam Levine was introduced to Ryan Dusick by a mutual friend and guitarist, Adam Salzman. Levine was 15 years old, and Dusick was 16.[12] Three of the five members of the band started playing together at age 12. The four original members of the band met while attending Brentwood School in Los Angeles.[13][14] While attending Brentwood School, Levine and Jesse Carmichael joined with Mickey Madden and Dusick to form Kara's Flowers,[15] a rock band. The name was taken from a girl that went to their high school that the band had a "collective crush" on.[14] The band independently released an album, We Like Digging?, in September 1995, a year after they formed. The band would play many shows through the next few years, and would also record the followup to their debut. While they were playing a beach party in Malibu, independent producer Tommy Allen heard them play and offered to manage them and record a complete record with his partner, songwriter John DeNicola, who is known for his work on Dirty Dancing (1987) – including "(I've Had) The Time of My Life". Producer Rob Cavallo's management team heard the record Allen and DeNicola produced, which eventually led Cavallo to offer them a deal with Reprise Records, re-recording the album.[16] However, after the release of The Fourth World, during Levine and Madden's senior year of high school in 1997, it had morphed into a band with a style reminiscent of 1960s Britpop.[14] Despite high expectations from the band and record company, the album failed to catch on and their lead single, "Soap Disco", was a failure.[17] According to Levine, the failure of the album was "a huge disappointment" that nearly led them to break up.[14][18] The album sold around 5,000 copies and the band was dropped after six months.[19]
Between 2000 and 2001, the band would play very few shows, due to the members going to college. Dusick and Madden attended college locally at University of California, Los Angeles, while Levine and Carmichael relocated to the East coast to attend Five Towns College, in Dix Hills, Long Island, New York.[20] While Levine and Carmichael were in New York, they began to take notice of the urban music surrounding them and later let the style influence the songs they wrote.[21]
When the band returned in 2001, they brought those influences with them.[18] Frequent collaborator and future member Sam Farrar (then only the bassist of the band Phantom Planet) explained that the Aaliyah song "Are You That Somebody?" affected the band and influenced the song "Not Coming Home".[14] Producer Tim Sommer signed them to a demo deal with MCA Records and produced three tracks with them in Los Angeles in the middle of 2001, with Mark Dearnley engineering. Against Sommer's advice, MCA declined to pick up the band, and these tracks were never released. The band put together a demo that was rejected by several labels, before acquired by Octone Records executives James Diener, Ben Berkman and David Boxenbaum.[18] While looking for talent for the Octone label, Berkman was given a bunch of demos by the brother of a former colleague at Columbia Records and the song that caught his attention was "'Sunday Morning'" which he referred to as a "genius song".[19] Berkman was surprised the song was credited to Kara's Flowers, because the band sounded completely different from the one he had heard while at Warner Bros. Records.[22]
Berkman encouraged Diener and Boxenbaum to fly out to Los Angeles to watch a showcase gig at The Viper Room for the four-piece Kara's Flowers.[19] After watching Levine onstage, they were convinced. Berkman believed what the band needed was a "fifth member to play the guitar and free up the singer, so he could be the star I perceived him to be".[19] Octone insisted that the band change its name to break with its pop past.[19] The label began looking for a full-time guitarist to enable Levine to focus on performing as the frontman. James Valentine (from the L.A. band Square) was recruited.[18] On his joining the band, Valentine commented: "I became friends with them and we sort of started jamming together, it was very much like I was cheating on my band, we were having sort of an affair and I eventually quit my other band to join up with them."[18] After hearing Levine play, Valentine noticed his affinity for Phish and the two musicians bonded over the band.[23] After briefly being known as simply "Maroon", the band changed their name to "Maroon 5".[1] In an interview with Howard Stern, Levine revealed that the only person outside of the band to know the story behind the name change is Billy Joel.[24]
Controversies[edit]
In an interview with Variety in November 2018, the frontman of the band, Adam Levine, when asked if the band is pop, rock or urban, said, "Something unique to this band is that we have always looked to hip-hop, R&B, all rhythmic forms of music, from back when we were writing our first album to now. Rock music is nowhere, really. I don't know where it is. If it's around, no one's invited me to the party. All of the innovation and the incredible things happening in music are in hip-hop".[211] This statement prompted widespread criticism from rock fans and some rock stars. Despite this backlash, the band saw a continued increase in popularity and commercial success in 2018, leading them to become one of the world's best-selling pop bands. The band mostly collaborates with hip hop artists and creates primarily pop music.[212][213]
On February 27, 2020, the band performed at the Viña del Mar International Song Festival in Chile. The performance, which began 29 minutes late, was listed as "mediocre" by part of the press. Mark Savage of the BBC said that Levine performed the songs with a "lack of energy" and was "out of tune", adding that the disappointment of some fans increased when videos were leaked. The videos showed Levine when he was leaving the stage, angry and saying that "they were deceived", "that was a TV show! ... that was not a concert", and that Viña del Mar is a "shitty city," sparking criticism.[214] Levine later posted on Instagram to apologize for the incident,[215] and the band said they had experienced technical difficulties with the audio feed to Levine's in-ear monitors.[216]
Current members
Former members
Studio albums
As Kara's Flowers
