Maroon 5
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Maroon 5 is an American band from Los Angeles. Originally forming as Kara's Flowers in high school by lead vocalist and guitarist Adam Levine, keyboardist Jesse Carmichael, bass guitarist Mickey Madden, and drummer Ryan Dusick, the band released one album under the moniker in 1997. Upon the arrival of guitarist James Valentine, the band rebranded themselves as Maroon 5. In 2002, they released their debut album, Songs About Jane. It wasn't until a year later, however, when their breakout single "This Love" was released, and officially put them on the map of listeners. The album went on to contain other hit singles like "Harder to Breathe", "She Will Be Loved" and "Sunday Morning". Songs About Jane enjoyed major chart success, going gold, platinum, and triple platinum in many countries around the world.
In support of Songs About Jane, Maroon 5 toured extensively throughout 2003–2005, and released two live albums during that period. After winning won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 2005, Ryan Dusick left the band in September 2006, citing injuries sustained by constant touring; he was replaced by their current drummer, Matt Flynn.
After a five year gap, Maroon 5's second studio album, It Won't Be Soon Before Long,was released in May 2007. Its lead single "Makes Me Wonder" become the band's first number one single in America, and subsequent singles "Wake Up Call" and "Won't Go Home Without You" were released to decent success. Additionally, a compilation of previously unreleased songs, The B-Side Collection, and a remix album, Call and Response, were also released shortly after.
Their third studio album Hands All Over was released in September 2010, launched by the hit single "Misery". In 2011, Adam Levine was named a coach on the American version of The Voice. Capitalizing on the show's surprise success, Maroon 5 recorded a duet, "Moves Like Jagger" with Adam's fellow Voice coach Christina Aguilera; the song became their second #1 single in their home country, and topped the chart for four non-consecutive weeks, becoming their biggest hit yet. As well, Levine emerged the winning coach of The Voice's first season, with his protege, Javier Colon, being crowned its inaugural champion.
Since debuting in 2002, the band has sold over 10 million albums in the United States and nearly 15 million worldwide.
- Songs About Jane (2002)
- It Won't Be Soon Before Long (2007)
- Hands All Over (2010)
- Overexposed (2012)
- A Wiz Khalifa Appears: In "Payphone".
- Anti-Love Song: "If I Never See Your Face Again" but implied in the lyrics of most of Songs About Jane, with maybe the exception of "Sweetest Goodbye" and "Tangled".
- Audience Participation Song: Anybody could cover "This Love" and get an audience going.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Averted in the video for "Payphone". Adam starts out looking pretty good. By the end of the video, he's bleeding, dirty and looks exhausted.
- Break Up Song: "Through With You", "Not Coming Home", "Sweetest Goodbye" (of the bittersweet form), "Just A Feeling", "Makes Me Wonder", and "How".
- Chekhov's Gun: The conversation at the beginning of the video for "Wake Up Call"- it's a seemingly innocent chat between Adam and his girlfriend, where she apologises for lying to him and he admits that it was probably his fault anyway. Then, later, we hear the rest of the conversation, where they agree to work together and start a cover-up of the murder Adam committed- that is, when he shot his girlfriend's lover.
- Cover Version: "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" on Hands All Over. In addition, "This Love" is one of the most covered songs of the last 10 years.
- Double Standard Abuse (Female on Male): Word of God is that the relationship in "Misery" is not supposed to be a positive one, and the video has Adam getting seven kinds of hell beat out of him by his ex, who then proceeds to repeatedly try to kill him. More than a few YouTube commenters have pointed out that if the video was instead Adam beating seven kinds of hell out of his ex, the outcry would be enormous.
- Dream Team: Worked with Christina Aguilera and Rihanna to musical and critical success
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: From "This Love":
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I tried my best to feed her appetite |
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- Depends on your age, coming around or coming the other way..
- Needless to say Maroon 5 does this a lot, but that's the most heard radar skipping.
- Had To Be Falsely Suspected To Be A Crook: In the video for "Payphone", Adam and his coworker escape from the robbers by stealing one of their guns, threatening them with it and running like hell. The police mistake Adam for an accomplice since he was running out of a bank robbery in progress with a gun in one hand and an attractive woman in the other and he keeps running, steals a car and blows up a police car to escape... an occupied one. And it wouldn't have happened if everyone had just stopped to talk.
- Intercourse with You: Songs About Jane is this trope.
- "Hands All Over", "Kiwi", "Sunday Morning", "Shiver".
- Irony: Wiz Khalifa's verse in "Payphone" is basically "I'm rich, you're not, I made it, you didn't, so fuck off, haters." When he sings it in the video... he doesn't exactly look it.
- Love Makes You Crazy: Songs About Jane is proof this trope is true. Word of God is that the album was made and named mostly to get it out their systems.
- Lyrics Video Mismatch: "Payphone" is about a relationship that's ended badly. The video starts with a bank robbery, then goes into a car chase. Epic, but unexpected.
- Mood Whiplash: "Not Coming Home" - "Through With You" - "Sweetest Goodbye" is of the angry song, angry song, sweet song variety.
- Mr. Fanservice: Adam spends most of their videos either shirtless or wearing something extremely tight.
- My God, What Have I Done?: The viewpoint character of "Wake Up Call" apparently has one of these after he shoots the man his lover was sleeping with.
- New Sound Album: It Won't Be Soon Before Long structure and music stands out between Hands All Over and Songs About Jane
- The band has stated that Overexposed will be their first full-on pop album, especially because "Moves Like Jagger" became their biggest hit to date.
- Obsession Song: "Shiver", "Can't Stop", "Harder To Breathe", "Little Of Your Time", "Stutter", "Give A Little More", "Secret".
- Performance Video: "Sunday Morning".
- Precision F-Strike: "Watch your step, cuz if you don't, you'll need a fucking miracle" from "Harder to Breathe"
- "And it really makes me wonder if I ever gave a fuck about you" from "Makes Me Wonder"
- Protest Song: The rare non-Anvilicious one--"Makes Me Wonder", which originally started out as a simple Break Up Song (and was started well before its eventual release and then shelved because Adam couldn't seem to make it work), but there were some lines that seemed to apply to the political climate at the time so it was reworked into a song with two meanings, one about a failed relationship (as originally intended) and the other about "failure to understand or trust" the leadership of his country.
- Silly Love Songs: "Sweetest Goodbye", "Never Gonna Leave This Bed", "Sunday Morning".
- Studio Chatter: Before their cover of "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" on Hands All Over
- Stuff Blowing Up: "Payphone".
- Your Cheating Heart: "Wake Up Call"
- Yandere: "Wake Up Call"
