Maroon 5

Maroon 5 — and, specifically, its frontman Adam Levine — became the face of blue-eyed soul in the 21st century, managing to navigate shifting trends in music and fashion to be one of the biggest pop bands of their generation. They took the long way to the top, evolving from the straight-ahead ’90s rock band Kara's Flowers into the sleek, soulful Maroon 5 with 2002′s Songs About Jane, an album that languished for two years until “This Love” climbed to number five on Billboard’s Hot 100 in 2004. From that point forward, the group was a fixture at the top of the charts, their popularity receiving a considerable and enduring boost when Levine was cast as a judge on NBC’s televised talent competition The Voice in 2011. That year, their Christina Aguilera duet “Moves Like Jagger” gave Maroon 5 their second number one — “Makes Me Wonder” went to the top in 2007 — and kicked off a string of Top Ten hits highlighted by the number ones “One More Night” and “Girls Like You,” a run that helped secure the band a headlining Super Bowl gig in 2019. “Girls Like You” featured an appearance by Cardi B, a sign of how Maroon 5 kept current by embracing modern R&B and hip-hop. The band followed this blueprint by enlisting Megan Thee Stallion for “Beautiful Mistakes,” a lead single from 2021′s Jordi, as well as the 2021 Bantu remix of “One Light” and the 2023 single “Middle Ground.” Prior to Maroon 5, bandmates Adam Levine (vocals/guitar), Jesse Carmichael (keyboards), Mickey Madden (bass), and Ryan Dusick (drums) had spent the latter half of the ’90s playing in Kara's Flowers, even releasing a debut album for Reprise Records while still attending high school. The record tanked, however, and Kara's Flowers found themselves dropped from Reprise’s roster. After briefly attending college, the bandmates regrouped as Maroon 5, adding former Square guitarist James Valentine to the lineup and embracing a more R&B-influenced sound. Several years later, the quintet had officially risen to the forefront of pop music with Songs About Jane and It Won't Be Soon Before Long, both of which went multi-platinum. Songs About Jane propelled the band into the mainstream, but the album was not an immediate hit. Octone Records had signed the newly christened Maroon 5 in 2001, and the debut album Jane received a lukewarm response upon its release in June 2002. “Harder to Breathe” became a radio staple 17 months later and was soon followed by the omnipresent “This Love,” whose steamy video (featuring frontman Levine and a barely clothed girlfriend) wooed the TV-watching crowds at MTV. Songs About Jane finally entered the Billboard Top Ten in August 2004, more than two years after the album’s release, and follow-up singles like “She Will Be Loved” and “Sunday Morning” helped the album move over 2.7 million copies by year’s end. Maroon 5 toured exhaustively in support of Jane’s slow-burning success, issuing two stopgap recordings — 2004′s 1.22.03.Acoustic and 2005′s Live Friday the 13th — while traveling the world alongside the likes of the Rolling Stones and John Mayer. Their schedule was especially trying on percussionist Dusick, who sustained wrist and shoulder injuries and was often unable to play. By fall 2006, Dusick had been officially replaced by Matt Flynn (the former drummer for Gavin DeGraw), and the revised band released its sophomore effort in May 2007. It Won't Be Soon Before Long proved to be less popular than its predecessor (which had sold more than four million copies in the U.S. alone), but it still enjoyed double-platinum certification while spinning off the chart-topping single “Makes Me Wonder.” Maroon 5 had cemented their status as pop/rock heavyweights, and they now had the connections to prove it. Released in late 2008, Call and Response: The Remix Album reinterpreted the band’s catalog with remixes by influential producers like Mary J. Blige, Mark Ronson, and Pharrell Williams. Between 2008 and 2010, the band worked with a different producer — veteran rock/country architect Robert John "Mutt" Lange — on a third studio album, Hands All Over, which was released in September 2010. Although it was kept from the top of the album charts, it went platinum. Also, the following year, it received a big boost when Levine began appearing as a judge on the NBC reality television talent competition The Voice. That same year, Hands All Over was re-released with the single “Moves Like Jagger,” featuring Levine’s The Voice co-judge Christina Aguilera; the single promptly hit the top of the charts. In 2012, Carmichael revealed that he was taking time off from performing with Maroon 5 and would be replaced by touring keyboardist PJ Morton. In April 2012, the band teased the release of its fourth studio album with “Payphone,” a single featuring Wiz Khalifa that hit number two. The resulting album, Overexposed, also reached number two, featuring production from a bevy of name producers including Ryan Tedder, Max Martin, Benny Blanco, and more. A second single from the album, the reggae-tinged “One More Night,” topped the charts not long after its release in June, and stayed at the top long enough to become the band’s most successful showing to date. Two further singles also reached the Top Ten, “Daylight” and “Love Somebody.” During 2013, Levine continued to appear on The Voice, and also made appearances in the television drama American Horror Story, as well as the music-based dramatic film Begin Again. The band also hit the studio to record songs for a fifth studio album, aptly titled V, which saw keyboardist Jesse Carmichael return to the fold after a brief hiatus. Released in September 2014, V debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart and produced several Top Ten singles including “Maps,” “Animals,” and “Sugar.” Two more singles followed in 2015 with “This Summer’s Gonna Hurt Like a Motherf*****” and “Feelings.” Also in 2015, Maroon 5 released their first hits collection, The Singles. The single “Don’t Wanna Know,” featuring rapper Kendrick Lamar, appeared in 2016 and peaked at number nine on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was later revealed to be the first single from their forthcoming sixth LP. A second collaborative single, “Cold,” featuring Future, was released in early 2017, with “What Lovers Do” appearing before the November release of Red Pill Blues. A reference to the choice of taking either red or blue pills first presented in the 1999 sci-fi film The Matrix, Red Pill Blues also featured guest appearances by Julia Michaels, SZA, ASAP Rocky, and LunchMoney Lewis. It peaked at number two on the Billboard 200. In 2018, the band issued a remix of the album track “Girls You Like,” featuring an appearance by Cardi B, which wound up being their first single to reach number one on the Billboard charts since 2012′s “One More Night.” On February 3, 2019, Maroon 5 headlined the Super Bowl LIII halftime show in Atlanta, Georgia, supported by rappers Big Boi and Travis Scott. That September, they released “Memories” as the lead-single off their seventh studio-album, Jordi. Both the song and the album title were dedicated to the band’s late manager, Jordan Feldstein who died in December 2017 from pulmonary embolism. In 2020, bassist Mickey Madden announced he was retiring from the group following an arrest for domestic violence allegations. The band carried on with the topical single “Nobody’s Love,” which was partly inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic and racial protests following the murder of George Floyd. They also teamed up with Megan Thee Stallion for the 2021 single “Beautiful Mistakes.” All of this led up to the release of Jordi, which arrived in June 2021, peaking at number 8 on the Billboard 200. A fourth single, “Lost,” appeared soon after, charting at 27 on the Pop 100. More tracks followed, including a 2022 remix of “One Light” by Bantu, featuring Yung Bleu and Latto, and 2023′s “Middle Ground,” the latter of which found the band working with producers Andrew Watt, Jon Bellion, and Pete Nappi. ~ Andrew Leahey