Maroon 5

Maroon 5

Artist

Maroon 5 is an American pop rock band. They were originally formed in 1994 as Kara’s Flowers while they were still attending high school. They signed to Reprise Records and released an album, The Fourth World, in 1997. After a mediocre response to the album, the band parted with their record label and attended college, but in 2001, the band regrouped, added James Valentine to the lineup, and pursued a new direction under the name Maroon 5.

Their first big hit came in the form of “Harder to Breathe,” the edgier lead single from their debut, Songs About Jane. The continued success of that song and other singles “This Love,” “She Will Be Loved,” and “Sunday Morning” cemented the quintet as a pop-rock band to keep an eye out for.

However, for their second album, It Won’t Be Soon Before Long, they switched to ambing up on slick pop production—and it worked for them. Lead single “Makes Me Wonder” jumped 63 places in one week to reach number one, becoming their first ever #1 single.

With the releases of Hands All Over, Overexposed, and V, the group has been slowly growing poppier yet keeping their appeal. In fact, after the #14 peak of their 2010 single “Misery,” they hit the top ten with every single one of their singles until 2015’s “This Summer’s Gonna Hurt.”

Their tried-and-true formula of songs that blur the line between love and hooking up has kept all of their fans from the early 2000s and made new ones far into the 2010s.