Maroon 5

Maroon 5 biography

Maroon 5 is an American pop rock band from Los Angeles, California. The group originally formed in 1994 as Kara's Flowers while they were still attending high school. With a line-up of Adam Levine, Jesse Carmichael, Mickey Madden and Ryan Dusick, they signed to Reprise Records and released an album, The Fourth World, in 1997. After a tepid response to the album, the band parted with their record label and attended college. In 2001, the band regrouped and added James Valentine to the lineup, and pursued a new direction under the name Maroon 5.

Maroon 5 signed with Octone Records and recorded their debut album in 2002. The album, Songs About Jane, was released in June 2002. The album's lead single - "Harder to Breathe" - received heavy airplay, which helped propel the album to number 6 on the US Billboard 200. The album's second and third singles, "This Love" and "She Will Be Loved", were worldwide hits in 2004. The band won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 2005. For the next few years, the band toured extensively worldwide in support of Songs About Jane and issued two live recordings: 2004's 1.22.03.Acoustic and 2005's Live - Friday the 13th. In 2006, drummer, percussionist and backing vocalist Ryan Dusick departed the band - he was replaced by Matt Flynn. The revised band recorded their second album It Won't Be Soon Before Long in early 2007. The album was released in May and peaked at number 1 on the Billboard 200. The album's first single, "Makes Me Wonder", became the band's first number-one single on the US Billboard Hot 100.

Hands All Over, the band's third studio album, was released in September 2010, peaking at number 2 on the Billboard 200. The album's lead single "Misery" was a top 15 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 while the album's fourth single, "Moves like Jagger", became the band's second single to top the Hot 100 and sold over 8.5 million copies worldwide as of June 2012. The band released their fourth studio album Overexposed in June 2012. The album peaked at number 2 on the Billboard 200. Its first two singles, "Payphone" and "One More Night", were both international hits and peaked at 2 and 1 respectively; the latter single became their third number-one in the United States. Since debuting in 2002, the band has sold over 10 million albums in the United States.

1989-2002: Kara's Flowers and the formation of Maroon 5

The four original members of Maroon 5 met while attending Brentwood School in Los Angeles. While attending Shooting Stars School, Adam Levine and Jesse Carmichael joined up with Mickey Madden and Ryan Dusick to form Kara's Flowers, a pop band. The name was taken from a groupie that the band had a "collective crush" on. Very early on, their sound was what Carmichael called "Fugazi the sound meets Sesame Street the lyrics". However, by the release of The Fourth World in 1997, they had morphed into band with a style reminiscent of 1960s Britpop. According to Levine, the failure of the album was "a huge disappointment" that nearly led them to break up in 1998. The album sold around 5,000 copies and they were dropped after only one month.

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