Adam Levine is still sort of the frontman of Maroon 5. I heard someone – a Maroon 5 stan, I think – say that Adam’s bandmates are okay with him having so many other gigs and solo projects, and they have other stuff going on too. But you get it, Maroon 5 is a band and according to Adam Levine (a band frontman and lead singer), there aren’t many bands left.
Adam Levine has said in a new interview that he is disappointed that there “aren’t any bands any more”. The Maroon 5 frontman was speaking to Apple Music’s Zane Lowe this week following the arrival of the band’s new collaboration with Megan Thee Stallion, ‘Beautiful Mistakes’.
Levine spoke in the interview about Maroon 5’s breakthrough in 2002 with their debut album ‘Songs About Jane’, telling Lowe that he had been re-watching old music videos from that era with his daughter.
“It’s funny how you go back and re-watch like these old videos, and listen to these old songs, and I’ve been playing her a lot of Avril Lavigne records. Like, dude, ‘I’m With You’ is like — it’s, yeah, that gives you tears,” he said. “It’s crazy, because you don’t remember it in the same way, because you took it for granted, because it was like when you were growing up, and it was just part of what you had on the radio. But there’s some really great songs that I didn’t understand how good they were back then.”
Levine then said he remembers how “when the first Maroon 5 album came out there were still other bands”, adding: “I feel like there aren’t any bands any more, you know?”
“That’s the thing that makes me kind of sad, is that there were just bands,” he continued. “There’s no bands any more, and I feel like they’re a dying breed. And so I kind of, in a weird way, as far as … I mean, there still are plenty of bands, and maybe they’re not in the limelight quite as much, or in the pop limelight, but I wish there could be more of those around.”
I’m going to do something bold: I’m gonna defend Adam Levine, a man I truly don’t care about. But he’s not exactly wrong? I’ve heard Dave Grohl say similar things about pop music’s move away from bands, and if you look at Adam’s full quote, he obviously acknowledges that there are still a lot of working bands around. But it’s true, the move towards “solo acts” is a very real phenomenon in pop music, and the up-and-coming bands don’t get the same kind of mainstream attention that, say, Maroon 5 got back in the day. While I hate to give this man credit for anything… like, Songs About Jane has held up too, right? When you think about Maroon 5, all of their best songs are from that album.
This is hysterical from Garbage:
What are we Adam Levine? CATS?!?!?
— Garbage (@garbage) March 4, 2021
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.
Forcing your child to watch ANY video from Maroon 5 or play ANY music by Maroon 5 or Avril Lavigne, should immediately be cause for Child Services to arrive at your doorstep.
*snort*
There are bands. They just don’t get all the hype and they are not “pop”
Ha!!!
I saw maroon 5 at UConn before they made it. Adam wore a hat down low and walked off stage at the end leaving his band mates to take care of everything. He left like he was too big to do anything and had to be ushered off before the mob of girls came for him.
*spits coffee on my monitor*
LOLLLLLLLL
^_^
He’s probably correct in that in the pop genre it’s more solo or collaborative (songs featuring so and so) based. Go to rock. We’ve got great bands. My favorites in the rock/hard rock/alternative/metal genre are bands. Shinedown. Metallica. Papa Roach (their song “Come Around” should really be a 2021 anthem, give it a listen), Halestorm (female lead singer!), The Hu (recent discovery in America, they are SO GOOD). Disturbed. Garbage. The list goes on and on and on. Rock/hard rock/alternative/metal does not get the spotlight it deserves.
I Love Hu’s Wolf Totem. But the original. Not the version Jacoby desecrated.
I agree. Though I’m partial to Song of Women with Lzzy Hale (Halestorm)
My heart broke when I found out Metallica (at the very least James Hetfield) are trumpers. I was a fan since I was ten.
I thought I had a new band to listen to with Bad Wolves. Then Tommy Vext turned out to be MAGA. Luckily they’re looking for a new lead singer so hopefully that will solve that for me. As far as Metallica goes, it’s a mixed bag. Kirk Hammett is on record wanting to get into a Twitter war with Trump and made very pointed comments that Trump is uneducated and lacking leadership and out of touch with reality.
There’s still plenty of bands in the alt-rock genre, but I dunno, I feel like “rock” did this to themselves. It was (and is) so male-heavy. Bands like Garbage, The Cranberries, Hole, and Paramore were the exception, not the rule. It was also pretty aggressively white. When I go back and listen to my 90s rock playlists, back when Third Eye Blind and Matchbox 20 dominated radio, it’s just white band after white band. We had Hootie, and…. ?
So of course I’m not surprised that many women found a home in other genres.
You know what, no. There are tons of bands out there! They last! They’re just not promoted as much as the solo act of the moment. And many “bands” are just frontman with a studio or standing band. Interchangeable musicians.
Maroon 5 is Adam Levine. Essentially a solo act imo. If you remove a member the whole band sound should change because either the band makes the music or it’s handed down to them and any group of musicians can mimic it.
Yeahhhhhhhhh no. I’m with Shirley on this one.
Pop music has traditionally been about solo artists. It was only in the 80s and 90s that pop “bands” became a mainstream thing. It’s a recent phenomenon that has thankfully faded away.
Amazing bands exist in other genres, Adam. There’s TONS of them out there – just open your ears and listen.
Well actually rock was pop back in the 60s. Pop is just popular music. The Beatles were considered both rock and pop.
Here’s the thing: I read, about a decade ago, that music labels were no longer seeking out and raising rock bands up. They consider rock bands too much investment as opposed to solo artists. Too uncontrollable, too much drama, too much risk of in-band arguments and band members storming off, etc.
So this is also a conscious choice from the people who control the music industry.
I think it’s sad. So much of the best music is from bands. The best live gigs are with a full band on stage.
Unfortunately, the music industry just doesn’t support them in the same way anymore so you really have to seek them out to find them.
Additionally, I think bands were such a predominantly white male space and the world began enjoying more diversity. I would love to see bands coming through again; but with way more diversity.
Also, LOL to Adam Levine saying there are no more bands and then getting weepy about Avril Lavigne. Avril?? Seriously? That’s the first band you think of?? Okaaaaaay.
Bands are based on instruments and most music is digitally created now so it makes sense.
Yes. I also put some blame on how music education has been cut and cut in the public school system. A lot of artists learned the basics by being in the school band and through music appreciation classes.
That said, I agree with Kaiser in that Levine was more trying to say that bands don’t get as much mainstream attention these days. Which is sadly true.
It’s true there is a strong trend towards solo act in pop music over the last few years, but most of them have strong, loyal bands that support them.
I remember being absolutely blown away by Gwen Stefani’s tour circa 2007/2008 (for the Great Escape). The show was based on her name but you could very much feel it was a band, that she knew, loved and respected her musicians, and she acknoledged them non-stop on stage. It 100% felt like watching a band rather than a solo artist.
Every once in awhile I think about the fact that Adam was fired from the easiest job in the world for being a jackass. Then I laugh
LOL come sit next to me 🙂
Me too!
Lol. I just can’t with this douche. Maroon 5 is a band like the Backstreet Boys are a band. There are lots of talented bands out there, they’re just not the garbage pop music that all sounds the same that’s pushed on the radio these days. He obviously has no clue what the music is outside of his commercial sell out line of vision.
Sounds like a dude that is jealous that the formula is working for BTS and Harry Styles and not him and his band.
Jane, Whatever You Like and Hands All Over were fantastic albums. Then it was not enough, he wanted to be a attention seeking pop star and the music reflected that. It is telling when Jesse took a break from the band where the change came from and not from the better. They really did not do anything to expand or capitalize on getting more fans. Sure, parents will probably play Songs About Jane for them and that is about it. I remember. I was there. I was a fan.
Styles and BTS is out here all day everyday expanding their base. This dude wants to hang on to the past and think we are gonna stay there with him.
There’s a lot of amazing bands and artists out there these days but you got to put forth the effort to find them. Also depends what music you are into. I’m a total music snob and lover of synth/darkwave, post punk, art rock and post industrial and I know where to look for the music I love. Used to be live shows but I follow labels I love religiously and various bandcamp and IG pages. Moral of the story Maroon 5 and popular music is trash and there’s more to music than what the media forces down your throat.
He’s not wrong. But I’m a Maroon 5 apologist. It wont be soon before long got me through college stats. I havent been the biggist fan of their new stuff though. Adam hasnt seemed as into making music like their earlier albums amd I think the band gets that. Maybe time to retire? I saw a meme where someone was like, they’ve been releasing the same song since 2016. That’s not wrong either. Lol.
In a way, he’s right. I just looked at the current top 100, it’s almost all solo acts, or 2 solo acts pairing up. I think the pop industry has narrowed down to a handful of megastars who always get the promotion, attention, the big touring bucks, the followers, etc. It’s probably easier to build a brand and marketing around 1 person too, rather than a group.
That said, there’s tons of great bands out there, they just don’t have the platform of someone like Ariana Grande.
There are TONS of bands out there. My god. This is insane. They may not be megastars, but they exist! That’s so rude.
LOL. There are a ton of bands. Rock bands, at least. Rock just isn’t super popular at the moment in the mainstream, but they’re most of what I listen to! I love Ghost, Korn, Chevelle, The Pretty Reckless, etc.
I’d recommend In This Moment and Alice In Chains.
I have felt this way for years. I miss BANDS! People who can actually play instruments and don’t need auto tune or 10 other songwriters on one 3 minute track. When will bands make a come back??
Dont fans feel like maroon 5 sold out after their debut album?