Maroon 5

With more than 135 million records sold, Maroon 5 rank among the best-selling music acts of all time. The Los Angeles band grew out of Kara's Flowers, formed in February 1994 by high school students Adam Levine, Jesse Carmichael, Mickey Madden and Ryan Dusick. After self-releasing ...We Like Digging?, the group signed with Reprise Records and issued The Fourth World in 1997. The album received a tepid response, the label dropped the band, and its members turned their attention to college.

They regrouped as Maroon 5 in 2001, bringing guitarist James Valentine into the fold. Their first album under the new name, Songs About Jane, arrived in 2002 through Octone Records. Powered by “Harder to Breathe,” “This Love” and “She Will Be Loved,” it reached number six on the Billboard 200 and was certified quadruple platinum in 2005. That same year, Maroon 5 won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. Dusick left in 2006 because of serious wrist and shoulder injuries, with Matt Flynn taking over on drums.

The band’s second album, It Won’t Be Soon Before Long, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 in 2007, while “Makes Me Wonder” became their first Hot 100 chart-topper. Hands All Over followed in 2010 and was re-released the next year with “Moves Like Jagger,” another US number-one single. Carmichael stepped away from the group in 2012, and keyboardist PJ Morton filled in during his absence. Overexposed, also released in 2012, produced “One More Night,” which spent nine consecutive weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

Carmichael returned alongside Morton for V, released in 2014 on Interscope Records and Levine’s 222 Records. The album reached number one on the Billboard 200, and its single “Sugar” peaked at number two in the US. Long-time collaborator Sam Farrar joined as an official member in 2016 as the band worked on Red Pill Blues, released in 2017; “Girls Like You” topped the US chart. Madden left in 2020 following his arrest on domestic violence charges, and Farrar became the group’s bassist. Maroon 5 later released Jordi in 2021 and Love Is Like in 2025. Alongside three Grammy Awards, the band has received three American Music Awards.