“Makes Me Wonder”: More Than Just A Love Song?

With their second Grammy winning song, Maroon 5 took the saying “slow and steady wins the race” to a whole new level.  “Makes Me Wonder,” the hit song from the band’s second album It Won’t Be Soon Before Long in 2007 [1], was actually quite troubling for some time.  The song, which began as the story of one of Adam Levine’s failed relationships, was surprisingly one of the very first demos recorded by the band when they started out on the road [2,3].  However, the pop jam was continuously put on the back burner as the band could not come up with a suitable chorus.  After four long years [3], however, they came up with one verse that would elevate not only the song, but also the band to new heights.

Maroon5 Minia

During the later time period of the song’s writing, the United States became deeply involved in the war in Iraq.  Adam, who was rather disappointed with the government at the time, said that he wanted to write about his political feelings without sounding “preachy” [4].  For this, “Makes Me Wonder” offered the perfect outlet.  The band added the line “Give me something to believe in, ‘cause I don’t believe in you anymore” [4] as the song’s chorus, and the storylines of love and politics became one.

Iraq War

Maroon 5 successfully and ingeniously expressed their underlying feelings about the direction of the United States’ foreign policy through an abstract message hidden within a love song.   When later asked about the line, Adam told the media that the statement “kind of had something to do with [the band’s] growing dissatisfaction with things and the confusion that was in the air – maybe not targeted at the Bush administration, but maybe dancing around that territory a little bit” [2].

The song was a smash!  “Makes Me Wonder” became only the third song of the decade “to reach the top 15 of the Adult Top 40 chart in two weeks or less” [5] and saw the largest jump to number one the Billboard Hot 100 had ever seen [6].  The success peaked in early 2008 [7] with Maroon 5’s Grammy win for “Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals” for 2007 [8].  Today, “Makes Me Wonder” stands as the band’s fifth most popular single-song download in iTunes after “Moves Like Jagger,” “One More Night,” “She Will Be Loved,” and “Daylight” [1].  Overall, by combining the contrasting topics of love and war into a single song, Maroon 5 made a statement and history all at once.

Citations:

  1. iTunes
  2. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1555064/maroon-5-shoot-video-at-fantasy-airport.jhtml
  3. http://mixonline.com/recording/tracking/audio_maroon_2/
  4. http://www.news.com.au/politics-without-preaching/story-e6frfn79-1111113447292
  5. http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/1052866/timbaland-soars-to-no-1-after-sales-explosion
  6. http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/1052374/maroon-5-makes-wondrous-jump-to-lead-hot-100
  7. http://www.grammy.com/news/grammy-rewind-50th-annual-grammy-awards
  8. http://www.grammy.com/artist/maroon-5

4 thoughts on ““Makes Me Wonder”: More Than Just A Love Song?”

  1. I love when bands write songs with multiple meanings and interpretations, it really shows off their artistic talent and it prevents music from being thrown into adjunct categories where people say “I don’t listen to love songs, or songs about partying, or songs that contain activism”. Eliminating the classification of music helps to open up the music to new groups of people. Great blog post.

  2. I had no clue Maroon 5 even got involved with politics at that level, so this was very enlightening to me! Great song too, and lots of info about how they made history with it! great blog, keep it up!

  3. That’s actually very interesting! I hadn’t realized Maroon lyrics could be that well thought out. I love songs that aren’t just skin deep!

  4. I love this song! Its an old song but a really good song. I never really focused heavily on the lyrics and I did not know there was an element of politics embedded in the song. Great analysis!

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