Maroon 5
Maroon 5 grew out of the Los Angeles high-school band Kara's Flowers, reconstituting around singer Adam Levine in 2001 with a new keyboardist and a pivot away from grunge-inflected guitar rock toward the R&B, funk, and soul Levine had fallen for as a teenager. Their 2002 debut 'Songs About Jane' turned falsetto-driven, groove-tight pop-rock into a slow-burning global hit, and over the following two decades the band drifted steadily toward gloss and dance-pop, becoming one of the most commercially dominant acts of the 2010s. Their signature sound pairs Levine's soul-schooled falsetto with clean, syncopated guitar and keyboard hooks built for radio.
Levine has said the band's first record was 'a reflection of my love for Stevie Wonder,' and has repeatedly credited Wonder as the singer he learned from, singling out tracks like 'I Wish' among the songs he wished he had written; the debut's warm falsetto and jazzy chord changes come straight out of that fandom.
listen forThrow on Wonder's clavinet-funk 'I Wish' and then 'Sunday Morning' — hear how Levine's easy, gliding falsetto and the loping, jazz-chord groove settle into the same warm soul pocket Wonder built.
Describing the making of the second album, Levine said he 'kept going back and forth between Prince and The Police'; the record's turn toward slick, falsetto-topped funk-pop and its tighter, dance-floor rhythms lean on Prince's blueprint of spare, sexualized funk.
listen forPut Prince's stripped-down falsetto funk 'Kiss' next to 'Makes Me Wonder' — hear the same high, breathy vocal riding a minimal, popping bass-and-guitar groove built for the dance floor.
In the same account of the second album, Levine cited The Police alongside Prince as a touchstone; the band's clean, syncopated guitar figures, reggae-tinged rhythms, and Sting-like upper-register vocals surface across their pop-rock.
listen forPlay The Police's tense, clipped 'Every Breath You Take' and then 'Wake Up Call' — hear the same menacing, reggae-inflected pop-rock groove and the narrator's controlled, watchful cool.