Maybe we've put too much emphasis on the legacy of Romanticism. Ever since Beethoven, music has been expected to reveal the performer's true, tortured self. But Maroon 5 make a retro argument for classicism, striving to create perfect, tight melodies-craft for craft's sake. They don't want to express themselves-they just want to win pop music. That was the decision of Adam Levine, who's the face of Maroon 5-because even though the band has sold 18 million albums over 10 years and was the second biggest act on Top 40 radio in 2013 according to Billboard, he's the only member non-hardcore fans recognize. Since taking on a job as a judge on NBC's The Voice, a few acting roles and, most significant, Maroon 5's total pop makeover, Levine has become an actual pop star, and he acts like one. When I walk up to his house, he's standing shirtless, chest shaved and tattooed, sweaty from a workout, smoking a cigarette and drinking a Greek-yogurt smoothie with his new wife, a Victoria's Secret model. At the giant, gated house he's renting in the San Fernando Valley while his Beverly Hills home is finished, Levine put a golf driving range on the front lawn and planted the biggest American flag he could find. "These are the last days of the frat house," he says, sitting outside next to two kegs that have sat empty since his engagement party a year ago. "We're going to be grownups when our house is finished."
展开▼
