Chart Feature: Adam Levine
For this week’s Chart Feature, we had to think outside of the box. As our cover artist – Madonna – is still relatively new to the industry, we rattled our brains to come up with a recent collaborator of Madonna. His name is Adam Levine. Levine is now a semi-retired artist and is known for his semi-status; semi-successful, semi-hard and he most likely enjoys semi-skimmed milk since a white liquid always stains his lips. We approached Levine for this week’s Chart Feature.
Levine, now retired, obtained his biggest hit earlier this year after a feature on the Perrie Edwards megahit, ‘Tastes Like Bubblegum’; a track that also featured Rihanna on the remix. Stopping just short of a diamond certification, this track helped to build the legacies of all involved. Levine speaks about the song: “I'm proud to say that my biggest hit, even though I'm not the lead artist, is one I wrote myself. I think some of the artists in this industry don't get enough credit for their work behind the scenes, whilst others coast along doing the bare minimum and getting others to do the work for them. I won't name names, but theft is theft in my books”.
Definitely no stranger to collaborative efforts, Levine other major features include the platinum hits ‘Bad for Us’ (Katy Perry) and ‘Freebird’ (Carly Rae Jepsen). Ultimately, these tracks – along with ‘Tastes Like Bubblegum’ – make up Levine’s three biggest singles to date. He says: “Katy and I have had a rocky relationship, but some of the best art comes from times of hardship, so I like to think there's a reason we put ourselves through so much turmoil. Nothing but respect - and a little bit of healthy hate - towards her. 'Freebird' was cute too, I suppose, although I must admit I sometimes felt like a spare part when we went out promoting that one”.
In what is perhaps the most obvious case of “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” since the Wine Squad (so, not long at all), Levine preceded the above collaborations with three of his own tracks; ‘Not Interested’ (featuring Perrie Edwards), ‘Demons’ (featuring Katy Perry) and ‘Turn My Heart to Stone’ (featuring Carly Rae Jepsen). All of the above peaked inside the top-five of the Hot Singles Chart. The former two are now are eligible for Gold, while the latter became Levine’s biggest hit as a lead artist, and is now platinum-eligible. Levine states: “I didn't even know this was a #1 single until recently so uh... I'd like to thank my dedicated fans, I suppose! I still hold this song in such high regard. I'd be lying if I said it didn't go on to inspire a lot of my future songwriting”. Billboard would like to clarify that this was not a number-one single; we don't know where Levine got this impression.
Levine’s first lead number-one came with the release of ‘Illusion’ in early 2016. Released on the heels of his lowest peaking track to date – a collaboration with Jennifer Lawrence on ‘Scars Don’t Bleed’ – most expected this performance of this release to be downright terrible. But Levine – along with collaborators Justin Timberlake and Troye Sivan – proved all previous worries false. Levine discusses his platinum number-one hit: “Four albums on, but this one still holds up. It was the first time I think we really proved that males can make it in this industry, since it was especially difficult to do that when everyone was out to drag us down, particularly me and Justin. I'm going to put it out there now - this is the best song I've ever released. Period”.
The question on your lips right now is – probably – “does this guy have any solo material? Like... at all?” The answer to this question is – of course – yes, but as those tracks weren’t as successful, Levine is mostly known for his collaborations. However one of his purely solo tracks is now eligible for a gold certification; ‘Early Morning Sex’ (2014). Levine feels that “I really managed to find my sound and craft an image for myself with this one, and so early on too. I still love it so much...and don't think you've heard the last of it, either!”.
With success comes a lot of hard-work and determination. But they don’t mean the same thing. Hard-work and determination is great, but it doesn’t always work out the way you want it to – a fact which Levine knows all too well. We spoke to Levine about his lowest-performing record; “I was going through an incredibly rough patch at this point in my life. I've been very open about that in the past. The album didn't get the attention it deserved, and I don't mean from the public, but from me as its creator. That's why I felt so compelled to re-release it alongside my Greatest Hits album a couple of years back. It just wasn't fair to leave the chapter unfinished like that”. ‘Room for Improvement’ lived up to its title with its number-six peak and paltry chart points. Most certainly.
But the good news for Levine is that he was able to move on from this dent in his career. After another unsuccessful project with ‘Warm This Winter’, Levine went on the offensive yet again and – three years later – achieved his biggest album to date; the number-one record ‘Popular’. Levine says that “It's in the name, isn't it? Although I have to say, it did come as a bit of a surprise to me to see just how much of a runaway success 'Popular' became. The title was actually supposed to be tongue in cheek because, like I said, I've spent my whole career being told I'd never be a 'Main Pop Girl'. Well, look at me now!”. When all was said and done, the platinum-eligible ‘Popular’ certainly proved to be popular.
Finally, Levine’s career ended with the release of the follow-up record; ‘In Cœlo/In Inferno’. Released earlier this year, this record showed the best and worst of Levine and the attached singles represented a mix-match of chart positions. Levine speaks about the record as a whole: “After releasing 'In Cœlo/In Inferno' earlier this year, I knew it was time for me to take a short break. Not for anyone else, but for myself. I have to find inspiration from somewhere, not to mention that I need some time to enjoy my life instead of spending every second of every day on the road”. Spawning the aforementioned ‘Not Interested’ alongside the Kylie Minogue and P!nk collaborations of ‘Puppet’ and ‘But I Seldom Do’ respectively, with the solo top-ten ‘Love Just Ain’t For Me’, this album was the perfectly divisive finale to represent Levine to date.
Levine concluded our interview with the following statement: “As I'm sure you're all very aware and eagerly anticipating, 2019 marks the fifth anniversary of the release of my debut studio album, Cunning Linguist, so you can bet your peachy asses there'll be big celebrations! Watch this space, that's all I can say for now”.
