This Love
Encyclopedia
"This Love" is a song by the American rock
band Maroon 5
. The song was written by frontman Adam Levine
for their debut album Songs About Jane
(2002). The track is built around a piano-led strut, which is immediately followed by synth percussion, a repeating guitar sound, and wry falsetto
.
The song's lyrics are based on Adam Levine's break-up with a former girlfriend. He revealed that the song was written in the "most emotionally trying time" in his life. He also describes some of the lyrics in the song as sexual. "This Love" was well-received by music critics, who noted the track's musicscape. It was released on January 27, 2004 as the second single off Songs About Jane.
The single entered the top ten on most charts, topping several of Billboard
magazine's component charts, including reaching the number one spot on the Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks
chart. The music video was met with controversy, regarding extended intimate scenes between Levine and his then-girlfriend. "This Love" helped Maroon 5 win the MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist
and was the third most played song of 2004. The song won Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals at the 2006 Grammy Awards, and, to date, is one of Maroon 5's most successful songs.
. In an interview with MTV News
in August 2002, Maroon 5 vocalist Adam Levine
revealed that he wrote the song the day his girlfriend moved away when they broke up. In another interview, Levine revealed that the song was written in the "most emotionally trying time" in his life. He also added, "I was in a relationship that was ending, but I was really excited on the other end because the band was about to go make the record and I was ecstatic to go in the studio. She was literally leaving town within days of me writing the lyrics to 'This Love,' so I was in prime emotional condition to write a song with that kind of conflict."
. Written in the key of C minor
, the beat
is set in common time
and moves at a moderate 95 beats per minute. The introduction of "This Love" features a piano-led strut. Maroon 5 have admitted that "This Love" is a prime pop-rock song. The music featured in the song has a lot more rock-guitar crunch, and is considered a soulful and pop/rock song. According to Johnny Loftus of Allmusic, the music featured in the song has "a slick channeling of vintage R&B rhythms into punchy pop dynamics". Loftus felt that the song features "Levine's wry falsetto around strutting, bottom-heavy piano and percussion both programmed and live; chirping backup vocals and washes of sunny synth and flute acted as counterweights". Loftus also noted that the band has a "sexual charge" with the lyrics, "I tried my best to feed her appetite / To keep her coming every night / So hard to keep her satisfied". The Boston Globe
's Steve Morse described the single's sounds as "a rocking yet soulful tale about the breakup of a relationship". Meghan Bard of The Daily Campus
adds that the song has "Stevie Wonder-esque vocals and a funky R&B beat".
In an interview with Rolling Stone
, when asked about the lyrics "Keep her coming every night" and "Sinking my fingertips into every inch of you", Levine said: "Yep, that's sexual, all right. I was so sick of typical lyrics like 'Ooh, baby' and 'I love you' and all this vague shit. I thought the more explicit I got without being totally explicit was a nice approach. The little girls would enjoy them, and it would go right over my grandparents' heads. But it would hit my ex-girlfriend like a ton of bricks. It was perfect." He also comments on how MTV played an edited version of the song for the music video, with the word "coming
" edited out of the line "keep her coming every night". Levine noted, "MTV has now edited the language. They won't let me say, 'Keep her coming every night', and they took the sinking out of 'sinking my fingertips'. It's like fucking communist China. It's totally bizarre."
The song received positive reception from critics. In the Rolling Stone review of the album, critic Christian Hoard wrote: "Adam Levine's urban-romantic swoonings work best when his band really gets up on the good foot, as on 'This Love', which uses piano and James Brown-like guitars to create a foundation on which Levine can obsess about beauty (including his own)." Jason Thompson of PopMatters
noted that on the songs "This Love" and "Must Get Out", keyboardist Jesse Carmichael
"manages to conjure up both the productions of Britney Spears and The New Radicals respectively". C. Spencer Beggs of The Observer wrote: "The second track, 'This Love', is sure follow. The two singles ['Harder to Breathe
' and 'This Love'] are the most poppy on the album, showing off Maroon 5's characteristic clean, crisp and upbeat sound." Sam Beresky of the Daily Lobo
, who was less enthusiastic about the album, complimented the band on "This Love", in which he noted, "...'This Love', is a happier version of the first with a great backbeat reminiscent of Stevie Wonder's 'Superstition
'. It might make a foot tap, a head nod or even a booty shake if played at a loud volume."
In May 2004, musician John Mayer
told Rolling Stone that he liked the band's album Songs About Jane
. Mayer was also positive towards the song. "Once I heard 'This Love,' it was a light-fuse/stand-back kind of situation. It's one of those perfect songs you always hope to write." The single also strengthened Maroon 5's appeal, and helped position them as one of the year's break-out bands in 2004. It has since been remixed by Kanye West
, titled "This Love (Kanye West remix)", in May 2004. The band released an EP
entitled 1.22.03.Acoustic
, which features "This Love", however, in an acoustic version. The song was featured in the video game Guitar Hero: On Tour
in 2008.
Maroon 5 performed "This Love" live on Saturday Night Live
(SNL) in February 2004. The band won the MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist
for the music video of "This Love" in 2004. Also in 2004, the song was nominated for Choice Rock Track at the Teen Choice Awards. In the Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems
, "This Love" was the third played song of 2004, having 438,589 total plays. At the 48th Grammy Awards, the song won a Grammy Award
in the category for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.
Blake Lewis
, the runner-up on the sixth season
of American Idol
, performed the song on the show on May 15, 2007. Lewis' studio version was later released on the American Idol' s official website and in the American Idol Season 6: The Collector's Edition
, the compilation
of the studio versions of song performed by the finalists of Idol. British artist Limahl
also covered the song on the reality show Hit Me, Baby, One More Time. Former American Idol finalist John Stevens
did a cover of the single in his 2005 debut album Red
. Canadian singer-songwriter Michael Bublé
did a cover of the song on his DVD called Caught in the Act. A kid-friendly version of "This Love" was covered by the Kidz Bop Kids
from their 2004 album Kidz Bop 6
.
The song appeared as a track in the Nintendo DS
video game Guitar Hero: On Tour as well as being a part of the downloadable content library for Guitar Hero 5 (and by association, Band Hero
as they share the same catalog).
The Song was recently ranked number 32 of the VH1 100 Best Songs of the 00's
, peaking at #5. The track's Junior Vasquez Mixes remix topped the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. It also appeared in the Hot Dance Airplay
chart at number eighteen. "This Love" also reached number two on Billboard' s Top 40 Mainstream
. It also reached the top spot on Billboard' s Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks at the one spot, it stayed there for 10 weeks.The song was the top digital download of 2004. In 2007, the song re-entered the chart at the number 36 position on Billboard' s Hot Digital Songs
. According to Nielsen SoundScan
, by 2011, "This Love" had sold over 2,178,000 digital copies.
"This Love" reached the top ten in twelve countries. In the United Kingdom, it reached the number three spot in the UK Singles Chart
on May 1, 2004. It entered the top ten in France, Belgium, and Australia. The single reached the top five in Norway, Switzerland, Netherlands, Austria, and New Zealand. Elsewhere, "This Love" appeared on the Italy, Swiss, Germany, and Ireland music charts.
The music video for "This Love" was directed by Sophie Muller
. The video combines performance footage from the band in a courtyard in a Mexican soundstage and scenes of Adam Levine parting ways with a woman. According to Levine, the concept behind the music video was based on Prince
. "An overt sexuality confuses people, too. That video was a very 'pop star' thing to do."
The music video for "This Love" also features Levine and his then-girlfriend, model Kelly McKee, in a few intimate scenes. The video used creative camera angles, thereby avoiding possible FCC
action. A version of the video where a stream of computer-generated
flowers cover up more was created for more conservative markets. When asked about the video, Levine said: "It was surprisingly not weird and surprisingly not sexual. It was totally comfortable. I didn't get horny or anything, which was weird since I shot it with my girlfriend."
The video was controversial enough to cause critics to comment on it. Sylvia Patterson of The Daily Telegraph
described the video as a "porno-pop video". Bass player Michael Madden
, asked to comment on the controversy, said that it was "an absurd over-reaction."
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band Maroon 5
Maroon 5
Maroon 5 is an American pop rock band from Los Angeles, California. While they were in high school, lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Adam Levine, keyboardist Jesse Carmichael, bass guitarist Mickey Madden, and drummer Ryan Dusick formed a garage band called Kara's Flowers and released one album...
. The song was written by frontman Adam Levine
Adam Levine
Adam Noah Levine is an American singer-songwriter and musician, best known as the front man and guitarist for the pop rock band Maroon 5. He is also a coach on the American talent show The Voice.-Early life:...
for their debut album Songs About Jane
Songs about Jane
Songs About Jane is the debut album of American pop rock band Maroon 5, released June 25, 2002 on J Records and Octone Records. The album became a sleeper hit with help of five singles that attained chart success, including the Billboard hit "Harder to Breathe" and international hits "This Love"...
(2002). The track is built around a piano-led strut, which is immediately followed by synth percussion, a repeating guitar sound, and wry falsetto
Falsetto
Falsetto is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentous edges of the vocal folds, in whole or in part...
.
The song's lyrics are based on Adam Levine's break-up with a former girlfriend. He revealed that the song was written in the "most emotionally trying time" in his life. He also describes some of the lyrics in the song as sexual. "This Love" was well-received by music critics, who noted the track's musicscape. It was released on January 27, 2004 as the second single off Songs About Jane.
The single entered the top ten on most charts, topping several of Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
magazine's component charts, including reaching the number one spot on the Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks
Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks
Adult Top 40 is a variation on the United States Billboard charts...
chart. The music video was met with controversy, regarding extended intimate scenes between Levine and his then-girlfriend. "This Love" helped Maroon 5 win the MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist
MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist
The MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist is one of the four original general categories that have been given out since the first annual MTV Video Music Awards in 1984...
and was the third most played song of 2004. The song won Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals at the 2006 Grammy Awards, and, to date, is one of Maroon 5's most successful songs.
Background
"This Love" was the second single off of Maroon 5's 2002 debut album Songs About JaneSongs about Jane
Songs About Jane is the debut album of American pop rock band Maroon 5, released June 25, 2002 on J Records and Octone Records. The album became a sleeper hit with help of five singles that attained chart success, including the Billboard hit "Harder to Breathe" and international hits "This Love"...
. In an interview with MTV News
MTV News
MTV News is the news division of MTV, one of the first and most popular music television network in the U.S., as well as some of MTV's related channels around the world. MTV News began in the late 1980s with the program The Week In Rock, hosted by Kurt Loder, the first official MTV News correspondent...
in August 2002, Maroon 5 vocalist Adam Levine
Adam Levine
Adam Noah Levine is an American singer-songwriter and musician, best known as the front man and guitarist for the pop rock band Maroon 5. He is also a coach on the American talent show The Voice.-Early life:...
revealed that he wrote the song the day his girlfriend moved away when they broke up. In another interview, Levine revealed that the song was written in the "most emotionally trying time" in his life. He also added, "I was in a relationship that was ending, but I was really excited on the other end because the band was about to go make the record and I was ecstatic to go in the studio. She was literally leaving town within days of me writing the lyrics to 'This Love,' so I was in prime emotional condition to write a song with that kind of conflict."
Music and lyrics
During development of "This Love", the band admitted that the song was influenced by musician Stevie WonderStevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
. Written in the key of C minor
C minor
C minor is a minor scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. The harmonic minor raises the B to B. Changes needed for the melodic and harmonic versions of the scale are written in with naturals and accidentals as necessary.Its key signature consists of three flats...
, the beat
Beat (music)
The beat is the basic unit of time in music, the pulse of the mensural level . In popular use, the beat can refer to a variety of related concepts including: tempo, meter, rhythm and groove...
is set in common time
Common Time
"Common Time" is a science fiction short story written by James Blish. It first appeared in the August 1953 issue of Science Fiction Quarterly and has been reprinted several times: in the 1959 short-story collection Galactic Cluster; in The Testament of Andros ; in The Penguin Science Fiction...
and moves at a moderate 95 beats per minute. The introduction of "This Love" features a piano-led strut. Maroon 5 have admitted that "This Love" is a prime pop-rock song. The music featured in the song has a lot more rock-guitar crunch, and is considered a soulful and pop/rock song. According to Johnny Loftus of Allmusic, the music featured in the song has "a slick channeling of vintage R&B rhythms into punchy pop dynamics". Loftus felt that the song features "Levine's wry falsetto around strutting, bottom-heavy piano and percussion both programmed and live; chirping backup vocals and washes of sunny synth and flute acted as counterweights". Loftus also noted that the band has a "sexual charge" with the lyrics, "I tried my best to feed her appetite / To keep her coming every night / So hard to keep her satisfied". The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
's Steve Morse described the single's sounds as "a rocking yet soulful tale about the breakup of a relationship". Meghan Bard of The Daily Campus
The Daily Campus
The Daily Campus, founded in 1896, is a student-run newspaper at the University of Connecticut that has a circulation run of 8,000 copies weekdays during the school year and twice during the summer...
adds that the song has "Stevie Wonder-esque vocals and a funky R&B beat".
In an interview with Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
, when asked about the lyrics "Keep her coming every night" and "Sinking my fingertips into every inch of you", Levine said: "Yep, that's sexual, all right. I was so sick of typical lyrics like 'Ooh, baby' and 'I love you' and all this vague shit. I thought the more explicit I got without being totally explicit was a nice approach. The little girls would enjoy them, and it would go right over my grandparents' heads. But it would hit my ex-girlfriend like a ton of bricks. It was perfect." He also comments on how MTV played an edited version of the song for the music video, with the word "coming
Orgasm
Orgasm is the peak of the plateau phase of the sexual response cycle, characterized by an intense sensation of pleasure...
" edited out of the line "keep her coming every night". Levine noted, "MTV has now edited the language. They won't let me say, 'Keep her coming every night', and they took the sinking out of 'sinking my fingertips'. It's like fucking communist China. It's totally bizarre."
Reception
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...
noted that on the songs "This Love" and "Must Get Out", keyboardist Jesse Carmichael
Jesse Carmichael
Jesse Carmichael is an American musician who is the keyboardist for Maroon 5....
"manages to conjure up both the productions of Britney Spears and The New Radicals respectively". C. Spencer Beggs of The Observer wrote: "The second track, 'This Love', is sure follow. The two singles ['Harder to Breathe
Harder to Breathe
"Harder to Breathe" is a song by the American rock band Maroon 5. The song was written by frontman Adam Levine for the band's debut album Songs About Jane ....
' and 'This Love'] are the most poppy on the album, showing off Maroon 5's characteristic clean, crisp and upbeat sound." Sam Beresky of the Daily Lobo
University of New Mexico
The University of New Mexico at Albuquerque is a public research university located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the United States. It is the state's flagship research institution...
, who was less enthusiastic about the album, complimented the band on "This Love", in which he noted, "...'This Love', is a happier version of the first with a great backbeat reminiscent of Stevie Wonder's 'Superstition
Superstition (song)
"Superstition" is a popular song written, produced, arranged, and performed by Stevie Wonder for Motown Records in 1972, when Wonder was 22 years old. It was the lead single for Wonder's Talking Book album, and released in many countries. It reached number one in the USA, and number one on the soul...
'. It might make a foot tap, a head nod or even a booty shake if played at a loud volume."
In May 2004, musician John Mayer
John Mayer
John Clayton Mayer is an American pop rock and blues rock musician, singer-songwriter, recording artist, and music producer. Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut and raised in Fairfield, Connecticut, he attended Berklee College of Music in Boston. He moved to Atlanta in 1997, where he refined his...
told Rolling Stone that he liked the band's album Songs About Jane
Songs about Jane
Songs About Jane is the debut album of American pop rock band Maroon 5, released June 25, 2002 on J Records and Octone Records. The album became a sleeper hit with help of five singles that attained chart success, including the Billboard hit "Harder to Breathe" and international hits "This Love"...
. Mayer was also positive towards the song. "Once I heard 'This Love,' it was a light-fuse/stand-back kind of situation. It's one of those perfect songs you always hope to write." The single also strengthened Maroon 5's appeal, and helped position them as one of the year's break-out bands in 2004. It has since been remixed by Kanye West
Kanye West
Kanye Omari West is an American rapper, singer, and record producer. West first rose to fame as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, where he eventually achieved recognition for his work on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint, as well as hit singles for musical artists including Alicia Keys, Ludacris, and...
, titled "This Love (Kanye West remix)", in May 2004. The band released an EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
entitled 1.22.03.Acoustic
1.22.03.Acoustic
-Critical reception:Giving the EP a C grade, Entertainment Weekly said that "Maroon 5 cement their reputation as kings of the new faceless pop," adding, "Adam Levine...sounds more grating than usual without the much-needed studio gloss."...
, which features "This Love", however, in an acoustic version. The song was featured in the video game Guitar Hero: On Tour
Guitar Hero: On Tour series
Guitar Hero: On Tour is a series of music video games based on the Guitar Hero series for the Nintendo DS handheld game system. The series is developed by Vicarious Visions and distributed by RedOctane and Activision...
in 2008.
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
(SNL) in February 2004. The band won the MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist
MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist
The MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist is one of the four original general categories that have been given out since the first annual MTV Video Music Awards in 1984...
for the music video of "This Love" in 2004. Also in 2004, the song was nominated for Choice Rock Track at the Teen Choice Awards. In the Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems
Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems
Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems, better known as BDS, is a service that tracks monitored radio, television and internet airplay of songs based on the number of spins and detections...
, "This Love" was the third played song of 2004, having 438,589 total plays. At the 48th Grammy Awards, the song won a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
in the category for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.
Blake Lewis
Blake Lewis
Blake Colin Lewis is an American singer-songwriter and beatboxer who was the runner-up on the sixth season of American Idol. His major label debut album A.D.D. was released on December 4, 2007 through 19 Recordings/Arista Records. On October 30, 2007, his first single "Break Anotha" was released....
, the runner-up on the sixth season
American Idol (Season 6)
The sixth season of American Idol premiered on the Fox Broadcasting Company as a two-night, four-hour premiere special on January 16 and January 17, and ran until May 23, 2007. Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, and Randy Jackson returned to judge once again, and Ryan Seacrest returned as host...
of American Idol
American Idol
American Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...
, performed the song on the show on May 15, 2007. Lewis' studio version was later released on the American Idol
American Idol Season 6: Greatest Hits
American Idol: Greatest Hits was released on iTunes on June 12, 2007. The album was finally released almost a month after the May finale. The album contains 11 cover songs, by the finalists and Jordin Sparks' winning single. The Collector's Edition contains 76 songs and includes cover songs by...
, the compilation
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
of the studio versions of song performed by the finalists of Idol. British artist Limahl
Limahl
Christopher Hamill better known by his stage name Limahl is an English pop singer. He rose to fame as the lead singer of the 1980s pop group Kajagoogoo, before embarking on a briefly successful solo career, which reached its peak with the 1984 hit "The NeverEnding Story", taken from the film of...
also covered the song on the reality show Hit Me, Baby, One More Time. Former American Idol finalist John Stevens
John Stevens (singer)
John Bassat Stevens IV is an American classic pop singer and was the sixth-place finalist on the third season of the television series American Idol.-Biography:...
did a cover of the single in his 2005 debut album Red
Red (John Stevens album)
Red is the debut album recorded by American Idol 3 contestant John Stevens. The album peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot Jazz Albums chart, and the song "Come Fly with Me", reached number 27 on the Hot Singles Sales chart.-Track listing:...
. Canadian singer-songwriter Michael Bublé
Michael Bublé
Michael Steven Bublé is a Canadian singer. He has won several awards, including three Grammy Awards and multiple Juno Awards. His first album reached the top ten in Canada and the UK. He found worldwide commercial success with his 2005 album It's Time, and his 2007 album Call Me Irresponsible was...
did a cover of the song on his DVD called Caught in the Act. A kid-friendly version of "This Love" was covered by the Kidz Bop Kids
Kidz Bop
Kidz Bop is a brand of compilation albums featuring child session musicians performing contemporary music. The series was developed by Razor & Tie co-founders Cliff Chenfeld and Craig Balsam in 2001...
from their 2004 album Kidz Bop 6
Kidz Bop 6
Kidz Bop 6 is the sixth album in the Kidz Bop series, released on August 10, 2004.-Track listing:#Jessica Simpson - With You – 3:12#Maroon 5 - This Love – 3:37#Hilary Duff - Come Clean – 3:31#Jet - Are You Gonna Be My Girl – 3:34...
.
The song appeared as a track in the Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
video game Guitar Hero: On Tour as well as being a part of the downloadable content library for Guitar Hero 5 (and by association, Band Hero
Band Hero
Band Hero is a spinoff video game as part of the Guitar Hero series of music video games, released by Activision on November 3, 2009, for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii and Nintendo DS consoles...
as they share the same catalog).
The Song was recently ranked number 32 of the VH1 100 Best Songs of the 00's
Chart performance
The single was officially released to radio in North America in January 2004, although the music video was released six months later. "This Love" appeared on the Billboard Hot 100Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
, peaking at #5. The track's Junior Vasquez Mixes remix topped the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. It also appeared in the Hot Dance Airplay
Hot Dance Airplay
Dance/Mix Show Airplay is a monitored electronic dance music radio chart that is featured weekly in Billboard magazine. The chart came about as a result of the small but influential impact of electronic dance music on the radio in the United States and the stations that program it...
chart at number eighteen. "This Love" also reached number two on Billboard
Mainstream Top 40 (Pop Songs)
The Mainstream Top 40 is an airplay chart from Billboard magazine, and is also known as Pop Songs on billboard.com. It was often mistaken for and confused with the now discontinued Pop 100 Airplay chart...
. It also reached the top spot on Billboard
Hot Digital Songs
The Hot Digital Songs chart ranks the best-selling digital singles in the United States, according to Billboard.Beginning in February 2005, digital sales have been incorporated into many of Billboards music single charts. It was decided to do so mainly because of the dramatic rise in popularity of...
. According to Nielsen SoundScan
Nielsen SoundScan
Nielsen SoundScan is an information and sales tracking system created by Mike Fine and Mike Shalett. Soundscan is the official method of tracking sales of music and music video products throughout the United States and Canada...
, by 2011, "This Love" had sold over 2,178,000 digital copies.
"This Love" reached the top ten in twelve countries. In the United Kingdom, it reached the number three spot in the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
on May 1, 2004. It entered the top ten in France, Belgium, and Australia. The single reached the top five in Norway, Switzerland, Netherlands, Austria, and New Zealand. Elsewhere, "This Love" appeared on the Italy, Swiss, Germany, and Ireland music charts.
Music video
Sophie Muller
Sophie Muller is a British music video director, noted for her long-time collaborations with artists like Sophie Ellis-Bextor, No Doubt, Sade, Shakira, Shakespears Sister, Garbage, Blur, Annie Lennox and Eurythmics.-Background:...
. The video combines performance footage from the band in a courtyard in a Mexican soundstage and scenes of Adam Levine parting ways with a woman. According to Levine, the concept behind the music video was based on Prince
Prince (musician)
Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...
. "An overt sexuality confuses people, too. That video was a very 'pop star' thing to do."
The music video for "This Love" also features Levine and his then-girlfriend, model Kelly McKee, in a few intimate scenes. The video used creative camera angles, thereby avoiding possible FCC
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
action. A version of the video where a stream of computer-generated
Computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in art, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...
flowers cover up more was created for more conservative markets. When asked about the video, Levine said: "It was surprisingly not weird and surprisingly not sexual. It was totally comfortable. I didn't get horny or anything, which was weird since I shot it with my girlfriend."
The video was controversial enough to cause critics to comment on it. Sylvia Patterson of The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
described the video as a "porno-pop video". Bass player Michael Madden
Michael Madden (musician)
Mickey Madden is an American musician. Madden is best known for being the bassist in the pop rock band Maroon 5....
, asked to comment on the controversy, said that it was "an absurd over-reaction."
Charts
| Chart (2004) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Ireland (IRMA Irish Singles Chart The Irish Singles Chart is Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on behalf of the IRMA by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured... ) |
6 |
| Netherlands (Dutch Top 40 Dutch Top 40 The Dutch Top 40 is a weekly music chart, which started as the "Veronica Top 40", because the offshore radio station Radio Veronica was the first to introduce it. It remained "The Veronica Top 40" until 1974, when the station was forced to stop broadcasting... ) |
3 |
| UK Singles (The Official Charts Company UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... ) |
3 |
Track listing
- "This Love" (album version)
- "This Love" (video)
- "Harder to Breathe" (acoustic)
- "The Sun" (acoustic)