The "Maps" Music Video is Seriously Dark

Let it never be said that Adam Levine doesn't know how to be dramatic. When Maroon 5 first dropped the single "Maps", it came as a disappointment to longtime fans who had been hoping that their new music would start to sound more like their old music. After all, no matter how you felt about them when Songs About Jane first came out, no one can deny that Maroon 5 has gotten a lot more commercial pop since their inception. For a relatively cheerful song (in sound if not in content), however, the music video for Maroon 5's "Maps" was incredibly dark and dramatic.

It was a lot like watching a more scarily realistic version of "Misery". In that music video, Adam Levine spends most of his time running from a crazed girlfriend with whom he is in a violent relationship, but the violence is so over-the-top that we don't cringe away as much as we could. "Maps", on the other hand, is darker in that it is all too realistic. Oh, sure, it's pretty melodramatic for your girlfriend to die the same night that she catches you cheating at a party, but "Maps" felt like a commentary on freak accidents and how a single instant, a single mistake, can change your whole world in an instant.

From the moment the music video opens with Levine racing into the Emergency Room to see the battered and bleeding body of the woman we later learn is his girlfriend, you know it's going to go to places completely at odds with the bouncy chorus. It's more than a little jarring, but it's also really poignant. And kind of disturbing. And pretty well-done, all things considered.

The lyrics, "I like to think that we had it all. We drew a map to a better place, but on that road I took a fall. Oh, baby, why did you run away?" suddenly take on a darker turn in light of watching the music video to accompany the song. If there's one thing to take away from this representation of "Maps", it's to never cheat on your girlfriend or she might run out and get hit by a car. Or, you know, a more metaphorical interpretation of that general theme.

Watch the video below.