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Artist News Releases
Maroon 5 embarrassed by album title’s accidental association with ‘men’s rights’ movement
By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 2 November 2017
Maroon 5 have admitted that the title of their new album, ‘Red Pill Blues’, is terrible. It’s only a short step now to them making the same acknowledgment of their music too. Although the issue with the album title is its accidental association with the men’s rights movement, which somehow remains a thing.
The band actually named the album in reference to the scene in the 1999 movie ‘The Matrix’, in which Keanu Reeves’ character Neo is asked to take a red pill to reveal the true nature of the world or a blue one to go back to his normal life. Men’s rights activists (I know I just pointed this out, but I think it’s worth saying again: still a thing) have co-opted this idea to mark their moment of realisation that women have no business having as nice a time as they do.
It’s possible you had no idea that this was the case, on account of you not being a fucking idiot. The band seemingly had no inkling that the title would prove controversial either, leading to their publicist having to send out a statement saying that the record “does not have any relation” to the men’s right’s movement (which is a thing).
“We didn’t really understand the whole men’s rights thing”, guitarist James Valentine tells the Huffington Post, discussing the thing that is still a thing. “We’re like, ‘Oh man, of course, like 2017 is the worst'”.
I thought 2016 was the worst, and 2017 was the year where we just accepted that everything was terrible. At least David Bowie didn’t die this year.
Anyway, Valentine continues: “Seeing the world for what it is in 2017 can be kind of rough. We had no idea about the association with men’s rights. Hopefully, everyone knows from all of our pasts – from our statements on the issue and our actions in the past – that we are all hardcore feminists in the band. So that’s a horrible association to have. The internet trolls have to ruin everything”.
I think technically the Wackowskis ruined ‘The Matrix’ with those awful sequels, but… on, no, I see what he means. The album title. I forget that not everyone’s default position on Maroon 5 is that anything to do with them is awful.
As for whether the band would consider changing the name of the album, which is out this Friday, Valentine says: “It’s out there and I think it’s maybe too late. I think maybe we can reclaim [it] for the good side”.
The good side? Oh, now Maroon 5 and I are on the same side? Let’s just add that to the list of terrible things the men’s rights movement (a thing) is responsible for.
