Song Spotlight: Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps

“Wait, they don't love you like I love you”! If you’re anything like us, then you’ve probably had Yeah Yeah Yeahs ‘Maps’ stuck in your head. Join us as we delve into this viral hit!

Image by phoenixlilyvia Flickr

Released in 2003, ‘Maps’ appeared on American indie rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ debut full-length album, Fever to Tell. Exploring the relationship between lead singer Karen O and her then-boyfriend, Angus Andrew (frontman of Australian-American experimental rock band Liars), this love song and its vulnerable lyrics surprisingly came together in just five minutes!

In a 2019 interview with BBC Radio 6 Music, Karen O revealed that the song “just happened so kinda effortlessly and so incidentally”, with her overhearing bandmate, Nick Zinner, playing a sample in his room, and moments later she was “singing basically the lyrics to it then it was there”.

Image by ChrisGoldNYvia Flickr

The song’s music video features the band performing an audition in a high school gymnasium, accompanied by colour-changing lights and Karen O crying - with those genuinely being her real tears! Angus Andrew was meant to join the shoot to see her before she left for tour, but he arrived three hours late, which left her feeling emotional - especially since the song was written for him.

Image by Raph_PHvia Wikimedia Commons

Since its release, ‘Maps’ remains one of the band’s signature songs, and has continuously been covered, sampled and interpolated. Beyoncé notably interpolated the track on her 2016 song ‘Hold Up’, through the lyrics "Hold up, they don't love you like I love you", which were based on a 2011 tweet by Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend paraphrasing ‘Maps’. The song also served as inspiration for Kelly Clarkson’s 2004 hit, Since U Been Gone.

Image by Raph_PHvia Wikimedia Commons

Significantly, over 20 years later, ‘Maps’ has seen a resurgence in popularity due to multiple TikTok trends, including: a filter (where users’ facial features are removed, and they have to place them back on), a dance (where users stick out their hand in a stop sign gesture, shake their hips side to side, and hit their hips with their hands), and a sped-up version of the track. This traction led to ‘Maps’ topping the US TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart in October 2024.

Video by lazyyjayvia TikTok

Video by user_18373563848via TikTok

Image by Raph_PHvia Wikimedia Commons

It’s clear that we all really do love this indie classic, and it’s not stopping anytime soon!

Image by Raph_PHvia Wikimedia Commons

Thumbnail Image by phoenixlily via Flickr

Featured Image by Scott Penner from Ottawa, Canadavia Wikimedia Commons