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About

Genius Annotation

“Maps” is a single by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs from their debut full-length album, Fever to Tell (2003).

It was released on February 10, 2004, and the band performed the song at that year’s MTV Movie Awards. It reached #9 on Billboard’s hot modern rock chart and was included in the popular video game Rock Band.

The song is about the relationship between Liars frontman Angus Andrew and Yeah Yeah Yeahs lead singer Karen O.

Karen O’s tears in the music video were quite real as she explained:

They were real tears. My boyfriend at the time was supposed to come to the shoot – he was three hours late and I was just about to leave for tour. I didn’t think he was even going to come and this was the song that was written for him. He eventually showed up and I got myself in a real emotional state.

While there have been suggestions that the title of the song is an acronym for “My Angus Please Stay”, there continues to be no confirmation from Karen O or any of the other writers of the song.

Q&A

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

What did Yeah Yeah Yeahs say about "Maps"?
Genius Answer

To write a love song that stands the test of time … that’s all I ever wanted to do. Especially as I’m a hopeless romantic. So this song is pretty important to me. It came completely out of the ether.
He [Angus Andrew] was on tour, and we never saw each other, and I hated it, so I emailed: ‘Why do they get to be with you? They don’t love you like I love you.‘
Karen O for The Guardian

What has the media said about the song?
Genius Answer

In 2018, NPR ranked this as the #2 greatest song by a female or nonbinary artist in the 21st century, saying:

Slathered in olive oil, wearing a white tank top with her nipples covered by duct tape hearts: That’s how Karen O stepped onstage at New York City’s Mercury Lounge for Yeah Yeah Yeahs' first public gig. It was September 2000, and the band were opening for the White Stripes. This was three years before Yeah Yeah Yeahs would drop the debut album, Fever to Tell, that would feature ‘Maps,’ and the night I imagine many people first learned they wanted to be Karen O. She took the existing frontwoman rulebook, drenched it in punk guts and sweat and wrung it out to die. This is not feminist critique through the rearview mirror; this was by design. Of being in an ‘all-dudes rock world,’ O has said: ‘I had to scream and break things to make people listen to me, but they did.’

Upon its release, ‘Maps’ was not the stuff of 2003 mainstream radio. But in the then-brand-new era of online music discovery where fans were first becoming tastemakers (and thanks in large part to a much-seen music video featuring Karen O’s real tears), it wasn’t long before popular radio was listening to Yeah Yeah Yeahs too. Some critics say the success of ‘Maps’ served as the, well, roadmap for many of the smash indie-pop crossover hits of the early aughts. Karen O says she just wanted to ‘fuck shit up.’ Either way, we can safely say, job done.

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