What do you think Animals means?

Maroon 5: Animals Meaning

Album cover for Animals album cover

Song Released: 2014


Animals Lyrics


Baby I'm preying on you tonight
Hunt you down eat you alive
Just like animals
Animals
Like animals

Maybe you think that you can hide
I can smell your scent for miles
Just like animals
Animals
Like animals
Baby I'm

So what you...

  1. 1TOP RATED

    #1 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
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    Jan 13th 2017 !⃝

    He follows her around because of his strong attraction to her. She might get the feeling that she’s being watched, because in the music video, she turns to look behind her. His obsession with her is out of control. He examines pictures of her, various parts… like her eyes and lips. He takes these pictures of her, and sorts through them. “Maybe you think that you can hide.” Implies she is on the run. She knows about him, but she is hiding… I’m guessing recently moved. “I love your lies. I’ll eat them up.” She tries to convince him and herself that she doesn’t love him. He knows it’s not true. When he’s inside her, they both come alive. “You can start over, you can run free, you can find other fish in the sea.” He’s telling her, go on and date the guy she’s with or other guys, but she’s his. She can’t stay away from the sex. “You can pretend it’s meant to be.” I take it as she’s living a lie with another guy, and he’s saying go ahead and pretend her lover is the one. He says it almost mocking her. He knows he’s the best at it, or at least she likes the way he does it more. “So what you trying to do to me” She’s torturing him. “It's like we can't stop, we're enemies, But we get along when I'm inside you, eh. You're like a drug that's killing me” They obviously have been together at one point. They both treat each other badly. Maybe when they were together she used him for sex, and he’s addicted. “I cut you out entirely. But I get so high when I'm inside you” He tried to forget about her, but can’t. “I can still hear you making that sound.” Her moans. “Baby I'm preying on you tonight. Hunt you down eat you alive” He’s found her. He wants to eat her up. The song is about strong attraction to someone you can’t let go of. The guy resorts to stalking. In the video he takes pictures of her while she sleeps, and lays on her bed. She doesn’t know he’s around. I don’t think he means to hurt her, or he would have. He just wants to be near her. There’s also the scene when they both are doing it, and blood is on their bodies. I think it’s symbolic for how evil or dirty their love making is. She looks like she’s into it, completely his. At the club, he tries to say hi, but she brushes him off. Either this was before their relationship and she isn’t interested, or she knows exactly who he is, and she’s tired of him. I really think she only wanted sex from him in the past, and nothing more. She tried moving on, and they both can’t. He doesn’t really care what she does. The way she gives herself to him is insane. Look at her in their love scenes. That’s all he wants. Her to want him as much as he wants her. I think he gets off on stalking her.

  2. 2TOP RATED

    #2 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Oct 13th 2014 !⃝

    I think it's about two people with an intense physical attraction. They know they aren't good for each other and she keep trying to end it, but the physical part is so good they keeping coming back to each other. I didn't interpret this as rape at all. Rape is usually about control and violence not attraction.

  3. 3TOP RATED

    #3 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Oct 16th 2014 !⃝

    Although a lot of people seem to think this is a song about rape, a lot at certain lyrics show clearly that it isn't. The man in the story of the song is expressing his intense attraction for a woman. He can't stay away from her and neither can she stay away from him.

    http://lyricshark.blogspot.com/2014/10/is-animals-by-maroon-5-song-about-rape.html

  4. barryjohnson69
    click a star to vote
    Nov 13th 2023 !⃝

    Adam Lavinge wrote this song about his experience using the app Grindr. A truly primal experience. Grindr is a game of predator and prey, just as described in the song. It can be an anonymous experience, but there are in some cases, the extreme of being stalked after your hook up.

  5. anonymous
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    Jun 4th 2022 !⃝

    I’m speaking from an older point of view. I view this as being about a strong former relationship, maybe even a marriage, that didn’t work out for a reason other than not loving each other. Those emotions don’t disappear overnight and sometimes not ever. You might fight it, try to stay away from each other, move on to new relationships but the emotions and memories don’t go away. Everytime you are near each other or even hear about each other all of those feelings rise to the surface and given the chance you will likely react and re-experience those things even knowing that afterward you will walk away again. Some loves are too strong to ever forget. Personal experience -you bet! I understood the song as soon as I heard it. That love lasted through a long, loving and successful marriage to someone else but that other lover and I could be in the same area and know when the other one was nearby, still following each other’s “scent.” (Hard to hide but do-able). Sometimes one would secretly and discretely seek out the other (pursue) just to re-experience that remembered thrill. Some loves are too strong to break. Everyone’s own experiences will make them hear a song differently. This song can sound very sensual to one and equally sinister to another. Isn’t that the beauty of any song?








  6. anonymous
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    Jan 5th 2020 !⃝

    It’s so obvious what this song is about. He is obsessed with this girl and will do anything to have her. He stalks her and fantasizes about what he wants to do to or with her. It’s quite disturbing, especially with all this sex trafficking stuff going on and the kidnapping and murders of young women. I can’t believe I used to play this song over and over and loved it so much ... but then I actually listened to the lyrics and saw the video. Thinking about my daughters who are away at college, hoping and praying that they are safe each and every day literally makes me ill and to see something like this, makes it all too real

  7. anonymous
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    Jul 31st 2018 !⃝

    You are all wrong. Animals in Malagasy is 'Biby'. This clearly sounds like 'baby'. This song is therefore about a cannibal who hunts down babies to eat. This is expressed even further in the lines 'Baby I'm preying on you tonight
    Hunt you down eat you alive'. This is clearly a disturbing song and due to my religion I am not allowed to listen to it and I suggest no one else does.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  8. anonymous
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    Apr 4th 2018 !⃝

    I agree, the man is a stalker, he sees a beautiful young woman, he follows her around and hides. The woman gets the feeling that she’s being watched, the man takes pictures of her and keeps them for himself. He wants to have sex with her. So I can say that the lyrics mean that that the man is a rapist and is totally obsessed with a woman he sees and wants to have sex with her, he has a strong sexual desire with the woman. But doing stuff like that is wrong however. He could’ve made the woman angry and embarrassed, that is something that the man is supposed to learn, not being a stalker/rapist, not flirting with some woman, and has to be patient when the woman comes to him. This sexual man has to do the right thing to win that woman. You see what I’m saying, if you guys want to be sexual, then that’s fine, not for using a woman you can have, but for lust, kind of.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  9. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Apr 4th 2018 !⃝

    I agree, the man is a stalker, he sees a beautiful young woman, he follows her around and hides. The woman gets the feeling that she’s being watched, the man takes pictures of her and keeps them for himself. He wants to have sex with her. So I can say that the lyrics mean that that the man is a rapist and is totally obsessed with a woman he sees and wants to have sex with her, he has a strong sexual desire with the woman. But doing stuff like that is wrong however. He could’ve made the woman angry and embarrassed, that is something that the man is supposed to learn, not being a stalker/rapist, not flirting with some woman, and has to be patient when the woman comes to him. This sexual man has to do the right thing to win that woman. You see what I’m saying, if you guys want to be sexual, that’s your loss, and I don’t care if you think sex is good, that’s just weird!

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  10. anonymous
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    Nov 20th 2017 !⃝

    I think this "Animals" song is mean someone obsessed with a beautiful woman or what I call Yandere

  11. anonymous
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    Jul 1st 2017 !⃝

    The song lyrics and video, so clear to interpret.
    We are not animals! We do not trick our minds because we have a brain and we have a heart! We absolutely are conscious about everything. Marriages are not a lie and monogamy are for those who have found their true love. Cheating is dishonesty, unfaithfulness, and disloyalty! A significant other or partner should not be shared and allowed to be loved by another because it becomes OPEN RELATIONSHIPS AND POLYGAMY! Jealousy is REAL and it means being threatened that your partner will fall in love with another! Men and Women are to love and be loved BUT not to have sexual relations with a lot of people. Being an Animal will not make you find true love, true joy, and true happiness.
    Best of luck for you!
    I THINK LOVE NO LONGER EXISTS ONLY LUST NOWADAYS! GOODLUCK MAN

  12. anonymous
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    Jun 30th 2017 !⃝

    It's about human nature and how we trick our minds into believing we are in love when the kind of love that's taught is actually obsession and compulsion. We are animals but something more. This alludes many people bc they don't want to ruin fantasies of how they believe life should look. All marriages are a lie and a sham, monogamy was made up for financial reasons. Cheating really isn't a crime. We are animals and supposed to share and love each other, jealousy isn't real either, it was a taught trait. Women are love and we love other women too. It's showing how ass backwards society is set up and will fail...very soon.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  13. anonymous
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    Jan 19th 2017 !⃝

    I love your lies, I'll eat them up. - Those lines shows how far gone his mind is. He's lost it. He thinks she's still into him and fantasizes about him. He tells her not to lie and not to deny what she feels. I think the relationship was toxic so she left and he wants her back. That's why he goes looking for her.

  14. anonymous
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    Jan 16th 2017 !⃝

    A wolf will howl to mark their territory. In this song Adam howls, marking her as part of what he owns. The stalker sees a beautiful stranger and gets into a relationship with her. She breaks it off wanting to move on and moves away. "Maybe you think you can hide" gives that much away. She gets a new boyfriend. The guy without the facial hair in the love scenes is her new boy toy. Adam is having a nightmare remembering her and her new guy do it. It's something he saw on one of the nights that he was outside watching her only in his nightmare the two are covered in blood. He wakes up from it at the end of the video. He stays nearbye always stalking her. Shes his prey and whats his is his and he doesn't care what she does or who she's with. She'll come back to him and he thinks she's just going through a phase of denial. He does break into her place but doesn't have the courage to do much more than that.

  15. anonymous
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    Dec 2nd 2016 !⃝

    The song is a reply to Robin Thickes song Blurred Lines. Their song talks about taking advantage of women when they're drunk, and just joking around about it and the song Animals by Maroon 5 talks about what really goes downs.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  16. anonymous
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    Oct 28th 2016 !⃝

    It seems to me that the song is sung from the perspective of a stalker. The stalker is stalking a woman and has become obsessed with her. The lyrics "you can start over, you can run free, you can find other fish in the sea" mean that she can do all she can, change her name, whatever, he'll always be able to find her, and he will always want to stalk her even if she isn't with him, hence the "hunt you down" and "smell you for miles". Most of my opinion is based on the music video, unless the video has nothing to do with the meaning of the song, that is what it would I would think the meaning was.

  17. anonymous
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    Jun 11th 2016 !⃝

    I think its about a guy who breaks up with a girl and stalks her as well as breaks into her house to watch her sleep. Or they never dated and he puts himself in the position of these men he sees her with and stalks her hence the lyric "hunt you down..." but yeah. Its about breaking and entering, stalking, and even possible rape. TBH the video makes me think of American Horror story based on the meaning of the song itself which is kind of creepy.

  18. anonymous
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    May 20th 2016 !⃝

    I found the song to show him stalking her. They were never in a relationship but he watched her have sex with another man. He puts himself there and becomes addicted to her. He stalks her and sleeps with her at night. But he no courage to act upon his feelings. When he says "eat you alive" he means eat up her in love. He wants to have her and potentially marry her. Or possibly just have sex?

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