[4][5] Tired of touring and promotional interviews, Alexander disbanded the group in mid-1999 before the release of their second single, "Someday We'll Know", to focus on writing and producing songs for other artists.

Alexander and Brisebois' songwriting partnership continued following the disbanding of the group, with the two being nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2015 for their composition "Lost Stars" from the film Begin Again.

Brisebois had been a child actress in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and had portrayed the character of Stephanie Mills on the sitcoms All in the Family and Archie Bunker's Place.

Most of the musicians who worked on Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too were friends of Alexander and Brisebois, including piano player Paul Gordon, drummers Matt Laug and Josh Freese, guitarist Rusty Anderson, guitarist Michael James (who also mixed the band's music); bassists Paul Bushnell, Dan Rothchild and John Pierce; percussionist Lenny Castro, pianist Greg Phillinganes, and producer Rick Nowels.

Other musicians who were at some point part of the live line-up include drummer Stuart Johnson, guitarist Bradley Fernquist, keyboardist Jim McGorman and bassist Sasha Krivtsov.

[8] New Radicals were formed in Los Angeles in 1997 by Gregg Alexander, who had previously released two unsuccessful solo albums, 1989's Michigan Rain and 1992's Intoxifornication.

Michael Rosenblatt, MCA Records' A&R Senior Vice President, signed the band in December 1997,[9] and Alexander received a $600,000 advance for their first (and only) album, Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too.

The reviewers compared its funk and soul-influenced upbeat pop rock to the early work of Prince and Mick Jagger.

In large part this attention focused on the celebrity-slamming line "Fashion shoots with Beck and Hanson / Courtney Love and Marilyn Manson / You're all fakes run to your mansions / Come around we'll kick your ass in."

When asked about it in an interview, Marilyn Manson replied he was "not mad that [Alexander] said he'd kick my ass, I just don't want to be used in the same sentence with Courtney Love" and would "crack his skull open if I see him.

"[16] Following the mass media's excitement about the celebrity insults, Alexander explained that the verse, along with the lines directly preceding it ("Health insurance rip off lying / FDA big bankers buying / Fake computer crashes dining / Cloning while they're multiplying") were an experiment to see if the media would focus on the real issues, or on the celebrity ridicule.

[2] Similar complaints and attacks on Christian religion, American society, politics and corporations can be found in other songs on the album as well, and Alexander would often use promotional interviews to talk about these topics, complaining about—among other things—corrupt, greedy politicians and corporate officers, credit card interest, the poor American social security system, and lack of education.

He went on to say that he "accomplished all of [his] goals with this record" and that "the fatigue of traveling & getting three hours sleep in a different hotel every night to do boring 'hanging and schmoozing' with radio and retail people, is definitely not for [him]", that he "lost interest in fronting a 'One Hit Wonder' to the point that [he] was wearing a hat while performing so that people wouldn't see [his] lack of enthusiasm" and that he would go on to form a production company to focus on producing and writing songs freelance for other artists.

In the years following New Radicals' breakup, Alexander worked with artists including Ronan Keating, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Enrique Iglesias; he often collaborated with producer/songwriter Rick Nowels.

[24] Alexander told Rolling Stone that he was unable to reunite the original New Radicals touring band for the performance due to COVID-19-related restrictions, and he and Brisebois were instead accompanied by musicians from the Philadelphia area.

[26] Since their breakup, New Radicals' songs have been used for several commercials and trailers (for example the trailer to 1999's Big Daddy with Adam Sandler, the 2001 film Bubble Boy, the 2011 American musical comedy film The Muppets, and the 2006 film Click), TV shows (like Scrubs, Community, JAG, Dawson's Creek, and Daria), on soundtracks (such as A Walk to Remember, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, Click and Surf's Up) and covered by artists such as Mandy Moore and Jon Foreman (lead singer of Switchfoot) and Hall & Oates (both covered "Someday We'll Know"–Moore and Foreman on the soundtrack to A Walk to Remember, Hall & Oates on their 2003 album Do It For Love).

Ronan Keating also covered the song during his 2002 Destination Everywhere tour and included "You Get What You Give" in his celebrity playlist on iTunes, as did Joni Mitchell on her Artist's Choice CD, released by Starbucks' Hear Music.

Shawnna's 2006 song "Chicago" from the album Block Music samples the opening line from Moore and Foreman's version of "Someday We'll Know".