Commenting here because I’m your 10k sub 🎉

"Imagine all the dragons" - John Lennon

I'd call them the Maroon 5 of the 2010s if not for the fact that Maroon 5 also managed to stick around in the 2010s.

so they started off as theater kids? honestly checks the fuck out

Are you on the radio because you're popular? Or are you popular because you're played on the radio?

I’ll be mocked mercilessly for this but as someone who mostly listens to rock… I’ve never really minded them much, they’re just not rock, lol. I don’t find their music particularly bad on its own (not something I’d choose to listen to but not totally unlistenable, just mid), but I think their fanbase acting like it’s the MOST INTENSE EPIC THING ON EARTH, and them really leaning into that persona in recent years is what makes them seem so cringe now. I remember a few years back they had more of a wholesome reputation along the lines of owl city or pentatonix

For me imagine dragons was a good entry level band, it was a good starting point for my music taste in middle school but after smoke and mirrors I stopped listening to them.

The Imagine Dragons reputation has changed so much, I legitimately forgot they are the artist behind “It’s Time.” You just reminded me there actually is an Imagine Dragons song I genuinely enjoy!

At first it shocked me on the musical theatre vibe of their original music, but then it started to make sense that Imagine Dragons would be into that

I feel like most of the hate came from the media miss genreing them as rock. And it really made the rock fanbase mad when billboard made the top 10 rock songs of the 2010's with ID being in the top three. ID has claimed their music as genreless. But the media screws them over by miss labeling them as rock. I guarantee if you search their name up on google, one month it will say Alt Rock, the next it will say pop.

Their mainstream singles are mid, but their smaller songs buried in the albums are actually quite cool

Imagine Dragons has always been one of my favorites, but I can 100% agree that they're just pop. The music is fun, I vibe with most of their stuff, that's all that matters

Thunder is one of the worst songs ever

Still think Amsterdam is one of the best songs of the early 2010s, really wish they'd stuck with that sound

Weird lore for you that only I know. One of my neighbors was a dude named Chad Mustard. Chad was married to Andrew Tolmans sister. Chad is the brother of Donald Mustard who created Fortnite. So the imagine dragon dynasty is technically connected to Fortnite. Weird right?

i’ve been a fan of them since the early days, so it’s cool to see someone who doesn’t have that history with them discussing their discography and history on such a deep level. just wish you had spent more time talking about Smoke + Mirrors because that’s been my personal favorite since it was released, and it often gets completely overlooked when people discuss them as a band.

I remember seeing some bathroom graffiti that said, "Imagine Dragons is just spicy Nickelback".

In fact, I think the peak of their career was the album Smoke and Mirrors. even after 10 years, I'm kind of shocked by many of the instrumental solutions. It sounds like an amazing album where they found a balance between indie and their signature sound. However, after the vocalist came out from depression in 2016, he stopped writing dark, deep, lyrical lyrics with complex arrangements and switched to extremely exaggerated lifeless pop music. as he wrote himself, he is no longer interested in creating such deep music because his mind has cleared or something like that.

I was really into Imagine Dragons in middle school. I spent countless hours listening to Night Visions, and when Smoke + Mirrors dropped I listened to that nonstop as well. I started caring less about them around the time Evolve came out, and by Origins I'd checked out entirely. I listened to Eyes Closed out of curiosity recently, but turned it off after a minute due to how cringe it was. I wouldn't say they sold out as much as they flanderized. A lot of the elements of current day Imagine Dragons were present on their first two albums, but they were balanced out by other influences. My suspicion is that, after the more original and experimental (if you can call it that) Smoke + Mirrors underperformed, they tossed any sort of organic or unique sound left over from their early days out the window to begin chasing hits, which would bring them massive success on their follow up (though I will defend Walking The Wire and Whatever It Takes, those are bops).

I didn't know "It's time" was an Imagine Dragons song. I always assumed that was the Killers or something. Wow. Imagine Dragons really changed over time.

I really enjoyed Imagine Dragons when they released Night Visions, and Smoke + Mirrors is probably my favorite album from them. The latter, for me, is when they struck perfect balance of their old indie sound with the more pop inspired sound that they continued to strive for. I really miss that era and really they’d do more experimentation like what appeared on that album

I think imagine dragons first two albums were ACTUALLY good, being well produced isn’t bad; not everything has to sound like it’s being recorded through a microphone inside a toilet in order to be “good”.

I wonder if in 10 years we’ll start getting nostalgia for them like how we all of a sudden started appreciating Creed.

Imagine Dragons and many 'modern' rock acts fall under the category of 'pop/rock' as well as the 'soft rock' sub genre. These sub-genre's have always blurred the lines between rock and pop. And this is not a new phenomenon either, the Beatles are basically the forefathers of the entire sub-genre's and are a classic example of how the line is blurry between Rock and Pop, people were having debates in the 60's about whether certain acts should be classified as pop or rock or both or neither. Imagine Dragons are obviously not as good as the Beatles, but they are a good example of the problems of classifying genre's. Especially now with the continued success of Pop Rock alongside the resurgence of Country Rock (combining American Country Music with Rock Elements), Pop Punk (combing Pop with Punk rock elements) as well as so called 'emo rap' (combining Rap music with Emo rock elements).

I used to think rock was dead and then I found King Gizzard.

Tiptoe saved me back in 9th grade, same goes for Monster.

Thunder is Imagine Dragons’ Beverly Hills

i don’t know how else to put this, but you look like if Weird Al and Mic The Snare had a kid, love the vid though!

the hell and silence ep and the smoke and mirrors album are legitimately good, creative and pleasing listens. everything that came after those went downhill honestly

Why did the guitar have to die? There are phenomenal guitar bands that are creating fantastically creative sounds that will never get their roses. 😢

the theater sound really does make me think oh that’s why they’re lgbtq allies

Imagine Dragons made us as a society realize we were way too hard on Nickelback

Thank you for acknowledging that EPs 2 3 and 4 are fire, you've done us real life Imagine Dragons fans justice

Imagine Dragons music isn’t that deep, but it’s absolutely fantastic to put on while doing chores, and they make for great fandom edits.

i'm with pretty much everyone else in the comments here: Smoke + Mirrors is probably where Imagine Dragons peaked for me. definitely still stadium rock, but had enough rough edges that it didn't feel overproduced and wasn't super samey. there's still a lot of songs i like from that album (and the deluxe release), and i even stayed on board long enough to enjoy parts of Evolve, but in retrospect it was all downhill from Smoke + Mirrors. i do still miss that sound a lot, but hey -- i guess there's old EPs i can go dig up that i didn't know about before!

As a d1 Imagine Dragons hater, I think what you can’t deny is that there was obviously some lightning in a bottle with their early hits that made people love them. Infusing arena rock with trap was certainly an idea that was unique to them. And I don’t doubt that the members do have talent, the vocalist obviously has some skill. I just do not like any of their songs. And I guess that’s okay.

"Do not kill the part of you that is cringe - kill the part of you that cringes" --Sun Tsu

2011-2015 imagine dragons ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 2016-2018 👍 2019-today 😬

There is something important between the transition from Smoke + Mirros to Evolve, being that the their music was seeing like "depressive and sad music" by the media, the main singer didn't like the fact that they were being seen like this and this being the reason why the singer wanted to make a total different approach to their music in Evolve, I think that they are interviews where he talks more about this. But what is sad to me is that Smoke + Mirrors is such a beautiful album and the instrumentation sounds gorgeous, the implementation of multiple instruments lead to a beautiful sound and all of this was replaced for a less composed songs, songs that are overall boring and nothing so deep, interesting o being made with the same passion as their songs from previous albums. Great video, is cool to see someone giving a different approach to the general opinion.

Something I’ve been saying for a while now is that their best stuff tends to be the songs that didn’t blow up. I’m not even just talking about their older music, I think a lot of the songs on their recent albums that you wouldn’t hear on the radio are actually really good. But they’ve definitely gone more in the pop direction of pop rock over the years, so I get why plenty of people stopped caring for them enough to actually go and listen to those less popular songs.

I really really like the first two albums. Then with Evolve a lot of the lyrics got really full of themselves and humble-braggy and I didn't like it much. There's still a good song here and there but a lot of their music now seems to lean into this weird pop rock/"hip-hop w/o actually being hip-hop" sound that bugs the hell out of me. It's hard for me to describe. But the vibe changed once they got super successful.

Imagine Dragons really fueled my imagination as a teen, I think Radioactive came out when I was really into Hunger Games so those tie together in my mind a bit. No matter what anyone says, the songs of theirs I love will be important to me. I implore anyone reading this to share your favorite Imagine Dragons song below! (Mine are Warriors, Radioactive, and Monster!)

I love Night Visions and Smoke+ Mirrors, both albums showcased some really interesting music with something to say, the problem is that they stopped making that kind of music. At the time I kind of liked Evolve because I felt a few of the songs in that album really resonated with me but nowadays I don't really think about that album at all, I find myself revisiting their first 2 albums more often. I stopped listening after their fourth album because all the spark of the first two was gone by then.

band of theseus

despite being ambivalent to their newer stuff, i’ve always loved the majority of night visions, especially the bonus tracks on the deluxe version. now it makes perfect sense, knowing that those tracks were from their early EPs. i’ll have to check those out

Bro I was the most diehard fan of imagine dragons in middle school (circa 2018), so much so that I had gone all the way back to speak to me and knew all the band lore. While my musical taste has evolved (no pun intended) a lot since then, I still retain a certain fondness for them, and felt very validated when you talked about their earlier stuff (hell and silence is also my favorite stuff by them). Anyway, my continued affection for them led me to check out mercury part 1 when it came out, and honestly, it was pretty surprising. Some songs (giants, dull knives) have legit screaming on them, and one of my favorite takes is that the song cutthroat sounds like if limp bizkit and Hamilton had a baby 💀. I never got around to listening to mercury pt 2 when it dropped, but I have to say in terms of mercury pt 1, I’d say it still has some of those deep cut, more experimental songs on it. But anyway as someone who has the imagine dragons lore implanted in their mind, this was a very fun video for me.

I'm going to be real, I've always been a pretty die-hard fan for these guys and I think people give them a lot of shit that's undeserved. I was listening to their stuff back in 2010 and my sister got to see them perform on a rooftop in Provo, so when they blew up after Night Visions released, it was kind of a culture shock for me and my family who also loved their music lmao - I know that at least Dan used to be LDS (Mormon) and performed in the Salt Lake City area, which is how they got on our radar because my family is also part of the same church. Something I've always loved about them that they still have in my opinion is that it feels like every song of theirs (at least before Evolve) felt like it came from a different genre. Like, they all sounded so different from each other and didn't have that samey feel or very obvious musical tie-in that most albums do that you would expect from mainstream album releases. I'm trying to think of a better way to word it-- it's most obvious in the Hell and Silence EP and the Smoke and Mirrors album, where you're expecting a similar sound from the next track based on the one you're listening to, but I remember loving how I was always surprised by the difference in sound from track to track. Smoke and Mirrors is my favorite of their released albums and Hell and Silence my favorite of their EPs for this reason. Like the jump from the track 'Smoke and Mirrors' to 'I'm So Sorry' and then to 'Bet My Life' is so strange compared to the regular flow I'm used to from music albums. I really like that about their music, and I still think they have that, though not as strong as it used to be. I agree that the Evolve album is where I started to see songs I didn't click with as much- after that released I didn't closely follow them as much as I used to, but the Mercury albums are actually really nice, there's a few songs in there that I really love. It's interesting because I could see the shift in feel that they went through once they blew up in 2012; since I've been following them for 12-13 years I've been able to see the whole thing happen over time. Imagine Dragons was kind of the poster child for family-friendly 'rock', and a lot of that came from there being such a large Mormon following, and I saw how that pressure to release that kind of mild, mainstream, pop-sounding music every time started to show a whole lot more over the years, specifically following Evolve. Both the industry and the religious pressure was insane at that time, since everyone was expecting very specific things from them, and a bit later Dan announced that he was leaving the Mormon church. He wrote a song about trying to reconcile his feelings about the LGBTQ+ community and his faith, one that hits pretty hard for me, but after completely separating himself, the band has definitely leaned a lot harder into rock genre. The Mercury album feels like the band testing the waters with harder sounding music, along with including a lot of aspects of mental health, depression, and internal struggles, which is what drew me back to the band. 'Giants' is definitely my favorite track from the two albums. It just feels more genuine and from the heart than the previous few albums when they were in the mainstream spotlight, and I'm actually really excited to see what they come up with next if this is the direction that they're going!

I’m glad you liked the EPs. As an ex-fan of theirs, I still really enjoy those. Thanks for giving those more recognition.

I made the same conclusion you did. They're very good musicians independently but their niche doesn't allow those talents to shine. They put out a live album relatively recently and all the songs sound a lot heavier with more prominent electric guitar, drums, etc. They actually sound like a rock band on some of these songs and imo sound way better. I still have a soft spot for the band since they were the first band that really got me into music.

Amsterdam and It’s Time were my favourite songs to put on in the car with my dad. ❤ We always give their new albums a listen but the last couple have been rough to get through.

Imagine dragons starting off as theatercore explains everything

Their first album was special

Finally I have some companies by my side when I said the new Imagine Dragon was bad music trend and someone does recognize the important of their old EPs. I really don't like how most trending 'rock' reviewer despise them as a whole, saying that they don't deserve to be rock, along with Coldplay; that's not true! I was ABLE to enjoy their music up passed Smoke and Mirror, then I listened to Evolve and surely did I notice something was lost behind all of those trendy booming sound; then after that I tried to catch on to the other recent albums but it lost within my ears and my minds, nothing good was recorded in my head. Then recently I was catching onto all of their first EPs and I cried, I cried out for the distastefulness of reality and that of their music, that they have to run after trends to survive and sell themselves off. Those EPs were too good, they were such a good roots and they have to cut if off. Shoutout to Pantomime, Amsterdam, Look How Far We've Come, Destination, Drive and Clouds Redeem yourself and finish up ' I wish you well' And a BIGGGG Middle finger to 'Giants', 'Bone' and 'Thunder'. Giants was just a mess that they tried to get back to whatever 'rock' they thought of with that yelling, such a pain. And the other two, no words!

You're so goated for using the sonic mega collection ost in this lol

I don’t care what anyone says, some of their songs ARE bangers. Radioactive, warriors, believer, it’s time, deamons, all bangers

I've always loved their music since maybe the 5th grade 😭

I'm a very big ID fan but I gotta admit Evolve is far from their best album. However, Mercury is really good. It reminds me of Smoke and Mirrors a lot. Their new albums always have a few more mainstream aimed songs that tend to be the most well known ones, but when you get past them you find really great intimate songs. For every Enemy, Bones and Sharks there is a Wrecked, Waves and They Don't Know You Like I Do

Just my personal opinion, but Night Visions (and the EP before that) were surprisingly strong, and fit into that OneRepublic/The Fray/Walk the Moon/etc pop rock genre really well. As their career went on I vibed with less of it, and occasionally I think a song surprises me (I will defend Bad Liar) but most of it is just really doesn't sound good for the last 8+ years

their first EP as imagine dragons was in the same vein as Kings Of Leon’s biggest album. there’s an alternate universe where they carry the torch for the post punk revival movement that spawned in the late 90s and early 00s

It wasn’t until I started listening to a bunch of different music that I realized Imagine Dragons lacks any kind of creativity and they are the industry plantiest industry plants out there. Their music is still nostalgic for me though, so I can still appreciate it a little

Maybe I'm a sheep, but I tend to enjoy their music--the heavy beats, the energy, and especially Dan's vocals. I started to like them more when I got the Imagine Dragons pack on Beat Saber because their songs are the most fun to play imo. I never understood the hate, but hearing about their fanbase and their claim to be rock makes some sense. I wouldn't call them rock either.

i used to really fuck with tiptoe because the snyths scratched the ear to me but the rest of their music isnt my thing at all

Really enjoyed this! Hope you do more videos covering different bands or genres of music, it was rlly interesting looking at Imagine Dragons' older EPs. I don't like them at all but seeing their evolution was intriguing to say the least

Imagine Dragons is the Fortnite of music.

Now they make me more sad than angry. A couple of theatre kids crushed by the music industry

It’s sad. I genuinely can’t bear to listen to most of their new stuff, but I still sometimes listen to their old stuff, like hear me, round and round, Amsterdam, pantomime, the river, look how far we’ve come, and America Same goes with Coldplay.

One of my favorite songs from Imagine Dragons comes from Evolve: I’ll Make It Up To You. It brings the lovable feeling of pop with a sense of 90’s rock with the guitar outro! If we had more of that sound during Evolve, I think it would be a great album to listen to!

5:31 A certified hater would not be _relieved_ but disappointed. A true hater loves nothing more than something deeply deserving of their hatred.

I'm glad I'm relatively offline when it comes to music bc I never knew Imagine Dragons had haters. I'm not obsessed with them anymore but they still consistently drop bangers like Enemy and Bones and they've maintained their own unique sound that nobody else compares to as far as I know. I never would have considered them rock tho, that's weird

interesting. i used to listen to them quite a bit when i was like 14 and stopped once I found out good music exists. Selene was a track I really continued to like, which makes sense now

Wow, well done video! I was a huge fan of their's when I was younger, before Evolve dropped. I was in their EP's KZfaq comments and everything. I was really excited to listen to it, but I dont recall if I ever finished the album. Which is a shame. Still, a lot of their songs I enjoy to this day and hold a special place in my heart. They're not harming anyone with their music, and if they're happy, then it's all okay

Imagine Dragons saw a trend as it was happening, played into it, and managed to find a lucrative audience who could support them.... It's just too bad for anyone who cares about art that that audience was corporate advertisers.

the act of imagining a dragon is much more exciting than listening to imagine dragons

i’m typically not a fan of imagine dragons but the song “it’s time” is kind of a banger idk

Thanks for such a great and comprehensive video with a very levelheaded take! I got into Imagine Dragons in the early days, seeing them 3 times during my freshman year of college in a tiny venue. And they put on such amazing, high energy shows. During the early EP days, I was describing them as having an indie synth vibe similar to the old Killers, so you hit the nail on the head. I gave up on them sometimes around the Smoke and Mirrors era, but I still like going back to those early EPs that were made when they sounded like an actual band.

I believe its what the gen x-ers used to call 'selling out', and I imagine it's as old as the music industry. Kings of Leon is another example from a few years earlier.

Your talking points and criticisms are completely valid. Coming from a long time fan of the band, I grew up listening to night visions, that album inevitably peaked my interest into listening to all genres of music, despite this impact the album had on me I never once considered them a rock band though. For me, the group got my attention the most with some songs I find to be very underrated on Evolve (walking the wire, and rise up are some examples.) it wasn't for the fact that they *sound* like this genre/group, but rather how some of the songs where written. This group helped me recognize very early into my life the emotion, expression, and storytelling that can packaged with a song/album, and set me on a journey to discover plenty of other artists and groups that I might find more or less interesting depending on who you ask, Because it's all 110% subjective. This video taught me a lot about them! awesome job!

Before watching the video, I want to comment that I love Imagine Dragons first two albums. Something changed for the worst after Smoke + Mirrors.

You should def check out mecury act 1. This album is genuinely so different for them and they explored a lot of rock moments, while still mixing the album with their “Imagine Dragons” songs within the album

thank you for remembering the first EPs. really, thank you so much. when i came to the fandom in 2017 (💀) i've started to listen ALL of their songs, really, all of them, especially the early ones. and these songs are the ones that imagine dragons need to be loved by, seriously. i forgot that and you've reminded me. thank you.

I really really liked imagine dragons for the longest time, even radioactive and some of their more questionable songs. I feel like that likeness wained off in like 2017-2018 and my interest in them died off around then. I don't hate them like everyone else but yeah, I agree with the sentiment that they definetly fell off

I didn't really like Night Visions at all, but for some reason, the bonus tracks (Cha-Ching in particular) were awesome

Just finished binging this video, the Maroon 5 video, and the Fall Out Boy video. I don't like any of those bands, but the history is so interesting. I appreciate the time you put into making these.

They should take a break from imagining dragons and start imagining some good fucking music.

yes a new vid! Love your stuff

Babe, wake up! Quinton reviews secret brother just dropped!!

They're a pop band. Their songs are nostalgic to me since I'd hear them everywhere when I was in middle school. But that's about it.

Been watching some of your vids, you’re quite underrated! Hope to see more from you

I actually really like imagine dragons. Now only the songs before 2019. It’s probably my nostalgia but at least for later gen z kids like myself this was our rock bands. It was hated on by the hipsters because it was to corporate just like how Linkin Park, hair metal. Now I’m not saying imagine dragons is close to as good as Linkin Park but I still love the band and actually think they have some intriguing ideas in their earlier music.

Surprised you don’t have much to say on the pit, that’s pretty much everybody in the fanbase’s favorite speak to me. I’ve never seen anyone rank anything else first lol. It’s probably in my top 15 or so imagine dragons songs.

Their current music is honestly better than their old music. Enemy, Lonely, Sharks, and the most recent one - Eyes Closed, are all great songs in my opinion!

omg I have the same FOB Tourdust tshirt

"Look around you, imagine... dragons" -Dr.Eggman

love ur vids, found u from the spongebob video, subbed instantly also video idea: you should check out twenty one pilots, especially trench, their best work

Artist like ReignWolf and Des Rocs absolutely deserve attention. There are tons of smaller artist who absolutely rock and make some real good music. Especially ReignWolf, saw a video of that guy playing the guitar and drums at the same timea couple years back and was immediately hooked on his music. Some real talent.

Happy 10k subs!

Night Visions was a good album and I will fight everybody on this

I’m glad you didn’t just focus on the bad parts of the band. I really enjoy mercury acts 1 and 2 and it’s nice to know you also mentioned them and didn’t call them terrible 👍 also nice fallout boy shirt

Used to run into Dan Reynolds at the Target up the street from my house every few months. He was always really nice and would sign autographs for kids and their moms. The drummer used to buy herb at a dispensary not far from my house as well. He always blended in and hid like no one knew who he was.

*Night Visions* is a solid album. *Smoke and Mirrors* is passable. Contrary to Dan Reynolds’s lyric on “Who We Are”, it’s not “all uphill from here” for the band