Imagine Dragons

From Wind Repertory Project
Imagine Dragons

Biography

Imagine Dragons is an American pop rock band from Las Vegas, Nevada, consisting of lead vocalist Dan Reynolds, lead guitarist Wayne Sermon, bassist Ben McKee, and drummer Daniel Platzman.

In 2008, lead singer Dan Reynolds met drummer Andrew Tolman at Brigham Young University where they were both students. Reynolds and Tolman added Andrew Beck, Dave Lemke, and Aurora Florence to play guitar, bass, and piano respectively, for their band. Their name is an anagram for a phrase only known to members of the group, that Reynolds stated each member approved of. The five-piece released an extended play titled Speak to Me that same year. Beck and Florence would also depart from the band's lineup that year. In 2009, Tolman recruited longtime high school friend Wayne Sermon, who had graduated from Berklee College of Music to play guitar. Tolman later recruited his wife, Brittany Tolman, to sing backup and play keys, and the band began to play shows together again. Lemke left the band later on, leading Sermon to recruit another Berklee music student, Ben McKee, to join the band as their bassist and complete the lineup. The band garnered a large following in their hometown of Provo, Utah, before the members moved to Las Vegas, the hometown of Dan Reynolds, where the band recorded and released their first three EPs.

The band first gained exposure with the release of single It's Time, followed by their award-winning debut studio album Night Visions (2012), which resulted in the chart-topping singles Radioactive and Demons. Billboard placed them at the top of their Year In Rock rankings for 2013 and 2017 and named them their Breakthrough Band of 2013. and Biggest Band of 2017. Rolling Stone named Radioactive, which holds the record for most weeks charted on the Billboard Hot 100, the "biggest rock hit of the year", and MTV called them "the year's biggest breakout band".

Imagine Dragons' musical style has mainly been described as alternative rock, pop rock, indie rock, electronic rock, dance-pop, electropop, pop, and arena rock. Their music also has some influences of folk, R&B, hip hop and EDM.

Dan Reynolds cites Arcade Fire, Nirvana, Muse, The Beatles, Paul Simon, Coldplay, Harry Nilsson, and U2 as some of his and the band's artistic influences. In terms of success, Reynolds credits bands like Foster the People and Mumford & Sons for bringing alternative pop music to a new level of commercial success in recent years.

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Adaptable Music

  • Radioactive (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Murtha) (2012)


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