Imagine Dragons - Radioactive (Textual Analysis 1)

Imagine Dragons – Radioactive

Written By: Imagine Dragons/Josh Mossers/Alex da Kid

Director: Syndrome

Genre: Alternative Rock/Electronic Rock

Structure: Abstract

The video revolves around a mysterious female drifter (Daddario) who is on a quest to save her friends (Imagine Dragons) from the perils of a sinister, underground puppet-fighting ring. Her puppet teddy bear then knocks out the main winner of the ring and dissolves two bodyguards of the owner of the ring with laser vision. The girl then takes the key off the owner's chest and unlocks the band from the perils, and they all walk out, leaving the owner to be surrounded (and presumably killed) by the rest of the puppets.

The video is in colour which changes its lighting depending of the event and character which is shown. The whole video has an abstract narrative as it doesn’t follow the conventions of usual music videos. The female drifter (Daddario) focus is constantly away from the direct view of the camera. She never use directly into the camera at the audience, as her look is mostly drifting away in order to find what she is looking for. This could be seen as ignoring the audience or unrecognizing them. The audience could almost see her deep gaze into the view which presents abandon place deeply located into the forest what might also indicate secret or danger. The reason why she is not looking directly into the camera might be in the reason that she is focused on her task which is unknown to the audience until last minute. However, her mystery holds the viewer and makes him/her want to see what she is. 

This video is really unconventional and includes the alternative rock with electronic rock style music with a bit of dubstep, while containing cryptic lyrics of the apocalyptic and revolutionist themes. Also, the song has intense and powerful vocals. It also employs a fusion of the genres pop, rock and dubstep as I had mention before. The usual convention for artist is to look directly into the camera as Imagine Dragons do, while the main vocal artist sing his eyes directly contact with the audience to which he is singing. This makes an emotional attachment between him and them and creates empathy.

Moreover, the other unconventional feature which appears in the video is of the “toys” which appears as main characters. This is not often seen in the music videos, and the fact that they are shows more often and as more important than artists by themselves. Also, the fact that the whole band is presented with the shade might indicate the fact that they don’t need to explore themselves to let audience know who they are. The small amount of shots with the band could present that they are enough known that they don’t need to stay in front of camera for all the time.

The song because of its unique style has been used in many media distributions. As it was used heavily in promoting the video game of Assassin’s Creed 3 and the movie The Hostand and is included in the soundtrack for the video game MLB 13: The Show and the upcoming NBA 2K14.

In the video we have seen repeating of the zooms, especially at the emotional expressions of the characters in the clip in order to establish what is happening and to draw attention of the audience. This technique has been used to pull the attention on emotions of the character and establishes their role in the video. Also, this technique has its own unique way of bringing the audience closer into the action which taking place. The supernatural effect of laser eyes gives the video fantastic style. The brightness of the toys could show that even if there is an apocalypse there’s still a hope.

In the other shots we can see the continuity as they cut between each other and both establishes the introduction into the basement where the challengers are kept. The room is dark and scary what could regard to the words of apocalypse and the end as its end of the freedom. There is a close up on the main artist face as he lifts his gaze up, same as he would like to see the light or the way out. The visual metaphor of “… I breaking up, I see it…” could be linked to the scene as the teddy bear is fighting back for they freedom and the main artist is playing the drums from which the dust coming out as he was stuck there for a long time and know he see the chance to break away. The shot of a girl looking around while her teddy bear was losing in a fight creates a continuity as when another close up shot presents her still and steady gaze the toy pull all of its power and hit its enemy with everything what it got.

The song holds the audience still as is sad but very powerful by its music and way of singing. The costumes are very conventional and neutral, as a normal person would wear. However, the cast especially the use of toys is breaking the conventions and gives the video its own impression of presenting their views.