I just pre-ordered the book on Amazon. It looks fascinating.
The real trick is packaging musical complexity in a way that the pop audience can eat up. Taste makers always want music to be more subtle and show without telling. The audience needs to be entertained obviously.
I would’ve never guessed that Imagine Dragons is so massively successful. I don’t think I can name even one of their songs. I am definitely out of touch.
I'm not a huge fan but I've heard a few of their albums and always found them enjoyable as background music. Radioactive is an absolute banger, though, and the music video is really funny and shows they don't take themselves too seriously.
The most recent place I've heard ID is in the theme to one of the best TV series of recent years, Arcane, from League of Legends. I know nothing about LoL, but I thought the show was outstanding.
So maybe gaming is the underlying driver here, and there's a community of popularity among gamers who like hearing their favorite soundtracks outside of the games, and also aren't the type of crunchy hippies to go camp at a music festival for a weekend when they could be home "Just Dance"-ing.
Imagine Dragons had so many hits that people got tired of them. The same, I think, for Nickelback and Creed. The same reasoning as to why Bruno Mars and Taylor Swift end up on Do Not playlists for wedding receptions. However, if a DJ plays the chorus of songs like "Rockstar," "Higher"", or "Believer", everyone will be jamming and singing the lyrics.
Even as a pretty plugged-in consumer of music, albeit on the long end, I look at those most-streamed bands and recognize them as bands but couldn't name a song. The Neighbourhood? I had to look them up. Sweater Weather sounds background playlist familiar, and that's it. I hate TikTok and don't take my music cues from social media, which apparently puts them off my radar.
Same for Clean Bandit, Cigarettes After Sex, TV Girl, and 5 Seconds of Summer.
By contrast, I know nearly everyone on the festival headliner list.
There's a story in the gap between those two. Passive vs. active.
A billion streams tells you what people play. It doesn't tell you what they'd leave the house for.
"My grand theory of Imagine Dragons is that they have managed to hit on a musical formula that maximizes casual fandom." This sounds like an apt description of the worst commercially-successful band of all time--the Eagles. Fun read!
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I just pre-ordered the book on Amazon. It looks fascinating.
The real trick is packaging musical complexity in a way that the pop audience can eat up. Taste makers always want music to be more subtle and show without telling. The audience needs to be entertained obviously.
(I personally love slop pop music)
I would’ve never guessed that Imagine Dragons is so massively successful. I don’t think I can name even one of their songs. I am definitely out of touch.
I'm not a huge fan but I've heard a few of their albums and always found them enjoyable as background music. Radioactive is an absolute banger, though, and the music video is really funny and shows they don't take themselves too seriously.
But what I think you're really missing here: that song has appeared in almost TWENTY video games: https://vgost.fandom.com/wiki/Radioactive
The most recent place I've heard ID is in the theme to one of the best TV series of recent years, Arcane, from League of Legends. I know nothing about LoL, but I thought the show was outstanding.
So maybe gaming is the underlying driver here, and there's a community of popularity among gamers who like hearing their favorite soundtracks outside of the games, and also aren't the type of crunchy hippies to go camp at a music festival for a weekend when they could be home "Just Dance"-ing.
Imagine Dragons had so many hits that people got tired of them. The same, I think, for Nickelback and Creed. The same reasoning as to why Bruno Mars and Taylor Swift end up on Do Not playlists for wedding receptions. However, if a DJ plays the chorus of songs like "Rockstar," "Higher"", or "Believer", everyone will be jamming and singing the lyrics.
Even as a pretty plugged-in consumer of music, albeit on the long end, I look at those most-streamed bands and recognize them as bands but couldn't name a song. The Neighbourhood? I had to look them up. Sweater Weather sounds background playlist familiar, and that's it. I hate TikTok and don't take my music cues from social media, which apparently puts them off my radar.
Same for Clean Bandit, Cigarettes After Sex, TV Girl, and 5 Seconds of Summer.
By contrast, I know nearly everyone on the festival headliner list.
There's a story in the gap between those two. Passive vs. active.
A billion streams tells you what people play. It doesn't tell you what they'd leave the house for.
"My grand theory of Imagine Dragons is that they have managed to hit on a musical formula that maximizes casual fandom." This sounds like an apt description of the worst commercially-successful band of all time--the Eagles. Fun read!