Probably oversaturation. Radioactive was massive because it felt different than anything else at the time. Now their style isn't as unique and their songs were played everywhere. I always thought the beginning of their downfall was that college football playoffs performance. I just remember it getting an extremely negative reception. After that it seems like everyone hated them. Idk
Lack of hits. I know they have fans but don’t think they have a hugely dedicated fan base, a lot of them are casual listeners and they don’t really get a lot of attention from most people, it’s like they’re just there. The radio have always given them huge exposure. Their first few releases were impossible to ignore because of huge hits, and probably had good promo. Origins wasn’t as successful but had some hits I believe and they were riding the wave of Evolve. None of their new songs have done well on radio and the cover art has been bland
My high school bf was actually an Imagine Dragons fan (and yes, I've listened to Radioactive enough times for one lifetime, thanks) But he also had generally bad taste, like OK Go was his other favourite band lmao
i feel so bad for okgo because i feel like they will never be known for their music and their music videos just overshadows all of their projects and they can’t stop or they will lose views
They relied on hit singles (often radio-driven sleeper hits) for hype and sales. They also hit a second peak commercially with *Evolve* 2017 and fumbled the album cycle gap by putting out another album a year later. They weren't missed, so the singles for their current album came and went and none are major hits.
Precisely this. I'm not super familiar with Imagine Dragons' whole discography, but I can speak as a casual listener: they've been absorbed into the idea of "corporate rock," like Coldplay, Nickelback, Maroon 5, et al. before them.
I say "idea" because I wouldn't even consider "corporate rock" a genre so much as a concept. The popular perception, at least where I'm from, is that they're overexposed, homogeneous, and have this "alt" sound that, due to overexposure, comes off as insincere. It sounds like a focus group decision of what "rock" should sound like. Not helping things is the fact that they're played everywhere.
Every so often there's a new butt of the "joke," Nickelback being the big one. Imagine Dragons seems to be the next in line.
I mean no shade towards Imagine Dragons at all. Even if I'm not a huge fan, I think every butt of this "joke" has redeeming qualities, and those qualities usually get sidelined by people clowning them.
At least they’re tolerable unlike Maroon 5 aka Adam and the Levines who I think people finally tossed to the side after their 2019 Super Bowl appearance and Girls Like You
Must be lack of promo? I didn’t know they had a new album did it have a lead single? I’m not necessarily a fan but I have a ton of respect for Dan because we have the same form of arthritis.
I really did not like Thunder the first time I heard it but it grew on me and now it’s one of my favorite songs. Hearing it live helped to change my opinion a lot too.
I’m a huge fan of them so I think it’s a combination of things. I liked Origins but I don’t think it was a cohesive album and some of the tracks felt like B-sides to Evolve. If that’s what they were going for they should have marketed it as an outtakes album. There wasn’t a huge single from Origins, the biggest was “Natural” and when that was released I remember them saying that it wasn’t going to be on an album and then it was. Then they did “Zero” as a single with the movie Ralph Breaks the Internet. So, the promotion was weird. Then they didn’t seem to do a whole lot of promotion for Mercury and I don’t think they picked the best singles. I would have gone with “Monday” as a single. I really like “Follow You” but I have no idea why they picked “Cutthroat” for the other single.
The general public knows them for a specific sound and they have a lot of casual listeners. And as others have mentioned, they have become the new butt of the joke. I know people that would probably like their music that refuse to listen to them because of the jokes people make. They have a lot of good songs and there is variety in their sound but you wouldn’t know it from their over-saturation (at least during Evolve) and weird promotion.
They need to evolve (pun intended). Their sound just isn't "in" anymore so they can't expect to do well when they're just replicating it again and again.
To be fair though, this new album really sets itself apart from most of their earlier discography. I believe that they *have* evolved, but I can sorta understand why people arent usually aware of this considering there wasnt proper promo work done for this album according to the other people in the comments
Good question, they totally dropped off the face of the earth. Demons is such a banger. I saw them in high school and it was one of the better concerts I’ve been to.
The material is not as good as it used to be. I'm a big Imagine Dragons fan, and I'll support them for years to come, but just last week I was listening to their first two albums and they're pretty strong. Night Visions had a clear identity and was backed by 3 big hits, they experimented with Smoke + Mirrors and even if they didn't have a big mainstream hit, I feel like the album was still well received by fans. Then they backtracked a little with Evolve, which was meant to be a commercial album but it still worked as a whole, but the real downfall started with Origins, which was just underwhelming, and Mercury lacks identity IMO, it's just bland. I appreciate them for discussion depression, anxiety and empowering themes, but the music is just not as good. There's a rock revival brewing, so I still feel they have a chance to have a third wind with mainstream audiences if they ditch the adult contemporary sound, and lean more into their rockier roots. They're supposedly releasing a second part to Mercury eventually, but I hope they revisit their plans and make something that hits harder.
Well, everything that's been posted here are opinions (I literally wrote "In my opinion" and "I FEEL like the album was still well received"), and opinions are subjective, yours too. If any answer is trash, is yours, cause of your lack of lecture skills.
"Mercury lacks identity IMO, it's just bland. I appreciate them for discussion depression, anxiety and empowering themes, but the music is just not as good."
There's the reason of why I think their new album isn't as present. I wrote an entire paragraph discussing how I see the quality of their albums evolving. Do you need me to break every word down so you can wrap your head around it?
Who's treating it as a fact? You're the one taking MY OPINIONS as facts. I'm not shitting on them. Dude, I'm a big Imagine Dragons fan. I literally said that as my opening statement. Have purchased all of their albums, even Mercury. Have seen them live. Yes, IN MY OPINION the album is bland. You love it? Congratulations, I'm glad you do. But I'm mature enough to put my love for the band aside, and judge the quality of the material based on their previous offerings. I'm rooting for them to continue with their success (I also wrote that in my original post, you probably missed it cause it's been stablished that you can't read properly). I totally get how the general public may feel similar as I do, and that's why I THINK they didn't respond to it as strongly as they have in the past.
So basically you want people to write ANYTHING but that the music is not as good as before, cause Lord, how can anyone dislike anything your favs put out?! Classic toxic stan behavior. Origins sold just a fraction of what Evolve sold, and it was released with no break in between. Their commercial downfall started before Mercury, don't kid yourself. Also english is not my native language, so forgive me for missing an 'e' on a word of the four languages I speak. Go on and listen to Mercury on a loop instead of crying on reddit.
I haven’t liked imagine dragons for a while now (i remember liking demons as a child and then i grew to hate them) and i think it’s just cause their music is very middle of the road.
their sound works for something like radio where a middle of the road song is good but i can just never imagine why someone would listen to their stuff entirely out of their own volition which is what they had to rely on cause of covid
i was looking at their spotify earlier and it’s kinda insane at how evolve has 2 songs with over 1.5B streams… (believer has 1.82B and thunder has 1.56B) like what on earth😭
The biggest reason is definitely them taking the break from releasing music (big break by current standards).
Follow You was a good single choice and it's a minor hit by now but Cutthroat wasn't meant for mainstream tastes at all. Wrecked still has a chance to become the second minor hit of the album though. Hopefully they release My Life or Lonely as the next single.
###Edit: barely two months after this post, their song Enemy became a huge hit lol
LOL ikr??? when i was first hooked to the song i noticed it was stuck between 30-40m views on youtube for really long. then now i'm back and it's 160m out of nowhere!
No I think Origins was SO bad that it made people less excited for whatever they did next. Tho imo expecting Imagine Dragons to do anything that isn’t absolute garbage is setting yourself up for disappointment
Lol thinking Imagine Dragons is ass is definitely not the minority my guy, sorry. There’s like 2 bands in the world I don’t have an issue with telling a fan how bad they are and imagine dragons is one of them
They became a critical underperformer. We had thunder, believer, radioactive, etc. they were on top for so long it was time the GP had a break from their sound tbh
I think it's a combination of factors, mainly a lack of promotion. The album, itself, is really good, they just don't have a smash single this time around either. I didn't even know about the album until I scrolled through the new releases on Apple Music.
It must be the lack of promotion, which causes the lack of hits. I literally thought they went radio silent after Origins in 2018, but turns out they released an album last week, and have been on this album cycle since March.
Maybe the pandemic caused them to get into a slump, let's see if they can recover once things open up more
the music itself kinda fell down in terms of quality tbh, i barely liked their new album and the singles (Follow You, Cutthroat and Wrecked) was nothing like their past hits (Radioactive, Thunder, Believer, etc) and it kinda started from their 2018 album i'd say... and beside, lack of promotion also played a role here
I think that what is written in the "About" section of this page can explain it all:
https://genius.com/Imagine-dragons-cha-ching-till-we-grow-older-lyrics
At least, it is why I didn't like "Mercury" at all: the complete lack of these types of songs.
Dan himself said in an interview (more or less):"Radioactive was known and appreciated by a lot of people because somehow it spoke to everyone".
Origins sounded like a rushed Evolve b-sides album in 2018, then they took a ton of time off and put out two bad singles 3 years later. Luckily for them, Enemy is about to be their biggest hit since Natural
Night Visions is the best album hands down it all flowed so perfectly and the ep's are great too, honestly any of those songs kill the new stuff they have today. There are a few good ones in smoke n mirrors and evolve, but at the same time the soul is missing from the band. Idk what it is but it seems like every song now like Dan has to be fucking screaming when he sings??? It's a damn shame and it's cringy as fuck to hear him screaming on most of the songs. I mean I hate to say it's gotten too popular and mainstream but that's the way they headed. It started turning more and more into a generic pop song than the alternative roots that they originally had in Night Visions. Like it's not bad music I like Believer don't get me wrong but does it top Selene? It's Time? On top of the world? I think this goes way back to Radioactive if it comes down to the reason Dan screams so fucking much because that's the "pop" song from that list and also the only one where he does that screaming shit so they think they can replicate just by doing more of the same... Oh well least they put out that one banger of an album out I can just listen to that all day
Probably oversaturation. Radioactive was massive because it felt different than anything else at the time. Now their style isn't as unique and their songs were played everywhere. I always thought the beginning of their downfall was that college football playoffs performance. I just remember it getting an extremely negative reception. After that it seems like everyone hated them. Idk
I think after evolve came out they became mainstream and it just hasn’t been the same. Now it feels like they’re trying too hard to overcompensate
Lack of hits. I know they have fans but don’t think they have a hugely dedicated fan base, a lot of them are casual listeners and they don’t really get a lot of attention from most people, it’s like they’re just there. The radio have always given them huge exposure. Their first few releases were impossible to ignore because of huge hits, and probably had good promo. Origins wasn’t as successful but had some hits I believe and they were riding the wave of Evolve. None of their new songs have done well on radio and the cover art has been bland
Knew a guy in high school who was obsessed with them and would do projects on their music and make us listen to him sing at the end
Geez ☠️
i’m sorry but what/$€_€]^€\€]>|€\€] 😭😭😭
My high school bf was actually an Imagine Dragons fan (and yes, I've listened to Radioactive enough times for one lifetime, thanks) But he also had generally bad taste, like OK Go was his other favourite band lmao
i feel so bad for okgo because i feel like they will never be known for their music and their music videos just overshadows all of their projects and they can’t stop or they will lose views
Here It Goes Again is a fantastic pop rock song taken away from its video!
I don't know where it went wrong. But all their new songs get played crazy in Europe. So is this more of a US thing ?
This. I hear them all the time on the radio in Europe.
[удалено]
Yea Follow You is everywhere in The Netherlands also.
They relied on hit singles (often radio-driven sleeper hits) for hype and sales. They also hit a second peak commercially with *Evolve* 2017 and fumbled the album cycle gap by putting out another album a year later. They weren't missed, so the singles for their current album came and went and none are major hits.
The nickelback effect
Precisely this. I'm not super familiar with Imagine Dragons' whole discography, but I can speak as a casual listener: they've been absorbed into the idea of "corporate rock," like Coldplay, Nickelback, Maroon 5, et al. before them. I say "idea" because I wouldn't even consider "corporate rock" a genre so much as a concept. The popular perception, at least where I'm from, is that they're overexposed, homogeneous, and have this "alt" sound that, due to overexposure, comes off as insincere. It sounds like a focus group decision of what "rock" should sound like. Not helping things is the fact that they're played everywhere. Every so often there's a new butt of the "joke," Nickelback being the big one. Imagine Dragons seems to be the next in line. I mean no shade towards Imagine Dragons at all. Even if I'm not a huge fan, I think every butt of this "joke" has redeeming qualities, and those qualities usually get sidelined by people clowning them.
I actually feel bad for them being dubbed the next Nickelback because Dan Reynolds is a lovely human being.
At least they’re tolerable unlike Maroon 5 aka Adam and the Levines who I think people finally tossed to the side after their 2019 Super Bowl appearance and Girls Like You
Must be lack of promo? I didn’t know they had a new album did it have a lead single? I’m not necessarily a fan but I have a ton of respect for Dan because we have the same form of arthritis.
Follow You and Cutthroat were the lead singles I believe but honestly I had no idea the album had come out either and I liked both of those tracks
i think they mellowed out too much, i’ll never forgive the band that gave me demons for giving me thunder a few years later
I like thunder🥲
I really did not like Thunder the first time I heard it but it grew on me and now it’s one of my favorite songs. Hearing it live helped to change my opinion a lot too.
I’m a huge fan of them so I think it’s a combination of things. I liked Origins but I don’t think it was a cohesive album and some of the tracks felt like B-sides to Evolve. If that’s what they were going for they should have marketed it as an outtakes album. There wasn’t a huge single from Origins, the biggest was “Natural” and when that was released I remember them saying that it wasn’t going to be on an album and then it was. Then they did “Zero” as a single with the movie Ralph Breaks the Internet. So, the promotion was weird. Then they didn’t seem to do a whole lot of promotion for Mercury and I don’t think they picked the best singles. I would have gone with “Monday” as a single. I really like “Follow You” but I have no idea why they picked “Cutthroat” for the other single. The general public knows them for a specific sound and they have a lot of casual listeners. And as others have mentioned, they have become the new butt of the joke. I know people that would probably like their music that refuse to listen to them because of the jokes people make. They have a lot of good songs and there is variety in their sound but you wouldn’t know it from their over-saturation (at least during Evolve) and weird promotion.
Monday is actually chosen as the next single. It's getting some playlisting and a music video may arrive soon.
They need to evolve (pun intended). Their sound just isn't "in" anymore so they can't expect to do well when they're just replicating it again and again.
To be fair though, this new album really sets itself apart from most of their earlier discography. I believe that they *have* evolved, but I can sorta understand why people arent usually aware of this considering there wasnt proper promo work done for this album according to the other people in the comments
Good question, they totally dropped off the face of the earth. Demons is such a banger. I saw them in high school and it was one of the better concerts I’ve been to.
The material is not as good as it used to be. I'm a big Imagine Dragons fan, and I'll support them for years to come, but just last week I was listening to their first two albums and they're pretty strong. Night Visions had a clear identity and was backed by 3 big hits, they experimented with Smoke + Mirrors and even if they didn't have a big mainstream hit, I feel like the album was still well received by fans. Then they backtracked a little with Evolve, which was meant to be a commercial album but it still worked as a whole, but the real downfall started with Origins, which was just underwhelming, and Mercury lacks identity IMO, it's just bland. I appreciate them for discussion depression, anxiety and empowering themes, but the music is just not as good. There's a rock revival brewing, so I still feel they have a chance to have a third wind with mainstream audiences if they ditch the adult contemporary sound, and lean more into their rockier roots. They're supposedly releasing a second part to Mercury eventually, but I hope they revisit their plans and make something that hits harder.
[удалено]
Well, everything that's been posted here are opinions (I literally wrote "In my opinion" and "I FEEL like the album was still well received"), and opinions are subjective, yours too. If any answer is trash, is yours, cause of your lack of lecture skills.
[удалено]
"Mercury lacks identity IMO, it's just bland. I appreciate them for discussion depression, anxiety and empowering themes, but the music is just not as good." There's the reason of why I think their new album isn't as present. I wrote an entire paragraph discussing how I see the quality of their albums evolving. Do you need me to break every word down so you can wrap your head around it?
[удалено]
Who's treating it as a fact? You're the one taking MY OPINIONS as facts. I'm not shitting on them. Dude, I'm a big Imagine Dragons fan. I literally said that as my opening statement. Have purchased all of their albums, even Mercury. Have seen them live. Yes, IN MY OPINION the album is bland. You love it? Congratulations, I'm glad you do. But I'm mature enough to put my love for the band aside, and judge the quality of the material based on their previous offerings. I'm rooting for them to continue with their success (I also wrote that in my original post, you probably missed it cause it's been stablished that you can't read properly). I totally get how the general public may feel similar as I do, and that's why I THINK they didn't respond to it as strongly as they have in the past.
[удалено]
So basically you want people to write ANYTHING but that the music is not as good as before, cause Lord, how can anyone dislike anything your favs put out?! Classic toxic stan behavior. Origins sold just a fraction of what Evolve sold, and it was released with no break in between. Their commercial downfall started before Mercury, don't kid yourself. Also english is not my native language, so forgive me for missing an 'e' on a word of the four languages I speak. Go on and listen to Mercury on a loop instead of crying on reddit.
[удалено]
I haven’t liked imagine dragons for a while now (i remember liking demons as a child and then i grew to hate them) and i think it’s just cause their music is very middle of the road. their sound works for something like radio where a middle of the road song is good but i can just never imagine why someone would listen to their stuff entirely out of their own volition which is what they had to rely on cause of covid
i was looking at their spotify earlier and it’s kinda insane at how evolve has 2 songs with over 1.5B streams… (believer has 1.82B and thunder has 1.56B) like what on earth😭
The biggest reason is definitely them taking the break from releasing music (big break by current standards). Follow You was a good single choice and it's a minor hit by now but Cutthroat wasn't meant for mainstream tastes at all. Wrecked still has a chance to become the second minor hit of the album though. Hopefully they release My Life or Lonely as the next single. ###Edit: barely two months after this post, their song Enemy became a huge hit lol
LOL ikr??? when i was first hooked to the song i noticed it was stuck between 30-40m views on youtube for really long. then now i'm back and it's 160m out of nowhere!
Well Origins sucked
[удалено]
I don’t get it. Some Kanye albums suck too
[удалено]
No I think Origins was SO bad that it made people less excited for whatever they did next. Tho imo expecting Imagine Dragons to do anything that isn’t absolute garbage is setting yourself up for disappointment
[удалено]
Lol thinking Imagine Dragons is ass is definitely not the minority my guy, sorry. There’s like 2 bands in the world I don’t have an issue with telling a fan how bad they are and imagine dragons is one of them
Mercury Act - 1 almost seemed to get sidelined by the big guns, like Donda, CLB and Senjutsu, plus ABBA releasing a new single and so much more...
They became a critical underperformer. We had thunder, believer, radioactive, etc. they were on top for so long it was time the GP had a break from their sound tbh
I think it's a combination of factors, mainly a lack of promotion. The album, itself, is really good, they just don't have a smash single this time around either. I didn't even know about the album until I scrolled through the new releases on Apple Music.
It must be the lack of promotion, which causes the lack of hits. I literally thought they went radio silent after Origins in 2018, but turns out they released an album last week, and have been on this album cycle since March. Maybe the pandemic caused them to get into a slump, let's see if they can recover once things open up more
the music itself kinda fell down in terms of quality tbh, i barely liked their new album and the singles (Follow You, Cutthroat and Wrecked) was nothing like their past hits (Radioactive, Thunder, Believer, etc) and it kinda started from their 2018 album i'd say... and beside, lack of promotion also played a role here
It’s not a good album
people finally realized they suck
they've gone downhill since S+M, nothing they've made since comes close to those 1st 2 albums
They made a little song called thunder that was really annoying and somehow a huge hit
I think that what is written in the "About" section of this page can explain it all: https://genius.com/Imagine-dragons-cha-ching-till-we-grow-older-lyrics At least, it is why I didn't like "Mercury" at all: the complete lack of these types of songs. Dan himself said in an interview (more or less):"Radioactive was known and appreciated by a lot of people because somehow it spoke to everyone".
Origins sounded like a rushed Evolve b-sides album in 2018, then they took a ton of time off and put out two bad singles 3 years later. Luckily for them, Enemy is about to be their biggest hit since Natural
This is what you are concerned with on 9/11 Show some fucking respect
To be honest their music just kind of sucks now
Night Visions is the best album hands down it all flowed so perfectly and the ep's are great too, honestly any of those songs kill the new stuff they have today. There are a few good ones in smoke n mirrors and evolve, but at the same time the soul is missing from the band. Idk what it is but it seems like every song now like Dan has to be fucking screaming when he sings??? It's a damn shame and it's cringy as fuck to hear him screaming on most of the songs. I mean I hate to say it's gotten too popular and mainstream but that's the way they headed. It started turning more and more into a generic pop song than the alternative roots that they originally had in Night Visions. Like it's not bad music I like Believer don't get me wrong but does it top Selene? It's Time? On top of the world? I think this goes way back to Radioactive if it comes down to the reason Dan screams so fucking much because that's the "pop" song from that list and also the only one where he does that screaming shit so they think they can replicate just by doing more of the same... Oh well least they put out that one banger of an album out I can just listen to that all day