Music Video Analysis – Radioactive by Imagine Dragons

Introduction:

During this essay I will analyse the music video for Radioactive by Imagine Dragons. This music video has a big focus on narrative and contains little bits of live performance, but near the end of the video these two aspects connect together and therefore add to the narrative of the music video. The music has a strong beat and normally the music videos times it cuts with the beat of the song.

Genre:

The genre of this music video becomes clear to the audience after the introduction of the song as the song begins fairly slowly (especially the music edited specially for the music video). The genre for this music video is clearly action since this goes well with both the tempo and rhythm that the song has. The genre of the artist (Imagine Dragons) is not the same genre as their general music normally has a much slower rhythm.

Since the genre of the music is action there are generic conventions that go with this (e.g. explosions, car chases) during this particular music video I see that not many of the conventions are met as the music videos narrative is very strange and surreal.

Narrative:

The beginning shots of the music video are suggestive since they highlight a women walking through the forest with a cage. This suggests to the audience that the genre and narrative may be more like Imagine Dragons other work but as the song a starts to build it transitions to shots of a lively area full of people, these shots juxtapose each other as in the beginning the shots are lifeless and empty whereas they becomes full and busy with lots of people. This kicks off the narrative and shows the audience that there is a very surreal element to the narrative, additionally it the camera starts to highlight main characters and shows a few brief shots of the artist, but it is not a live performance as he is part of the narrative. It then establishes character and clearly shows a villain character, by the fact that he is framed in such as way that he is clearly a dominant character. His costume supports this as it stands out from the other characters who are wearing bland clothing. This is supported by the fact he has a lot more screen time then the other characters within the scene.

This music video contains four of the five stages within Todorov’s Five Stage Theory. The video begins very slowly with some shots of a women quietly walking (this is before the music begins). This is a clear stage one as there is an equilibrium and no distress. Stage two is as the music begins and it becomes clear to the audience that fights are being held between the monsters who are being trapped. This is stage two as it is a disruption of the peace that was present during stage one. Stage four is also included as the disruption is resolved and the artist who were trapped by the villain are saved. This is clear as the villain is on the floor and seen from a high angle connoting his weakness.

Audience:

The audience for this song and video is teenagers and young adults (14-24 years old). This is due to the fact the images can be seen as fairly violent for younger audiences, but due to the fact it is with puppets it’s appropriate for audiences around the age of 9 or so, but it isn’t targeting them. This is also the age of the target audiences  for the band therefore this age group would make sense since the band is trying to make their music video for their audience and fans. I think the audience for this particular music video is mostly males as this music video caters towards them since it can be seen as violent, but the bands target audience are both male and female therefore it is strange that Imagine Dragons would aim specifically for a male audience.

Intertextual References
The main intertextual reference in this music video is the cameo appearance from the actress Alexandra Daddario. She appears in the video as a very dominant female character. She is in such films as "Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters", "Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D" and "San Andreas".