Section A
Task 4- Competitor Analysis for Imagine Dragons
Analysis of Imagine Dragons- Imagine Dragons are an American Alternative rock band from Las vegas, Nevada. They are made up of four men, lead vocalist Dan Reynolds, Lead guitarist Wayne Sermon, Bassist Ben McKee and drummer Daniel Platzman. The band's members are in their 30's. The band have been influenced by people like Nirvana, Muse, The Beatles, Coldplay and U2. They have a band culture of humility, relate-ability and creativity. Imagine dragons made a name for themselves when they filled in for a band called Train at a Las vegas Music festival in 2009.
Competitor Analysis
Foals
Similarities:
- Both have creative unique imaginative youtube videos.
- Both have lead singers.
- Both have similar tempos and guitar beats in their music.
- Both feature in musical festivals like Reading and Leeds.
- Both bands have similar target audiences.
- Both don’t use any vulgar language in their songs.
Differences:
- Imagine Dragons don’t follow the party rock and roll lifestyle, Foals do.
- Foals are more heavy metal/rock rather than indie pop/alternative rock.
- Imagine dragons are more well known on YouTube regarding viewing figures than foals.
- Foals are only three men
- Foals have more of a male audience than imagine dragons as their heavy metal/rock appeals more to men than women .
One Republic
Similarities:
- Both have similar target audiences
- Both use creative imaginative youtube videos.
- Both have similar style of genre.
- Both like to sell merchandise to their fans .
- Both have a male lead- both look similar in their style.
Differences:
- One Republic are more pop in their music by using more upbeat tempos and happier energy than Imagine dragons being a more serious rock band.
- One Republic tend to make similar music video patterns rather than Imagine Dragons.
- Imagine dragons music is more electronic at times than One Republic whereas One Republic uses more of a bass and a faster tempo than Imagine dragons.
Bastillie
Similarities:
- Bastille are an Indie Pop band which is a sub-genre of Alternative rock, therefore they are part of the same genre
- Also all made up of men (five instead of four)
- Became active at around the same time, Bastille debuted in 2010, Imagine Dragons were a band from 2008 but didn’t debut their first album til 2012.
- Both won awards for being “Breakthrough acts”
- Both make weird and profound music videos that sometimes have complex or simple storylines
Differences:
- Imagine Dragons have been nominated for and won a lot more awards that Bastille. Imagine Dragons have been nominated for 73 awards and won 21, Bastille have been nominated for 23 awards and only won 4. Although Bastille have been in the mainstream for two years longer, Imagine dragons are clearly a lot more recognised for their work
- In terms of viewing figures and subscriber counts on YouTube, Imagine dragons are far more popular with nearly 5 million subscribers and nearly 2 billion overall video views. Bastille on the other hand have only 1.5 million subscribers in comparison and only around 600,000 overall video views.
- Imagine dragons music videos in some cases are a bit more special effect heavy whereas Bastille can have simpler videos.
Kodaline
Similarities:
- Both made up of four men
- Also Indie rock/indie pop
- Also became active within a few years of Imagine Dragons
- Did well with downloads when they released their first song in Ireland just as Imagine dragons are very prominent with online downloads/streaming for their songs
Differences:
- Barely any award recognition
- Made a name for themselves through reality TV
- Not really internationally known whereas Imagine dragons have amassed a worldwide following
Competition: Music Video One Republic
Counting Stars by One Republic, is directed by James Lees. The music is pop genre, with elements of folk mixed into it. The characteristics in the music video involve some bits of narrative. This is due to the fact the video is not all performance based, and the singer, is placed as the 'star' of the group.
Counting Stars is set in two locations. One of them is a floor where the band is located and the other, a meeting room where the story takes place. The video includes a surprise as there is a crocodile near the beginning of the video, which is not expected in a normal music video. At the end of the video, a hole opens up between the meeting room and the room below where the band is placed, which shows some narrative to take place for the band.
When the crocodile appears, this helps show the fact that the lyrics suggest that 'anything that kills me, makes me feel alive'. This means dangerous animals, like crocodiles, keep people alive, as they make people stay on guard. However, the lyrics contradict each other, as anything that kills you, usually doesn't "keeps you alive".
One of the lyrics is 'no more counting dollars, we'll be counting stars', at this same point on the video it shows the people in the meeting celebrate, and a woman praying, that she will be rich. The lyrics also mention about living dreams. This is another contradiction in the video, as it shows that band in a very low quality room with cracked walls, poor electricity supplies and it overall does not look well maintained.
The visuals relate to the music as when the singer claps the lights turn on, as if by magic. The artists all start swinging their arms, when mentioning 'swinging vines', which is a link between the lyrics and the video. The biggest relationship is the water running up the wall, when the lyrics say that they 'are doing the wrong thing'. Showing us a link that relates the music to the visuals.
You can tell the record label clearly want to sell this song as they include the artist for the majority of the video as from their social media accounts they have a very strong following, so thereby anyone who likes the band buy the song. They have also ensured the lyrics can be listened to everyone - making it as clear as possible, therefore not eliminating any potential sales, by including swear words.
The image of the band shows them in casual clothing at an old building, which shows that the band is just like everyone else and is not different form the public, when it comes to the ultimate dream of counting stars.
CD DigiPak
Front Cover
The letters on the album refer to the native spelling trying to make it more realistic for people to buy it. The colours are mostly soft pale that makes a summer vibe effect which can be related to the word Native. Maybe by using Native they are trying to sell to americans with the native route of Native Americans.
It's interesting to see that one the front cover there are five different animals- according to the band each animal represents each artist personality. Ryan Tedder the lead singer is shown as a fox which we know the animals are curious and have a quite figure hood to them, this does make sense as Ryan is the lead singer (figure hood). The drummer is represented as a mountain lion (Eddie Fisher) an animal that can lead but isn't a forceful leader, also the bass player, B.Kutzie, is a gazelle , the guitarist is a bison and an owl. We can take out of this that, all the animals shown on the cover work have leadership qualities relating to the band that they are all treated equal and there isn't a kingship going on.
I think its very effective as it makes the album more personal for their fans and it's different to what we see today and it creates a more meaningful and powerful image as it shows they want to promote their music rather than showing there looks and that typical musical pose and lifestyle.
Back Cover
As you can see the layout and colours create a simple and neutral effect, it kind of goes like less is more making it more attractive to look at. The colours look quite earthy and sandy both colours show the native aspect. The animal aspect can be looked at like the bands animal spirits making it seem more different and creative with their digipak.
A lot of colours has been used like I mentioned, showing a mixed diverse of choices - one republic like to change things up. The colours are different they are not bright mature- stuff that tries to make you buy them, they really are going with the native aspect. They like to go with their own way.
Advert Analysis - One Republic
In the magazine (billboard) advert, it is advertising their new album, “dreaming out loud”. The colour scheme in this advert is black and bright white indicating the night theme, giving it a very eye catching effect. If I was reading a magazine and this advert was there it would grab my attention as the colours and the font looks attractive and different.
The background is black indicating darkness (night) with bright white stars , an ideal setting for dreaming, where most people tend to listen to songs before they sleep (wiki) a subscionous clever marketing stunt.
The prop of the moon indicates it's night time when you are normally asleep, “dreaming” linking it back to the title of the album “dreaming out loud”. The information is limited, but the text on the page is important - they've kept it sweet and simple as it tells you the name , the release date, the name of the album and also the titles of their latest single.
On the magazine advert “One Republic” is in large white font larger than the other font on the advert, it is also placed at the top of the page, this is to make it stand out from the rest of the text on the page so the target audience are aware whose album it is. It also stands out because of the bright white colours. The image of the tree glowing in the bright white light appears to the audience that it could be lit up by electricity indicating that the alternative genre of the band produces electric music.
The prop of the moon indicates it's night time when you are normally asleep, “dreaming” linking it back to the title of the album “dreaming out loud”. The information is limited, but the text on the page is important - they've kept it sweet and simple as it tells you the name , the release date, the name of the album and also the titles of their latest single.
On the magazine advert “One Republic” is in large white font larger than the other font on the advert, it is also placed at the top of the page, this is to make it stand out from the rest of the text on the page so the target audience are aware whose album it is. It also stands out because of the bright white colours. The image of the tree glowing in the bright white light appears to the audience that it could be lit up by electricity indicating that the alternative genre of the band produces electric music.
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