Rising from the Nevada desert in the late 2000s, Imagine Dragons built an international following through their high-energy fusion of arena rock drive and infectious pop hooks. They captured their first Grammy in 2014 for the diamond-certified hit “Radioactive,” taken from their debut album Night Visions, and maintained a dominant chart presence throughout the 2010s by reaching the top of the Billboard 200 with 2015’s Smoke + Mirrors. As their percussion-driven approach evolved into more streamlined, stadium-scale anthems, the quartet earned worldwide acclaim with the 2017 Grammy-nominated set Evolve, which yielded three multi-platinum singles: “Believer,” “Thunder,” and “Whatever It Takes.” Moving into the following decade, the band explored deeper maturity on the Rick Rubin-produced Mercury: Act 1 and its companion release Mercury: Act 2, before unveiling their seventh album Loom in 2024 and venturing into previously uncharted stylistic territory.
The Las Vegas-based outfit first took shape in Provo, Utah, when vocalist Dan Reynolds encountered drummer Andrew Tolman at Brigham Young University. By 2009 the lineup—rounded out by guitarist Daniel Wayne Sermon, bassist Ben McKee, and Andrew Tolman’s wife Brittany Tolman on keyboards and backing vocals—had established a regional profile and relocated to Reynolds’ hometown to cut two favorably received EPs, Imagine Dragons and Hell and Silence, at the Killers’ Battle Born Studios. A third EP, It’s Time, appeared the next year and secured a recording contract with Interscope. Before the deal was finalized the Tolmans departed, and Daniel Platzman assumed drumming duties.
Imagine Dragons broke through in 2012 with the Continued Silence EP and their first full-length, Night Visions, which entered the Billboard 200 at number two, earned multiple awards, and later achieved double-platinum status in the United States, propelled chiefly by the Grammy-winning single “Radioactive,” which became the best-selling digital rock track in American history. Two additional hits emerged in 2013—“Demons” domestically and “On Top of the World” abroad—while the group devoted most of 2014 to completing their sophomore effort. Co-produced by Alex da Kid, Smoke + Mirrors arrived in February 2015, debuted at number one, and was supported by the singles “I Bet My Life” and “Shots.” Between June 2015 and February 2016 the band maintained a rigorous touring schedule, later documenting the run with the live album Smoke + Mirrors Live, captured at a sold-out Air Canada Centre in Toronto.
After taking a respite in 2016, during which they contributed only a handful of tracks to film soundtracks—“Not Today” for Me Before You, “Sucker for Pain” for Suicide Squad, and “Levitate” for Passengers—the quartet began work on their third studio album. They introduced the lead single “Believer” in January 2017, and Evolve followed in June. True to its title, the record marked a continued evolution, emphasizing EDM-inflected pop and uplifting themes that fueled the additional multi-platinum hits “Whatever It Takes” and “Thunder.” Early in 2018 the band joined R&B vocalist Khalid for a mashup pairing “Thunder” with his “Young Dumb & Broke,” then released “Natural” that summer as the first single from their fourth album, Origins. Issued in November 2018, Origins reunited them with producers Jayson DeZuzio and Alex da Kid alongside several newer collaborators; although it did not replicate the commercial heights of its three predecessors, the set still generated further international successes such as “Bad Liar” and the Kygo-assisted “Born to Be Yours.”
In March 2021 Imagine Dragons issued the double-sided single “Follow You” / “Cutthroat” ahead of their fifth album, Mercury: Act 1. Produced by Rick Rubin and Joel Little, the project showcased greater emotional depth and introspection from Reynolds while addressing themes of mental health, mortality, grief, and relational challenges. Released that September, it secured the group’s fifth straight Top Ten placement. Prior to Act 2, they scored another radio favorite with “Enemy,” a collaboration with rapper JID featured on the soundtrack for the animated series Arcane. Early 2022 brought the lead single “Bones” from Mercury: Act 2, which arrived that July. Packaged together with Act 1 as Mercury: Acts 1 & 2, the follow-up also contained “Sharks” and the Cory Henry collaboration “Continual.” After enjoying a period of rest in 2023, during which they released only Live in Vegas and the track “Children of the Sky” for the video game Starfield, the band launched their next album cycle in April 2024 with the single “Eyes Closed.” Loom, their seventh studio album, appeared later that year; while the lead track reinforced their signature anthemic, percussion-forward style, the subsequent single “Nice to Meet You” introduced a fresh pop-funk dancefloor sensibility.
