Panic! At The Disco

Emerging as one of the standout groups from the emo wave that swept through the mid-2000s, Panic! At the Disco evolved far beyond their initial breakthrough, becoming the showcase for Brendon Urie’s magnetic and genre-blending approach to pop. Supported early on by fellow emo-pop act Fall Out Boy, the group achieved rapid visibility on MTV and the charts through the elaborate, high-energy single “I Write Sins Not Tragedies,” taken from their 2005 debut A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out. Their next effort, Pretty. Odd., drew on 1960s psychedelia and divided listeners as well as reviewers, marking the start of an extended period of artistic development that also brought membership shifts. Urie and founding drummer Spencer Smith steered the sound toward glistening synth textures and 1980s new-wave dance-punk on 2011’s Vices & Virtues, then broadened it further into an assured mix of electronic pop, hip-hop, and R&B with 2013’s Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die! Following Smith’s exit in 2015, Urie assumed full creative control as the sole remaining original member. Through these transitions and shifting musical landscapes, Panic! At the Disco sustained a devoted audience and continued to release ambitious work, reaching the top of the charts with the Frank Sinatra-inspired Death of a Bachelor in 2016 and Pray for the Wicked in 2018. Their seventh studio album, the classic-rock-leaning Viva Las Vengeance, appeared in 2022.

The band formed in 2004 after high-school classmates Spencer Smith on drums and Ryan Ross on guitar began playing blink-182 covers. Once they grew weary of performing other artists’ material, they added two more schoolmates—guitarist and vocalist Brendon Urie plus bassist Brent Wilson—and chose the name Panic! At the Disco after a lyric from Name Taken’s song “Panic.” The quartet began writing their own material, infusing pop structures with dramatic flourishes, eccentric electronic rhythms, and sharp observations, then shared several demos online. Those recordings drew the interest of Decaydance Records, the Fueled by Ramen subsidiary run by Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz, who signed them even though they had not yet performed live anywhere.

With their debut slated for September 2005, Panic! At the Disco joined the Nintendo Fusion Tour alongside Fall Out Boy, Motion City Soundtrack, Boys Night Out, and the Starting Line. They kept touring into the first months of 2006 while “I Write Sins Not Tragedies” climbed onto MTV playlists and the Billboard Top 40. Mid-year Wilson was dismissed; the remaining members brought in their friend Jon Walker and completed a summer schedule that included Lollapalooza plus the Reading and Leeds Festivals. At the VMAs they received Video of the Year, outpacing Madonna and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and a limited collector’s edition of A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out containing assorted memorabilia and a DVD reached stores in time for the 2006 holiday season.

After more road dates the members revealed they were dropping the exclamation point from their name, a change that anticipated the more mature, less emo-oriented sound of Pretty. Odd. Issued in March 2008, the album rose to number two on the U.S. chart and reflected a group whose influences now included the Beatles’ psychedelic era. They promoted it with another string of concerts, one of which was documented on the CD/DVD set …Live in Chicago. In June 2009 Walker and Ross departed to launch their own project, the Young Veins. Urie and Smith continued as a studio duo while recruiting Ian Crawford and Dallon Weekes for live performances, releasing their third album, the John Feldmann- and Butch Walker-produced Vices & Virtues, in 2011.

Two years afterward they returned with Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die!, again helmed by Walker. The record drew inspiration from Urie’s hometown of Las Vegas and borrowed its title from Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. An adventurous set that highlighted Urie’s growing fascination with hip-hop and electronic textures, it also marked the first studio appearance of Weekes. Following several 2013 concerts Smith stepped away from the road because of ongoing substance-abuse struggles. By 2015 he formally exited the band; around the same time Weekes reverted to touring-only status. With Urie now in charge, Panic! At the Disco closed the year by issuing the singles “Hallelujah,” “Victorious,” and “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” All three tracks appeared on the fifth studio album, Death of a Bachelor, which Urie co-produced with longtime engineer Jake Sinclair. The record debuted at number one in the United States and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Album; a subsequent tour yielded a live recording.

In 2018 Urie delivered Pray for the Wicked, which again topped the Billboard 200. Once more produced by Sinclair, the album included the singles “High Hopes,” “King of the Clouds,” and “Say Amen (Saturday Night),” the last of which became the group’s first number-one single. The following year they contributed a cover of “Into the Unknown” to the Frozen II soundtrack before starting work on new material. In August 2022 Urie unveiled the band’s seventh studio album, Viva Las Vengeance. Recorded in Los Angeles with Sinclair and Mike Viola, it captured Urie channeling numerous classic-rock touchstones while tracking every song straight to tape. Along with the title track the set featured the singles “Middle of a Breakup” and “Local God.”