Music Video: Research & Planning

Imagine Dragons - Warriors

"Warriors" is a song recorded for the soundtrack to the League of Legends 2014 World Championship promotional video and The Divergent Series: Insurgent - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.

"Warriors"

As a child you would wait
And watch from far away.
But you always knew that you'd be the one that work while they all play

And you, you'd lay awake at night and scheme
Of all the things that you would change but it was just a dream!

Here we are, don't turn away now,
We are the warriors that built this town.
Here we are, don't turn away now,
We are the warriors that built this town.
From Dust.

The time will come, when you'll have to rise
Above the best, improve yourself
Your spirit never dies
Farewell, I've gone, to take my throne
Above, don't weep for me
Cause this will be the labor of my love

Here we are, don't turn away now,
We are the warriors that built this town
Here we are, don't turn away now,
We are the warriors that built this town
From Dust.

Here we are, don't turn away now,
We are the warriors that built this town
Here we are, don't turn away now,
We are the warriors that built this town
From Dust

Meaning/Content/Concept

This song is about a person who is different from everyone else and wants to achieve big "And watch from far away.", "But you always knew that you'd be the one that work while they all play.". I think this means the person has sacrificed his life, friends and family to focus on his dream. "And you, you'd lay awake at night and scheme, Of all the things that you would change but it was just a dream!". I think the line "Here we are, don't turn away now,We are the warriors that built this town." is the person finally living their dream and shouldn't turn away from it because of what others are saying.

As this song was for the League of Legends 2014 World Championship it could be about the professional League of Legends players who sacrificed a lot of their time into the game. Believing that they will one day live their dream of competing in the World Championships but their friends and family think they are wasting their lives with this dream. They ignore what everyone is saying about them as they believe they do have a chance and achieves their goal in the end.

Imagery

When I listen to this song I think of someone who is ambitious, fighting to be someone great and achieve their goal by overcoming all the boundaries. In the end the goal is reached and they are molded into a more powerful person through the journey they've gone on to get where they are now.

Genre/Style - Alternative Rock

Pace - The song starts calm in the verse but when the chorus kicks in the rock starts and the pace suddenly get quicker and the vocals and instruments get much louder. The song then goes slow and quiet again then back loud for the chorus. It keeps this pace throughout the entire song.

Duration - 2 minutes 50 seconds 

Image and Representation

Imagine Dragons usually wear very casual clothing and have quite an indie fashion in their music videos. They band don't wear over the top costumes like Lady Gaga or Madonna. Most of the clothing they wear is just dark colours such as blacks and grays. The image on the left is from "It's Time" and is wearing a grey t-shirt with a leather jacket and two necklaces. This is an indie/rock look which matches the bands music style, Alternative Rock/Indie Rock. The image on the right is a live performance from "Demons" and the artist is very casual just wearing a t-shirt and necklace. This tell me the band aren't trying to be over the top with bright colours and crazy costumes but instead just want to be themselves and wearing clothes which make them feel comfortable and fit their style of music.

Imagine Dragons music videos are usually quite gritty and strange with dark colours. In the music videos "It's Time", "Demons" and "Radioactive" the colours are very dark. In "It's Time" the band are in a remote  location with an apocalyptic future look. "Radioactive is also quite dark and gritty and humorous at the same time as puppets are in a cockfight as if the band are mocking it. This music video tells us the band are against cockfighting and use the music video to show this.

The band have also made some strange, surreal music videos more recently such as "I Bet My Life" and "Shots". The music video "Shots" is very artistic with lots of strange and interesting visuals and effects which are difficult to explain but have messages that can be interpreted. In the music video "I Bet My Life" the narrative is very surreal as the character gets sucked into a dam pipeline which leads him to an underwater house. The man sleeps and wakes up on a small sailing boat which flies off a waterfall. At the end of the narrative the man wakes up from the surreal dream.