Song Analysis: Imagine Dragons

Believer
Believer, the hit song from the band Imagine Dragons, is about the pain that can manifest in everyday life, and how we can not only push through it, but how we can use it to improve ourselves. It was released in early 2017 after the band’s year long hiatus in which lead singer Dan Reynolds took time to deal with his depression. He is uncoincidentally, the author of the song. Believer blends the band’s previous styles as well as a few new ones in order to appeal to fans, old and new. The song became a quick hit, making its way to #4 on the hot 100 after its release. The ethos in the song primarily comes from the band’s experience, as they have had numerous hit songs, and from Reynolds’s personal experience. The pathos in the song is

Many would answer that the song’s meaning or purpose is what drives them back to it. The thing I love most about this song is the way in which it presents its purpose, which is in the form of a list. It goes step by step in telling its audience how to persevere above all problems. The song opens with the line, “First things first I’ma say all the words inside my head. I’m fired up and tired of the way that things have been.” The first step in solving a problem is acknowledging that there is a problem, and having the desire to change it. This is immediately followed by the line, “Second thing second, don’t you tell me what you think that I could be. I’m the one at the sail, I’m the master of my sea.” The second step in fixing a problem is taking control of it. If you’re not in control, there’s no chance of fixing it. Next, the song states, “Third things third, send a prayer to the ones up above. All the hate that you've heard has turned your spirit to a dove, oh-oh, your spirit up above, oh-ooh.” I don’t believe that this is the song asking us to pray in a literal sense but to make the most of the pain we’ve experienced as shown in the phrase, “All the hate that you’ve heard has turned your spirit to a dove.” The second to last line of the song says, “Last thing last by the grace of the fire and the flame, you’re the face of the future, the blood in my veins.” This one is slightly harder to

Being a rock song, it is a fast-paced, relentless rollercoaster of emotion in terms of the beat. The sounds the background, namely the bass, set a serious tone for the song. This along with the intensity in the chorus which states, “Pain! You made me a, you made me a believer, believer. Pain! You break me down and build me up, believer, believer,” lead to a feeling of perseverance. As the author takes the steps to pushing past his problems he’s using his pain to make him a believer, or in other words, using his pain to improve himself.
The other element used to convey the message of the song is the element of logos. The logos in the piece is somewhat clear. When people have problems, odds are, they’re going to want to move past them in one way or another. At the start, a person might let their problems sit and fester, but this song correctly states that this isn’t a good idea. “Hoping my feelings, they would drown, But they never did, ever lived, ebbing and flowing, Inhibited,