Opinion

The Washington Post’s vicious slapdown of Imagine Dragons

There are some who are worried about the state of rock today, pointing out that the biggest bands are, well, kind of dull, faceless, and generally uninspiring.

Imagine Dragons got ripped a new one by Washington Post music critic Chris Richards. This is pretty vicious.

As our fellow citizens of dystopia walk these cold 21st-century streets with tiny speakers plugged into their head-holes, we can only wonder: What are they listening to? Probably some podcast. Or maybe the situation is even worse. Maybe they’re trying to block out the sound of Imagine Dragons. 
 
Has humanity ever listened to so much music against its volition?…as you may have heard, rock-and-roll can never die — not as long as America’s power people remain convinced that we still need this stuff to fill our Transformers movies and our telecasts, like they did on Monday night when Imagine Dragons headlined the halftime show at the national college football championship in Santa Clara, Calif.
 
For 10 difficult minutes, the band played almost all of the songs you forgot you had ever forgotten. Roughly seven minutes into the show, Lil Wayne teleported in from a Parliament-Funkadelic concert circa 1977, then disappeared again. Even less explicable: a careening falsetto oooh-oooh solo from lead singer Dan Reynolds during “Thunder” — which felt audacious until you remembered that this is how drunk people sing the guitar solo at karaoke. How can this band be this famous?

Whoa. And it gets rougher. Continue reading.

And we’re not done. Gary Hold from Exodus and Slayer has something to say, too.

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 37980 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

6 thoughts on “The Washington Post’s vicious slapdown of Imagine Dragons

  • I can’t say I have ever been much of an ID fan. Their first big single was decent but I never really got the hype. I once heard someone make a statement about them that really sums up how I feel: “I liked them better when they were Coldplay”.

    Reply
  • No one could possibly be as bad as Hedley at the Grey Cup halftime show four or five years ago. Every time I was forced to see or listen to that band, I would say about Jacob Hoggart, “That guy’s a freak, and their music sucks.” I was pleased to see that I was proven correct in the long run.

    Reply
  • It’s a shame that Imagine Dragons is what passes for a rock band these days.

    Reply
  • I applaud this review. It’s poetry to me. Bravo!

    Reply
  • ‘Thunder’ is a fucking terrible song.

    Reply

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