Task 4A- Competitor Analysis for Imagine Dragons
Analysis of Imagine Dragons- Imagine Dragons are an American Alternative rock band from Las vegas, Nevada. They are made up of four men, lead vocalist Dan Reynolds, Lead guitarist Wayne Sermon, Bassist Ben McKee and drummer Daniel Platzman. The band's members are in their 30's. The band have been influenced by people like Nirvana, Muse, The Beatles, Coldplay and U2. They have a band culture of humility, relate-ability and creativity. Imagine dragons made a name for themselves when they filled in for a band called Train at a Las vegas Music festival in 2009.
Competitor Analysis
Foals
Similarities:
- Both have creative, unique and imaginative youtube videos.
- Both have similar tempos and guitar beats in their music.
- Both feature in musical festivals like Reading and Leeds.
- Both bands have similar target audiences.
- Both don’t use any vulgar language in their songs.
Differences:
- Imagine Dragons don’t follow the party rock and roll lifestyle, Foals do.
- Foals are more heavy metal/rock rather than indie pop/alternative rock.
- Imagine dragons are more well known on YouTube regarding viewing figures than foals.
- Foals are only three men
- Foals have more of a male audience than imagine dragons as their heavy metal/rock appeals more to men than women .
One Republic
Similarities:
- Both have similar target audiences
- Both use creative imaginative youtube videos.
- Both have similar style of genre.
- Both like to sell merchandise to their fans .
- Both have a male lead- both look similar in their style.
Differences:
- One Republic are more pop in their music by using more upbeat tempos and happier energy than Imagine dragons being a more serious rock band.
- One Republic tend to make similar music video patterns rather than Imagine Dragons.
- Imagine dragons music is more electronic at times than One Republic whereas One Republic uses more of a bass and a faster tempo than Imagine dragons.
Bastille
Similarities:
- Bastille are an Indie Pop band which is a sub-genre of Alternative rock, therefore they are part of the same genre
- Also all made up of men (five instead of four)
- Became active at around the same time, Bastille debuted in 2010, Imagine Dragons were a band from 2008 but didn’t debut their first album til 2012.
- Both won awards for being “Breakthrough acts”
- Both make weird and profound music videos that sometimes have complex or simple storylines
Differences:
- Imagine Dragons have been nominated for and won a lot more awards that Bastille. Imagine Dragons have been nominated for 73 awards and won 21, Bastille have been nominated for 23 awards and only won 4. Although Bastille have been in the mainstream for two years longer, Imagine dragons are clearly a lot more recognised for their work
- In terms of viewing figures and subscriber counts on YouTube, Imagine dragons are far more popular with nearly 5 million subscribers and nearly 2 billion overall video views. Bastille on the other hand have only 1.5 million subscribers in comparison and only around 600,000 overall video views.
- Imagine dragons music videos in some cases are a bit more special effect heavy whereas Bastille can have simpler videos.
Kodaline
Similarities:
- Both made up of four men
- Also Indie rock/indie pop
- Also became active within a few years of Imagine Dragons
- Did well with downloads when they released their first song in Ireland just as Imagine dragons are very prominent with online downloads/streaming for their songs
Differences:
- Barely any award recognition
- Made a name for themselves through reality TV
- Not really internationally known whereas Imagine dragons have amassed a worldwide following
Task 4B- Textual analysis of accompanying products for competitors
Digipak for Bastille Wild World
Music video for One Republic 'Wherever I go'
The very first frame of this music video shows the name of the band. This is useful for if someone who is watching the video does not realise who they’re watching and it also reinforces the fact that this is a One Republic video. The foreign writing above the bands name as well as the establishing shot of the city indicates to the audience that this might be a city in a country like Japan, China or South Korea.
The colours for this music video are grey and dull, this shows the mundanity of every day life. We see this through the establishing shots of the city, with the buildings at the very beginning all being grey as well as in the apartment of the protagonist and also with his walls and his furniture and even with the clothing and the furniture within his office. There are couple of instances in the video that have colourful objects that stand out, a pink packet of crisps, a golden cat and some red Budweiser posters. They are significant in the fact that they don't really fit in with the environment their in and stand out just as our protagonist does. At the beginning of the video we see a sad face on the ceiling showing that clearly the man is unhappy with his life and this along with the colour scheme shows how discontent he is. When the protagonist starts dancing within the office he is going against the typical behaviour expected of him. He is rebelling against the system and as soon as he does this others seem to follow. In the conclusion of the music video the colour scheme changes completely from grey and white to completely colourful to show a change of equilibrium within the narrative. Now that everyone has decided not to conform to the behaviour that is expected of them everyone seems to be a lot happier.
The protagonist himself has almost gone through a life changing experience just by deciding one day that he wasn't happy with his life. At the start of the video there is a shot of the protagonist in a lift with a bunch of other people he works with. He is however standing on his own in the middle. The video ends with the same shot bringing the video full circle at the end in order to conclude it, this time with him getting the affections of the woman he likes.
One Republic are almost non-existent in terms of them actually being in the video for most of it's duration, we pretty much only hear their voices and we only see them in one short scene towards the end. This shows that the music video was more about the message and the story of the song than it was about the band, they are the ones telling the story through this song and at one point the protagonist gets dragged into what is essentially a shrine to One Republic, where they are performing this song. He realises that they are the narrators of his story.
Album Advert for Kodaline
Although this advert is showing tour dates and not directly marketing a new Kodaline advert, in a way it is due to the image used within the advert which is the artwork for their album 'In a perfect world'. The bands name is the first thing that stood out to me with it being in a big and bold font. This immediately establishes who is being advertised and is the thing that will draw a reader in simply because it cannot be avoided. The setting of the ad, on a lake surrounded by the mountains is a very serene location and is reflective of Kodaline's relaxing music. The colours add to this with them being both vibrant and subtle at the same time, there is an over-saturation of blue and green, both of which in the correct tone can be quite calming and desensitising colours. The people on the dock are just ordinary people. They are not the bands members. This shows that any regular person does not have to be rich or famous to have 'a perfect world'. This ad is also saying that alls you need to have 'a perfect world' is a good location and good people, you don't need to be surrounded by possessions or a big house and this is seen through the fact that all these people have is a dock, the lake and the mountains. Judging by the colour of some of the clouds it seems that the sun is possibly setting. This could be showing the end of a perfect day as well as how time has passed, possibly these people have been there all day.
