Wine and Cheese: Imagine Dragons and Panic! At the Disco
We are all familiar with the pop rock bands Imagine Dragons and Panic! At The Disco. Surprisingly, they have more in common than just their sound – including their openness with fans, Mormonism, and Sin City.
It’s your dream collab. The artists you add back-to-back to the queue. The pairing you can’t get enough of. You know they sound good together, but why? Welcome to Wine and Cheese, a series investigating the why and telling you all about it.
Written by Téa Anderson
Photo courtesy of Live Vocals Battle Youtube
Our generation has been blessed with the musical presence of Imagine Dragons and Panic! At The Disco. Not only are they both Grammy-nominated, top charting artists, but both of them call Las Vegas home. As Las Vegas has been dubbed “Entertainment Capital of the World,” it’s no surprise the city has produced these amazing performers.
Panic! At The Disco and Imagine Dragons have made Las Vegas proud. Panic! has put out six albums over the last fourteen years while Imagine Dragons has produced four in their ten years. Both have won a myriad of awards and are Grammy nominees. They have also acknowledged their success in their music, as Panic! has a song titled “Hey Look Ma, I Made It” and Imagine Dragon has “Look How Far We’ve Come.”
Despite amassing enough wealth to call it quits and retire to Florida, both bands are still creating new music and touring. It would be easy to walk away once they made enough money to live off of for the rest of their lives. The fact that they still have the energy and momentum to keep going after all these years shows the artists’ dedication and love for what they do.
Both groups had a slow climb to fame. Life was simple in 2004. People listened to music through their MP3s. Friends were ranked on each others’ MySpace pages. At the time, Panic! at the Disco was covering Blink-182 songs. Teen pop was cherished amongst the youth, but the road to an alternative, rock sound was still underway, spearheaded by Fall Out Boy with Panic! at the Disco right behind them. It wasn’t until 2006 that Panic!’s “I Write Sins Not Tragedies” peaked on the charts.
A few years later in 2008, pop music was still thriving, but more alternative bands were hitting the mainstream airways such as Linkin Park, Secondhand Serenade, and One Republic. Music became even more accessible with iPods, which allowed music consumption to grow among the alternative audience. Imagine Dragons was just beginning their trek to mainstream radio, which wouldn’t come to fruition until 2012, with their hit “It’s Time.” This success continued with “Radioactive” and “Demons,” which has led to Imagine Dragons becoming a household name ever since.
The similarities continue when considering the composition of the bands. Frontmen are critical to the band’s image; they are the bridge between the music and the fans. Brendon Urie, the lead singer of Panic! at the Disco, and Dan Reynolds, the lead singer of Imagine Dragons, are the only remaining original members of their band. Reynolds and Urie have built a relationship with their fans by opening up about their personal lives, spanning from their histories with mental illness to their own sexualities.
One of the most surprising similarities between these frontmen is their religious background. Both men were raised in large Mormon families in Las Vegas, where the Mormon population is only about five percent. The rebellious tendencies of rock music typically clash with religion, but. religious undertones can be found in their music in tracks like “Believer” and “Demons” by Imagine Dragons and “Hallelujah” and “This Is Gospel” by Panic! At The Disco. Their religious backgrounds have also led to tension, both within themselves and their families. Urie left the faith and moved out of his family’s home after telling his parents he wouldn’t be going on a mission trip or to college. After his first album, he was able to reconcile with his family but still remains out of the faith. Reynolds is still a member of the church, but isn’t completely accepting of its values, as he’s made a documentary (which can be viewed for free) about the poor treatment of LGBTQ youth in the Mormon community.
There are few things that inspire the same level of intense emotions that music does. Music creeps into the cracks of a person and breaks them open at their core. These bands have created a sanctuary for their listeners, providing musical relief for any possible situation they may find themselves in. Whether they feel on top of the world or that its been an impossible year, there is a song to find comfort in. Panic! At The Disco and Imagine Dragons share more than similar audiences — they also have the same roots. Learning a person’s history can shed an entirely new light on who they are.