Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com Radioactive Deconstructed Skip to: Audio/Video At a Glance Song Overview Structural Analysis Momentum/Tension/Intensity (MTI) Lyrics & Harmonic Progression The Music The Vocal Melody Primary Instrumentation, Tone & Mix Compositional Assessment Hit Factor Assessment Conclusion Why it’s a Hit Songwriter/Producer Take Aways Audio/Video Back to Top At a Glance Back to Top Artist: Imagine Dragons Song/Album: Radioactive/Night Visions Songwriters: Reynolds, McKee, Sermon, Grant, Mosser Genre: Rock Sub Genres: Alt/Indie/Electro/Dubstep/Pop Length: 3:02 Structure: A-B-A-B-C-B Tempo: Moderate Half-Time (136 bpm) First Chorus: 0:56 / 31% into the song Intro Length: 0:28 Outro Length: n/a Electric vs. Acoustic: Primarily electric (except for the intro) Primary Instrumentation: Electric Guitar, Synth, Acoustic Guitar Lyrical Theme: Inspirational (overcoming addiction/depression) but subject to one’s own interpretation Title Occurrences: “Radioactive” appears 6 times within the song, twice in each chorus Primary Lyrical P.O.V: 1st Person Song Overview Back to Top If you want to see an example of a song that is meticulously well crafted on all fronts, then 1 / 80 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com look no further than Imagine Dragon’s current hit, Radioactive. This is a song that has it all – infectious, engaging and memorable melodies, multiple “payoffs,” multiple “magic moments,” deep, engaging lyrics that can be interpreted in a multitude of ways, stellar vocals, multiple sub-genre influences and the list goes on and on. To date Radioactive has landed in the top 10 in 12 countries and hit #1 on 3 charts. As you’ll see within the report, there’s a lot to be learned from Radioactive which will certainly help take your songwriting and producing skills to the next level! Structural Analysis Back to Top At-a-Glance Timeline (Shows when each section hits within the timeline of the song) Section Length (Length of each individual section within the song) I=Intro, V=Verse, PC=Pre-Chorus, CHR=Chorus, BRG=Bridge 2 / 80 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com Radioactive contains 9 individual sections within its framework, with the longest landing at 0:28 and the rest landing at 0:14. Key Points Section Length Uniformity Notice the uniform length of each section within the song. With the exception of the 0:28 intro, all of the others land at exactly half that at 0:14. Additionally, notice that even though the full chorus is 0:28 long, it’s essentially broken into two 0:14 halves (i.e. the “I’m waking up” through “welcome to the new age” is one half, and the “Whoa..I’m radioactive” is the second half). The end result is that the general flow of the song is predictable (though not in a negative way), and as a result heightens the engagement and memorability factor for the listener. If the section lengths were all over the place, it would be much more difficult for the listener to process and absorb the song as a whole. Frequent Sectional Turnover Considering that each section aside from the intro is quite short in nature (including both halves of the chorus), the listener is always kept engaged by something new entering the mix once every 0:14. Top 10 Hit Pop Song Comparison Even though Radioactive is a Rock song, it does possess certain qualities that we find in many chart-topping Pop songs (and we’ll be exploring this further in-depth later within the report). For now, let’s see how Radioactive’s section length compares to the 23 songs that landed in the Billboard Pop Songs Chart top 10 during Q1-2013: Radioactive / Top 10 Hit Pop Song Averages Intro: 0:28 / 0:11 3 / 80 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com Verse: 0:14 / 0:26 Pre-Chorus: 0:14 / 0:15 Chorus: 0:28 / 0:30 Bridge: 0:14/ 0:26 As you can see, the only 2 sections where Radioactive is pretty much directly in-line with top 10 Pop song averages is the pre-chorus (it’s just 0:01 shorter) and chorus (it’s 0:02 shorter). Radioactive differs in the following areas: The intro is 0:15 longer than the average The verse is 0:12 shorter than the average The bridge is 0:12 shorter than the average The key point to take note of here is the length of the intro. It’s LONG, more than double the length of the average. And as you know, the rule of thumb for mainstream songs (and non- mainstream, for that matter) is to keep them short, hook the listener in and get on with it. Radioactive’s intro completely goes against the grain, but that’s not to say that it’s not effective. On the contrary, it’s quite effective, and we’ll get into the details within the Music/Instrumentation/Vocal section of the report. Additionally, and we’ll be discussing this later as well, you can also consider the pre-chorus to be an additional stanza of each verse section (though that’s not how we’ll be looking at it within this report). If you do, then the full verse section would land at 0:28, which is almost exactly the same as the hit Pop song average (0:26). Now, let’s see how Radioactive’s section count compares to the 23 songs that landed in the Billboard Pop Songs Chart top 10 during Q1-2013: Radioactive / Top 10 Hit Pop Songs Intro: 1 / 1 Verse: 2 / 2 Pre-Chorus: 2 / 2 Chorus: 3 / 3 Bridge: 1 / 1 As you can see, Radioactive’s section count is exactly in line with the vast majority of top 10 hit 4 / 80 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com Pop songs. Additionally, it utilizes an A-B-A-B-C-B form (verse – chorus – verse – chorus – bridge – chorus), which is still by far the most popular structure utilized in today’s chart- topping hits. Total Section Analysis (Total time consumed by each section and its percentage of the total song) Radioactive is comprised of 5 primary sections within its framework (i.e. all choruses, verses and pre-choruses, plus the intro and bridge), accounting for 46% of the song’s total composition all the way down to just 8%. As you can see, the vast majority of time within the song was allocated to that exceptionally powerful and infectious chorus, which was well warranted. Note the following regarding its high percentage relative to the other sections: There were more chorus occurrences within the song than any other section (i.e. 3 compared to the 2 verses and pre-choruses and the 1 bridge and intro). The full chorus is the longest section of the song along with the intro (0:28). All of the others landed at half the length. As for the other sections, all except for the bridge were given equal weight within the song (even the intro, which is an extreme rarity), each comprising 15% of its total composition. The bridge was allocated the least amount of time at 8%. 5 / 80 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com Now, let’s now see how the sectional breakdown of Radioactive compared to the 23 songs that landed in the Billboard Pop Songs Chart top 10 during Q1-2013: Intro Radioactive: Comprises 15% of the total song. Q1-2013 Average: Comprises 5% of the total song. Comparison: The percentage of time allocated to the intro is 10% more than the Q1-2013 top 10 Pop song average. Verse Radioactive: Comprises 15% of the total song. Q1-2013 Average: Comprises 26% of the total song. Comparison: Radioactive allocated 11% less time to the verse compared to the average. Pre-Chorus Radioactive: Comprises 15% of the total song. Q1-2013 Average: Comprises 15% of the total song. Comparison: The percentage of time allocated to Radioactive’s pre-chorus is identical to the Q1-2013 top 10 average. Chorus Radioactive: Comprises 46% of the total song. Q1-2013 Average: Comprises 43% of the total song. Comparison: Radioactive allocated 3% more time to the chorus compared to the average. Bridge Radioactive: Comprises 8% of the total song. Q1-2013 Average: Comprises 11% of the total song. Comparison: Radioactive allocated 3% less time to the bridge compared to the average. Summary 6 / 80 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com Overall, Radioactive allocated significantly less time to the verse, slightly less time to the bridge, the same amount of time to the pre-chorus, slightly more time to the chorus and substantially more time to the intro compared to the average of all the top 10 hit Pop songs of Q1-2013. And again, if you take the pre-chorus out of the equation (and refer to it as another stanza within the verse), the total amount of time allocated to the verse would be 5% greater than the average. So all in all, aside from the intro and whether or not you want to refer to the pre-chorus as a verse, the total sectional composition of Radioactive is pretty close to top 10 Pop song averages. Music, Instrumentation & MTI (Momentum/Tension/Intensity) Back to Top (Evaluation of the intensity of each section within the song timeline on a scale of 1 – 10, 10 being the most intense) When we talk about a song’s MTI level, we’re referring to how fluctuations in momentum, tension and intensity levels are utilized in each section of the song.