'Demons' by Imagine Dragons Music Video

One of my favourite music videos of all time is 'Demons' by Imagine Dragons.

The story of the video is about love and loss; the main concept is based around 4 fans in the crowd at an Imagine Dragons gig (so a large chunk of the video is performance based), but the camera zooms in on individual fans and you are told their story of what their lives are like at home. The flashbacks to the stories of the fans are filmed with a dark filter, making it look dull, but as soon as the chorus starts, the room lights up with the colour red (implying love between the fans and the band), but also taking away the darkness of their personal lives and adding the light provided by the music.

The 4 stories are:

A woman who has just lost her husband and has become a widow

A man with anorexia

A teenage boy getting abused at home

And a soldier suffering from PTSD

The video was filmed at a real concert in Las Vegas, their home town, and the venue was filled with real fans of the band, which makes the video that bit more personal.

I love this video because a lot of people go to gigs and turn to artists as an escape from their private lives, and, as soon as they walk into the concert venue, everything they were worrying about beforehand just disappears.

What I also love about this video is the fact that the band actually realise how much of an escape their music is for people, and how much people can relate to their music, especially this song. Usually, artists don't tend to get involved with their fans' private lives or take into account the fact that their fans might be going through something difficult at home. This video is almost a 'thank you' and a tribute to their fans, because the band themselves have been through difficult times in the past and the fans have helped them get through this.

The stories of the fans in the video are actually the stories of real fans they've met and helped through their music, so this is a video for them.

Fans start screaming at the start of the video, but it goes silent as soon as the song starts - highlighting the respect between the fans and the band. Also, the lighting of the video is very interesting - everything is dark except for the band members, possibly suggesting that they're 'guardian angels' to the fans.

The video is in slow motion until the chorus kicks in, showing how intently the fans are listening to the music, but also implying that their lives slow down when they're listening to and concentrating on the lyrics. Everyone in the audience stands close to each other and they all sing together, showing that they're all the same because they're all there to enjoy the music.

The lyrics are also extremely important and relevant to the video; when the first woman in the audience appears on screen and her story is about to be told, the lead singer sings " I wanna hide the truth, I wanna shelter you. But with the beast inside, there's nowhere we can hide" implying that the band want to protect their fans, and this song is almost a way of doing that without physically being there.

At the end of the song, the footage fades to black and the words 'In memory of Tyler Robinson (1995 - 2013) Who inspired us with his courage as he battled cancer". And then a video clip is shown of Tyler singing 'It's Time', another song by the band, with Dan Reynolds (the lead singer). Tyler was a huge fan of the band, and they became patrons of his charity 'The Tyler Robinson Foundation', and they provide links to its website on the video and in the description of the video.

Dan Reynolds told the media "There's more to people than what you see at face value, and often we judge people very quickly."

"When you get to know them (the fans), there's more behind the scenes."  - Reynolds on the stories that appear in the video.

"We tried to portray that throughout 'Demons'. It kind of shows that there's more going on than what you see when you just meet someone. Everyone has their own demons, their own problems."

It’s heartbreaking that Tyler died of cancer at 17, but the footage is also comforting and a true reminder of the power and ability of music to reach us in those broken places when nothing else can.


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After reading the comment:

This video will influence my final piece as I will try to bring in the emotional and moving side into my own music video, though I am yet to decide how I will do this. I do address the idea of death in the flatline I use for my band's logo, but I will try to bring in that side to it in my final video.