Textual Analysis of Music Video's 1

Imagine Dragons - Radioactive

At the very start of the video, non-diegetic sound can be heard of the wind and a crow cawing connoting that the atmosphere is tense and gloomy fitting in with the visuals of the low angled long shot. A little later on, we can hear the diegetic sound of the crowd in the room, which builds up the tension again and shows that the scene is set with an audience. When the monsters and toys fight we can also hear the diegetic sound effects of the attacks connoting that they are actually fighting and they are powerful, as in when real animals fight and get hurt.

The story line of the video is based upon an underground toy brawl, with different toy contenders going up against the big purple toy champion who is owned by the venue's owner, hence why he's the champion. Throughout the video we can see that the purple monster is the strongest as it beats all its other contenders until the girl from the beginning of the videos tiny teddy toy confronts it and surprises the audience with its special powers, defeating the purple toy. I believe the story brings a moral to the video - don't let appearances fool you, as in the end the smaller toy beat the bigger scarier one. 

At the start, a mid shot is used on  a member of the band playing the drum and singing, connoting that he is a performer but also promotes him as an artist. I close up is then used of the purple monster connoting that he is scary and powerful, but is also the champion of the brawl. A low angle shot is then seen on the leader in a chair. This connoted that he is in charge of the brawl and owns the big purple monster. A two shot is seen later on of the girls pink bear shooting lasers at the two henchmen, connoting that it's powerful even though it's very small, but it is also owned by the heroin of the story.


The main focus of the video is the boxing ring underground where all the toys fight, connoting that this is the main attraction and purpose of the video. We also see the band performing, but are not really part of the story line's narrative, but rather just a live performance extra to promote the band.

There are no titles present throughout the video.