Best New Artist Nominee Spotlight: Imagine Dragons
iHeartRadio Music Award Best New Artist nominees Imagine Dragons had a massive year in 2013: Billboard named them "Breakthrough Band of 2013," Rolling Stone named their smash hit "Radioactive" the year's biggest rock hit and they won a Grammy for Best Rock Performance for the same song.
The band, made up of Dan Reynolds, Ben McKee, Wayne Sermon and Daniel "Platz" Platzman, is nominated in multiple categories at the first-ever iHeartRadio Music Awards in May, including the prestigious Best New Artist category.
Imagine Dragons teamed up with iHeartRadio to Guest DJ a radio station that represents them. Check out the band's top ten tracks below, with accompanying explanations from the guys.
1. Tupac, "Changes"
"I think the first time I heard this I was in middle school," Lead singer Dan Reynolds tells iHeartRadio. "It was the first time that I really think I listened to the lyrics of a song and it changed me in a way -- no pun intended 'cause it’s called 'Changes.' Tupac was just so poetic."
2. Tame Impala, "Elephant"
"We had the pleasure of playing with these guys a lot this Summer in Europe," guitarist Wayne Sermon says. "A lot of festivals, and they managed to get better every time we heard them."
3. LCD Soundsystem, "North America"
"One of my favorite bands," Dan says of LCD Soundsystem. "They have a song called 'North America' that just makes you feel proud to be from North America. We’d play this song before we would go out. On quite a few of our shows it was our pump up song -- we’d play it over the sound system. We need to do that again actually."
4. Crystal Fighters, "At Home"
Drummer Daniel Platzman a.k.a. 'Platz' calls Crystal Fighters "good friends." He tells iHeartRadio, "We got to see these guys rock the house at Reading and Leeds for the first time, and they’ve become dear friends of ours. They are just so awesome, please enjoy!"
5. Rolling Stones, "Satisfaction"
According to Imagine Dragons bassist Ben McKee, 'Satisfaction' is "a song we used to play back in the old old days of Imagine Dragons on the strip at O’Shea’s Casino in the midst of all the cigar smoke and all bikini clad cocktail waitresses. Hope you have some fun with it too."
6. The Beatles, "Hey Jude"
"Here’s another one of our favorite songs," Wayne says of the Beatles classic. "You might have heard it before, I think we all probably have."
7. Led Zeppelin, "Black Dog"
"Led Zeppelin’s 'Black Dog' of course features the huge drum solo, which is why I demanded to introduce this song," Platz tells iHeartRadio. "My older brother actually made me play this song with him for his high school talent show when I was still in middle school, and it was one of the biggest gigs I’d ever had at the time. It was very very nerve-racking."
8. Django Django, "Default"
"This was definitely the anthem for like three of our tours," Platz says. "We played it everyday on the bus to pump ourselves up. They are just such a cool band and they’ve got a lot of the dual singing thing... and the tambourine part’s insane."
9. Of Montreal, "Gronlandic Edit"
I'm from Atlanta, Georgia," Platz says, "and here we have a band, Of Montreal from Athens, Georgia with 'Gronlandic Edit.' This song is awesome. You got the killer harmony in the chorus, you got the time signature change... man this song’s got everything going for it and it is funky as a mug."
10. X Ambassadors, "Unconsolable"
"These guys are a young band that are just starting to break, we actually took them on tour with us for a few of our dates in February," Dan tells iHeartRadio. "Someone showed me this song when I was in Norfolk and it just blew me away. Two brothers are in the band, the singer and they keyboardist. Really interesting story -- the keyboardist grew up blind and the singer took care of him. They are very close, they’re best friends and they create incredible music. You have to listen to this song."
11. Nico Vega, "Iron Man"
"This song... just the tone of her voice, the feeling that it instills inside of you is what music is all about," Dan says. "No matter where you’re at, if you plug in your headphones and just listen to the song, it takes you away from the craziness of life. And the singer’s pretty sexy as well I must admit."
12. Rhye, "Open"
"This is something we like to call lovemaking music, definitely," Wayne tells iHeartRadio. "I actually thought it was a girl to be honest when I first heard this song, but it’s actually just a guy who has a really beautiful voice from L.A."
13. Temper trap, "Fader"
"We played a gig with these guys back in Vegas probably four years ago," Ben says. "I ended up getting let out of jail about 20 minutes before we went on stage. I managed to just make it on stage for the first note, still wearing the same clothes I slept on the floor in jail in, and somehow got through the concert. These guys are great."
14. Kendrick Lamar, "M.A.A.D. City"
"We got to perform this with Kendrick at the Grammys and it was a lot of fun," Platz tells iHertRadio. "He’s so full of energy, and we were just completely on the same page about what we wanted to accomplish with that performance from the get-go. The song is awesome, it was really fun to play and you’re gonna have fun listening to it now, “Mad City.”
15. Dan Croll, "Home"
"Dan Croll -- a band that we got to play a lot of shows with out in Europe," Ben says. "I was so moved at the last concert that we played with them that I actually stripped down to my underwear and made a cameo appearance on stage with them, without warning them of course. It was a surprise for everybody."
Photos by Katherine Tyler for iHeartRadio
