Imagine Dragons Singer Calls Criticism ‘Clickbait Horse Sh*t’
Imagine Dragons have taken their fair share of slings and arrows in recent months. In the rock community, Slayer's Gary Holt ripped them after their performance at college football's national championship game, and Slipknot's Corey Taylor recently suggested that they had replaced Nickelback as rock's "scapegoat." They've also faced criticism from fellow alt-rock peers as well, but in a string of Instagram posts, Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds has let his feelings be known on the "vile and hate" sent his band's way.
The singer lays out that he understands that criticism is something that comes with being a band in the public eye, but says he feels that there's a mentality that celebrates the tearing down of bands within the industry. He asks for a more supportive community regardless of tastes and voices. Reynolds also addresses what such criticism might mean to people who are actually fans of their music and trying to find their way in the world. Check out his full statement on the matter below.
For a decade now I've dealt with critics and other bands saying extremely harsh things about my band. Not what I would call "fair criticism" (which I always try best to receive and learn from) but actual click-bait horse shit. Words filled with vile and hate meant to feed humanities need to laugh at each other's imperfection and fails.
I've stood silently and taken it for years. It has added to the depression I've dealt with since youth. I don't say this in search of sympathy, but just as a fact.
It's not the person that causes me the feelings of stress and depression, but what it does to the world we as a band have created. How it could possibly make a kid feel "not cool" listening to Imagine Dragons. I hate that thought. Wondering if my kids will be made fun of as they grow older because someone thinks my band isn't cool.
I've gotten over the fact that guys in other bands (the 1975, Foster the People, Smashing Pumpkins, Slipknot, etc.) feel a need to talk badly about my band for whatever reason. I don't feel anger towards them actually, just more of a sadness that this industry embraces, even celebrates this mentality. I wish it felt like a place where artists stood by each other and supported one another -- regardless of our different tastes and voices.
My bandmates are some of my best friends. We are authentically ourselves and strive to bring positivity and empowerment to the world. We'll continue to do just that.
X DR
Imagine Dragons are currently supporting their 2018 album Origins. At present, only a handful of dates are left on their touring, with appearances at the Bottle Rock festival in Napa, California in May and an Aug. 4 date at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio left.
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