I Was Today Years Old When I Learned That Imagine Dragons and American Authors Are Two Different Bands
Let me set the scene:
I was sitting at my cramped desk in my home office, half-listening to the playlist Spotify curated for me this morning while working on a report for my job.
Suddenly, a classic from my high school days — “Best Day of My Life” — filled my phone’s speakers. I thought to myself, “Wow, I haven’t heard an Imagine Dragons song in forever. What a throwback.”
I instinctively lit up my lock screen to see which album this particular song was from, and to my horror…
It was an American Authors album.
Immediately, I felt sick to my stomach.
I used to hear this song on the radio on my way to my sophomore year of high school, and I never considered the possibility that it wasn’t an Imagine Dragons song. I used to dance to this song at Homecoming and Prom, and each time, I mouthed over the too-loud music to my friends, “OMG I love Imagine Dragons!!”
As anyone else would do in this situation, I flew to Google and typed in “What’s the difference between American Authors and Imagine Dragons.” The results were shocking.
So it was confirmed: These were two different bands…but I’m not the only one who had this mix-up. People on Reddit have said the same thing. Random publications have drawn the same conclusions. So that was that. The bands sound similar, and that’s it…right?
I went on with my workday, and soon, “Best Day of My Life” ended, only to be followed by “It’s Time” by none other than Imagine Dragons.
Now listen. I know “It’s Time” well. One of my core memories is hearing the song pour from the playlist at Kings Island in 2013 when I was 15, which convinced me I was living in a coming-of-age film on that late August morning. But today, I felt like I was hearing the song for the first time again because…
I’m 99% sure I’ve been mixing up “Best Day of My Life” and “It’s Time” for years. YEARS.
To the musically untrained ear, they sound so similar.
(You’ll see in the screenshot that other people have thought the same thing, but I didn’t read that far until after this was written. Oops.)
I’m not accusing American Authors of copying Imagine Dragons. I have no idea who they’ve drawn inspiration from, and I guess most pop music from that time was similar. So, what’s the purpose of this article?
To showcase how dumb I’ve been for the last decade. I listened to two different songs probably dozens of times and NEVER realized they weren’t the same.
This all begs the question:
What other songs have I subconsciously morphed together in my mind?
We may never know.
