Imagine Dragons: Radioactive Meaning
Song Released: 2012
Radioactive Lyrics
I wipe my brow and I sweat my rust
I'm breathing in the chemicals
I'm breaking in, shaping up, then checking out on the prison bus
This is it, the apocalypse
Whoa
I'm waking up, I feel it in my bones
Enough...
-
1TOP RATED
#1 top rated interpretation:I think no one really understands meaning anymore. It's said that every artist creates something that they hold true, a deep thought, or a truth they wish to be told.
Think closely of the words they have chosen. Could they just have written this song for fun? Or could they have written it because they know something? In these days, everything is not what it seems, there is truth behind everything, just wake up and seek it.
Think of the words that stand out the most. Think of all the things you have seen and heard about the word today. Coincidence? I think not.
Just wake up and think.
~Anonymous -
2TOP RATED
#2 top rated interpretation:Although I'm not going to put in the lyrics and the meanings for each line, I believe that I know the basic message of Radioactive.
This song is says that the human race used to be a perfect society. But now everyone is fighting and trying to just make it. Everything is about money and there are little things that people care about that has to do with helping each other. Our world has been contaminated by greed and now we are about to suffer the consequences. -
3TOP RATED
#3 top rated interpretation:I don't really know. But I think that when he sings "I'm breathing in.....the chemicals" might be about our polluted, metallic air, not drugs.
-
I feel like this is in a post-apocalyptic society with a controlling government, and people are finally waking up and fighting. As for the lyrics “I’m breathing in the chemicals” and “I’m radioactive” He/She is some sort of radioactive mutant.
-
This song is my favorite one out of all the songs written by Imagine Dragons. To me it means that the singer is going through a hard time in their own life and are trying to deal with it. To him/her it seems like a battle and the world around them is crumbling hence the line “This is it, the apocalypse.” This lines “Welcome to the new age, To the new age, To the new age,” most likely refers how much his/her life has changed over the years.
-
This song does sound to be the sign of change is needed.
I'm waking up to ash and dust, I wipe my brow and sweat my rust, I breathe in the chemicals.
I'm breaking in, shaping up then checking out of the prison bus.
(we are seeing this person's everyday life. A world of, destruction, the poisoning of the air and oppression.)
This it, apocalypse
(New World Order a.k.an NWO).
I'm waking up, I feel it in my bones, enough to make my systems blow.
Welcome to the new age, to the new age.
Welcome to the new age, to the new age.
(He/She is now starting to wake up from the dream world she/he had been placed in by the NWO and is very much being welcomed to a new world. QUite possibly accompanied by fellow people who too have awakened.)
I'm Radioactive, radioactive.
I'm Radioactive, radioactive.
(The term "Radioactive" can be used as a metaphor, meaning he/she is a mutant or has a mutation due to the NWO).
I raise my flag, dye my clothes, it's a revolution I suppose, we're painted red to fit right in.
(She/He has decided to fight alongside others who want their freedom, but they have to be sneaky about->we're painted red to fit right in).
I'm breaking in, shaping up, checking out on the prison bus.
(Again we see the signs of oppression, only this time we know what they're awake).
I'm waking up, I feel it in my bones, enough to make my systems overload.
Welcome to the new age, to the new age.
Welcome to the new age, to the new age.
(We see the people rising up against the oppressors (NWO) and battling it out, Oppression vs Freedom).
I'm Radioactive, radioactive.
I'm Radioactive, radioactive.
(Are we back to the beginning again and it is all just a dream or is the battle still raging on? ohhhh cliffhanger!) -
Reynolds explained the song's meaning to MTV News: "'Radioactive,' to me, it's very masculine, powerful-sounding song, and the lyrics behind it, there's a lot of personal story behind it, but generally speaking, it's a song about having an awakening; kind of waking up one day and deciding to do something new, and see life in a fresh way," he said. "A lot of people hear it in a dark way, but, I think, without saying the word too many times, it's empowering, and so we wanted to display that in a way that the listener wouldn't see normally." song facts
~ Unruffled -
I think it’s about someone that’s been in prison for so long that the world is change completely and he has to adjust to the new world. It would make sense because the first verse could be talking about the hard labour in the prison and him taking drugs or smoking to get through the toughness.
-
I have always felt these lyrics are the thoughts of an addict, specific to meth, as they contemplate the moment they are in, waking up.... breathing in the chemicals, Where they are going and ...why...how, breaking in, shaping up, checking out on the prison bus, and their reflection on how everything has come so far from what it was and this life is a new age, then their finding no hope, getting high, I'm waking up I feel it in my bones, all systems go...., Then the acceptance of their future, the sun hasn't died, which gives them the strength to fight another day.
-
The lyrics are pretty clear in painting a picture of a destructive future, however, this song chants over and over "welcome to the new age"....the real message....the new age it is referring to is the 5th age... the Aeon of Horus. The age of the crowned and conquering child...the age of "do what thou wilt" spoken by the Satanist Aleister Crowley....
-
This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
-
This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
-
I feel that this is actually about the "New Age Movement" I think they are singing from the point of veiw of the people who have "woken up" and know that humanity is going in the wrong direction and there needs to be a change and the awakened ones are here to help that change begin. Of course I know this on only my opinon and I am not saying this is for sure the actual meaning its just how i feel when i listen to this song since i feel as if i am one of the awakened ones. To me the lyrics "im radioactive" is not about the pollution (although our world to day is very polluted) but rather the energy within us that gives us the power we need to make the difference this world needs today.
-
9/11
-
I'm waking up to ash and dust- He is starting to see the dangers in our world that he needs to overcome.
I wipe my brow and sweat my rust- He realizes that he is becoming one of his own obstacles.
I'm breathing in the chemicals- He is only hurting himself more by standing up to this, but he needs to in order to overcome his fears
I'm breaking in, shaping up, then checking out on the prison bus. This is it, the apocalypse- He stops listening to other people that bring him down and breaks through his most challenging obstacles.
I'm waking up, I feel it in my bones
Enough to make my systems glow
Welcome to the new age, to the new age
Welcome to the new age, to the new age
Whoa, whoa, I'm radioactive, radioactive
Whoa, whoa, I'm radioactive, radioactive- He is open to his surroundings and is getting even stronger
raise my flags, don my clothes
It's a revolution, I suppose
We'll paint it red to fit right in
Whoa
I'm breaking in, shaping up, then checking out on the prison bus
This is it, the apocalypse
Whoa- He gets other people to join him, so he is not alone in the war.
All systems go, sun hasn't died
Deep in my bones, straight from inside- He beats the evil in the world -
I see this song as someone trying his hardest to fit into society. Especially with when he says "paint it red to fit right in". Red is actually a metaphor and is the color that describes society itself. Magicians have a saying "paint it red to fit right in"
-
It is about and I quote "That's basically a song about my struggle with anxiety and depression. It's about becoming self-empowered and rising above that. I wanted to write a masculine and primal song about conjuring and rising above human weakness"
More Imagine Dragons songs »
Latest Articles
-
A new era for Millennial favorite, Linkin Park -
Anime to watch for the soundtracks… and other reasons you’re undateable -
.jpg)
Dolly, we need you -
The Stranger Things Effect: How new media is drawing Gen Z and Alpha's attention to aging media -
The most underrated soundtrack of the early 2000s -
Buy the Soundtrack, Skip the Movie: Brainscan (1994)
Trending:
Just Posted
| Live Forever | anonymous |
| Space Oddity | anonymous |
| Remind You | anonymous |
| You've Got A Friend | anonymous |
| Austin | anonymous |
| Bel Air | anonymous |
| Firefly | anonymous |
| My Medicine | anonymous |
| Orphans | anonymous |
| Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) | anonymous |
| A Whole New World (End Title) | anonymous |
| Eyes Closed | anonymous |
| The Phrase That Pays | anonymous |
| Montreal | anonymous |
| Moonlight | anonymous |
