“Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons

"Radioactive" first surfaced on Continued Silence, Imagine Dragons' 2012 major-label debut EP, then led off their debut album, Night Visions, arriving at modern rock radio in October 2012. Alex da Kid produced it with the band, and the writing credit runs from Dan Reynolds, Wayne Sermon and Ben McKee to Josh Mosser, who also recorded it. It's electronic rock with a dubstep lurch: pounding, cavernous drums, a grinding, sludgy groove and Reynolds bellowing over the top like a man clawing out of the rubble.

Commercials and trailers kept it everywhere, and it became a sleeper hit, spending 87 weeks on the Hot 100 and eventually going Diamond. It won the Grammy for Best Rock Performance and was up for Record of the Year, and on the broadcast the band played a remix with Kendrick Lamar.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.