It's Time (Imagine Dragons Song)
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"It's Time" is the debut single by American
rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...
band
Imagine Dragons Imagine Dragons are an American pop rock band formed in 2008, based in Las Vegas, Nevada. The band currently consists of lead singer Dan Reynolds, guitarist Wayne Sermon, and bassist Ben McKee. They first gained exposure with the release of ...
, released on February 6, 2012, as the lead single from the band's first major label EP, '' Continued Silence''. Later that year the song was included on the band's first full album, ''
Night Visions ''Night Visions'' is the debut studio album by American pop rock band Imagine Dragons. It was released on September 4, 2012, through Kidinakorner and Interscope Records. The album was primarily produced by the band themselves, as well as Engli ...
''. The song had already been included on the band's independently released EP '' It's Time'' (2011), and it had been available on
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since 2010. The song's production was handled by Brandon Darner, and its lyrics describe the narrator's resistance to change in the face of great turmoil. The single was created without Daniel Platzman, who joined the group later, and it includes contributions from early band members
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and Brittany Tolman. After "It's Time" was covered on ''
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'' in September 2012 and gained heavy rotation in commercials and television shows, it reached number 15 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, making it the band's first Top 40 single. It also hit number 4 on
Alternative Airplay Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks between 1988 and 2009, and Alternative Songs between 2009 and 2020) is a music chart published in the American magazine ''Billboard'' since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-playe ...
, number 2 on
Adult Alternative Airplay Adult Alternative Airplay (also known as Triple A or Triple A Airplay, and formerly Adult Alternative Songs and Triple A Songs) is a record chart currently published by ''Billboard'' that ranks the most popular songs on adult album alternative radi ...
, and number 3 on the
Hot Rock & Alternative Songs Hot Rock & Alternative Songs (formerly known as Rock Songs and Hot Rock Songs) is a record chart published by ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' magazine. From its debut on June 20, 2009, through October 13, 2012, the chart ranked the airplay of ...
chart. Lasting 32 weeks, it had the longest run on the Alternative Songs Top 10 in 2012. The single reached the top 10 in
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(number 6),
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(number 10),
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(number 9),
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(number 17)
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(number 7), ''Billboard'' Pop Songs (number 10), and
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(number 6) and peaked at number 23 in the United Kingdom. It was certified Platinum by the
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and CRIA, and Platinum by the
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. It was also nominated for Best Rock Video at the
2012 MTV Video Music Awards The 2012 MTV Video Music Awards, hosted by Kevin Hart, took place on Thursday, September 6, 2012, honoring the best music videos from the previous year. The awards were broadcast from the Staples Center arena at L.A. Live in Downtown Los Angeles ...
. In February 2021, for the 25th anniversary of Adult Alternative Airplay, ''Billboard'' ranked "It's Time" at number 7 on its list of the 100 most successful songs in the chart's history; in September 2023, the magazine ranked the song at number 87 on a similar retrospective list for the 35th anniversary of Alternative Airplay.


Background

Dan Reynolds told ''
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'' about the writing process for the song:


Music video

The music video debuted on April 17, 2012, on all
MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...
affiliates and the band was named PUSH Artist of the Week and later featured on PUSH Live. A first teaser released March 28, 2012. The video also reached number 1 on Yahoo Music's Top Videos. The video starts with the band walking through a barren wasteland beneath a dark, cloudy sky. The sky begins to grow more turbulent as the band walks past old flags, boat wreckage, a destroyed bridge, and dead trees. Bassist Ben McKee opens a box he has been carrying and a pale light glows from within. The band removes a pebble-sized, glowing orb from the box. They dig a hole for it with their hands, and then drop the orb into the ground. Lead singer Dan Reynolds then shouts, and in the next scene the band members are shown running away from their dig site. A large explosion throws Reynolds into the air where he seems to levitate (similarly to the '' Continued Silence'' album cover). Finally, the clouds begin to part and the sunlight shines through. The music video was produced by Todd Makurath and directed by Anthony Leonardi III. Ian Clemmer, who created some of the
visual effects Visual effects (sometimes abbreviated as VFX) is the process by which imagery is created or manipulated outside the context of a live-action shot in filmmaking and video production. The integration of live-action footage and other live-action fo ...
, wrote on his website that he "was asked to create big, large scale smoke explosions in a short amount of time, these are the end shots of the video ...." About two months after the original music video, another one was created for the Jailbreaks remix.


Usage in media

*Voted by ''
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'' readers number 8 on "The Best Singles of 2012". *Featured in
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's '' AUDIO-FILES'' pilot episode about the band *Featured in '' Gossip Girl (season 6)'' in the series finale episode '' New York, I Love You XOXO'' *Featured in the theatrical trailer for the 2012 film adaptation of the 1999 coming-of-age novel ''
The Perks of Being a Wallflower ''The Perks of Being a Wallflower'' is a 1999 young adult novel by American author Stephen Chbosky. Set in the early 1990s, the novel follows Charlie, an introverted and observant teenager, through his freshman year of high school in a Pittsbu ...
''. * The song was featured in the "Explorer TOP 125" ad for the
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. * The song was used for promotional clip for French television channel D8. * In 2012,
Darren Criss Darren Everett Criss (born February 5, 1987) is an American actor, singer, and songwriter. He rose to fame starring on the television series ''Glee (TV series), Glee'' (2010–2015) and received a Primetime Emmy Awards, Primetime Emmy Award and ...
(as his character
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) covered "It's Time" in the
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of the musical TV series ''
Glee Glee may refer to: * Glee (music), a type of English choral music * ''Glee'' (TV series), an American musical comedy-drama TV series, and related media created by Ryan Murphy * ''Glee'' (Bran Van 3000 album) * ''Glee'' (Logan Lynn album) * Gle ...
''. The song also charted on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 at number 15 as well as the
Canadian Hot 100 The Canadian Hot 100 is a music industry record chart in Canada for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' magazine. It was launched on the issue dated March 31, 2007 as the standard record chart in Canada; a new chart ...
at number 30. * The song is used in commercials of the Chilean telecommunications company VTR.


Live performances

On July 16, 2012, Imagine Dragons performed "It's Time" on ''
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''. They also performed the song live on ''
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'' on September 4, 2012, and on '' Conan'' on January 9, 2013. They also performed the song on ''
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon ''Late Night with Jimmy Fallon'' is an American television talk show broadcast by NBC. The show was the third installment of the '' Late Night'' franchise. Hosted by Jimmy Fallon,
'' on October 29, 2012, notable for being broadcast during
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. As a result, they performed the song to an empty audience, with only the cast and crew of Late Night being present. The band also performed and singer Dan Reynolds was interviewed on Norwegian and Swedish television show '' Skavlan'' on February 1, 2013. Imagine Dragons plays "It's Time" at its live concerts, and although it's a "bigger single", the band plays it early in their
set list A set list, or setlist, is typically a handwritten or printed document created as an ordered list of songs, jokes, stories and other elements an artist intends to present during a specific performance. A setlist can be made of nearly any materi ...
rather than last, as might be expected. On December 5, 2014, the group played an acoustic version at the end of The Game Awards ( the inaugural ceremonies of said award show), with Nintendo composer
Koji Kondo is a Japanese composer and senior executive at the video game company Nintendo. He is best known for his contributions for the '' Super Mario'' and ''The Legend of Zelda'' series, with his ''Super Mario Bros.'' theme being the first piece of mu ...
playing on the piano as part of a medley of music from ''
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'' series.


Personnel

* Dan Reynolds – vocals * Wayne Sermon – guitar, mandolin * Ben McKee – bass guitar * Andrew Tolman – drums, backing vocals, acoustic rhythm guitar *Brittany Tolman – keyboard, backing vocals


Track listing


Charts


Weekly charts


Year-end charts


Decade-end charts


Certifications


Accolades


Release history


References

{{authority control 2010 songs 2012 debut singles Imagine Dragons songs Song recordings produced by Alex da Kid Kidinakorner singles Interscope Records singles Songs written by Wayne Sermon Songs written by Dan Reynolds (musician) Songs written by Daniel Platzman Songs written by Ben McKee