Music has a funny way of sticking to the ribs. Some songs are just snacks—sugary, quick, and forgotten by the time the next track shuffles in. But then you have a track like What Does It Take, a piece of Imagine Dragons history that feels less like a polished radio hit and more like a raw nerve. If you’ve spent any time digging through the band’s early catalog, you know exactly the vibe I’m talking about. It’s that 2010-era sound where Dan Reynolds and the crew were still figuring out if they were an indie rock band, a synth-pop experiment, or something else entirely.
Honestly, it’s a bit of a tragedy that this song isn't on every mainstream "Best Of" list.
The Story Behind What Does It Take
To understand the song, you have to look at where the band was mentally. This wasn't the Evolve or Mercury era of stadium-filling pyrotechnics. No. This was the Hell and Silence EP era. We’re talking about a band playing small clubs in Las Vegas, trying to grind their way out of the desert heat. What Does It Take captures that specific, agonizing hunger of wanting to be heard.
The lyrics aren't complicated. They’re desperate.
When Dan sings about "what does it take to be a man," he’s not talking about some macho stereotype. He's talking about the weight of expectation. It’s about that crushing feeling of standing at a crossroads, looking at your life, and realizing you might not have the map. The production is classic early ID—crunchy guitars, those signature driving drums that would later become their hallmark, and a vocal performance that sounds like it was recorded in a room where the oxygen was running out.
It's raw. It's gritty. It's everything people fell in love with before the "Thunder" memes took over the internet.
Why This Specific Sound Disappeared
If you compare What Does It Take to their later hits like "Believer," the difference is jarring.
Modern Imagine Dragons is built on massive, clean production. Everything is quantized and polished until it shines. But back in 2010, the band—which at the time included Andrew and Brittany Tolman—had a much more organic, almost folk-infused indie rock energy. You can hear the influence of the Killers and maybe a bit of Arcade Fire in the way the song swells.
Why did they move away from it? Well, Alex da Kid happened.
When the band signed to Interscope and started working with the British producer, their sound tightened up. They traded the sprawling, messy emotions of tracks like What Does It Take for the rhythmic, hip-hop-influenced punch of Night Visions. It worked, obviously. They became one of the biggest bands on the planet. But for the "OG" fans, the ones who remember the It's Time EP, there's a certain magic in these early tracks that never quite got replicated. It was a moment in time where they were allowed to be "kinda" messy.
Breaking Down the Lyrics
Let's get into the weeds of the writing.
"I'm a little bit of everything / All rolled into one."
That line basically sums up the identity crisis of your early twenties. You aren't one thing. You're a mess of contradictions. The song asks a central question that most people are too scared to voice out loud: What do I have to sacrifice to get where I’m going? It’s an anthem for the undecided. It’s for the person who feels like they’re doing everything right but still hitting a brick wall. Most pop songs try to give you an answer or a "rah-rah" chorus to make you feel better. This song doesn't do that. It just sits in the discomfort with you.
The Cultural Footprint of the Hell and Silence Era
You can't talk about What Does It Take without mentioning the Hell and Silence EP. Released in June 2010, it was recorded at Battle Born Studios. It’s a snapshot of a Vegas band trying to find their soul.
Fans often debate which early EP is the best. You’ve got the self-titled one from 2009, then Hell and Silence, then It’s Time. While "Amsterdam" is usually cited as the masterpiece of that era, What Does It Take is the emotional anchor. It provides the grit that balances out the more melodic tracks.
Interestingly, many of these songs were eventually scrubbed from easy access as the band’s profile grew and licensing deals changed. For a while, finding a high-quality version of this track was like a digital scavenger hunt. It lived on dusty YouTube uploads and old fan forums. This scarcity actually helped its legacy. It became a "secret" handshake among the fanbase. If you knew the lyrics to What Does It Take, you weren't just a casual listener; you were someone who had been there from the start.
What Most People Get Wrong About Early Imagine Dragons
There is this weird myth that Imagine Dragons was an "industry plant" or that they popped out of nowhere with "Radioactive."
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Total nonsense.
They spent years playing six-hour sets in Vegas casinos. They played for people who were more interested in the buffet than the band. Tracks like What Does It Take were forged in that environment. They had to write songs that were catchy enough to grab a gambler's attention but deep enough to keep the band from losing their minds.
If you listen closely to the percussion in this track, you can hear the beginnings of the "big drum" sound that would eventually define them. It wasn't a marketing gimmick. It was a necessity. They needed to be loud. They needed to be undeniable.
The Technical Evolution
From a technical standpoint, the song is fascinating because it’s relatively mid-tempo for them. It doesn't rely on a massive drop. Instead, it relies on a gradual crescendo.
- The bassline is surprisingly busy, driving the melody forward.
- The vocal layering in the chorus creates a "wall of sound" effect.
- The bridge actually lets the instruments breathe, a rarity in modern pop-rock.
This isn't just "good for a local band" music. It’s genuinely sophisticated songwriting. It shows a level of restraint that many young bands lack. They knew when to push and when to pull back.
Is It Still Relevant in 2026?
The short answer? Yes.
The long answer? It’s more relevant now than it was then. We live in an era of hyper-curated personas. Everyone on social media looks like they have it figured out. What Does It Take is the antithesis of that. It’s a song about being a "little bit of everything" and not knowing how to fit the pieces together.
In a world of TikTok-optimized 15-second hooks, there is something deeply refreshing about a four-minute song that actually takes its time to build an atmosphere. It’s a reminder that it’s okay to be a work in progress. It’s okay to ask the questions without having the answers ready.
How to Find This Track Today
If you're looking for it on Spotify or Apple Music, it can sometimes be tricky depending on your region and which "Deluxe" or "Legacy" edition is currently active. Your best bet is usually the Night Visions (Expanded Edition) which was released for the 10th anniversary. They finally brought a lot of these "lost" tracks back into the fold, much to the relief of people who were tired of listening to low-bitrate rips on SoundCloud.
Actionable Insights for Music Lovers
If this song resonates with you, or if you're just discovering this era of the band, there are a few things you should do to really appreciate the context of What Does It Take.
1. Listen to the Full "Hell and Silence" EP in Order
Songs are rarely written in a vacuum. Listening to "All Eyes" and "I Don't Mind" right alongside this track gives you a much better sense of the "Vegas Sound" the band was pioneering. It's a cohesive mood that gets lost if you just cherry-pick tracks for a playlist.
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2. Watch the Early Live Bootlegs
Search YouTube for "Imagine Dragons 2010 live." You’ll see a band that looks completely different—smaller stages, less hair gel, and a raw energy that is infectious. Seeing Dan Reynolds perform these songs before he was a global superstar adds a layer of vulnerability to the lyrics.
3. Explore the "Vegas Scene" Contemporaries
If you like the sound of What Does It Take, check out early The Killers (obviously) but also bands like Panic! At The Disco's more experimental phases or even The Bravery. There was a specific desert-rock-meets-new-wave vibe happening in the late 2000s that this song perfectly encapsulates.
4. Analyze the "Growth" Arc
Use this song as a benchmark. Listen to it, then immediately play something from Loom. It’s a masterclass in how an artist’s perspective shifts from "What do I have to do to make it?" to "What do I do now that I've made it?" It’s a fascinating psychological journey.
Ultimately, What Does It Take is a bridge. It’s the bridge between a group of kids with a dream in a Nevada garage and the titans of the industry they eventually became. It’s honest, it’s loud, and it’s unapologetically human. It doesn't need to be a billion-stream hit to be important. It just needs to be what it is: a damn good song about the struggle of becoming yourself.