Album: Origins (2018)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Imagine Dragons wrote this power anthem for the Disney animated movie Ralph Breaks The Internet (the sequel to 2012's Wreck It Ralph). The song is an ode to the misfit representing the hardships and struggles faced by the movie's main characters, Ralph and Vanellope.

    Hello, hello
    Let me tell you what it's like to be a zero, zero
    Let me show you what it's like to always feel, feel
    Like I'm empty and there's nothing really real, real
    I'm looking for a way out


    Speaking to Beats 1's Zane Lowe," Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds explained the song is about "accepting and finding a bit of levity and joy in being a zero... I look back at [my struggles], and I guess the only way I can face it is to see it with levity, and that sounds so strange, I know."
  • The song echoes the teenage underdog themes that run through Imagine Dragons' 2017 single "Thunder."

    Kids were laughing in my classes
    While I was scheming for the masses
    Who do you think you are?
    Dreaming 'bout being a big star


    "I was able to go to a place that was very vulnerable for me," Dan Reynolds told Radio.com regarding "Zero." "I wasn't in any sub-group. I was like not a popular kid, I wasn't a band kid, I wasn't good at sports. I just kind of was someone who went home by myself and wrote music every day and then started a band."
  • The song's music video takes place in an '80s-style neon-lit arcade, and stars the Imagine Dragons members as arcade employees and nerdy gamers. There are several references to video game culture, such as Dan Reynolds wandering through a maze wearing a giant, Pac-Man-esque head.

Comments: 1

  • Giovanni LindsayThis is all nice to know and This song changed my life for the better in so many ways.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Jethro Tull

Jethro TullFact or Fiction

Stage urinals, flute devices, and the real Aqualung in this Fact or Fiction.

Subversive Songs Used To Sell

Subversive Songs Used To SellSong Writing

Songs about drugs, revolution and greed that have been used in commercials for sneakers, jeans, fast food, cruises and cars.

Graham Parker

Graham ParkerSongwriter Interviews

When Judd Apatow needed under-appreciated rockers for his Knocked Up sequel, he immediately thought of Parker, who just happened to be getting his band The Rumour back together.

Jesus Thinks You're a Jerk: Rock vs. Televangelists

Jesus Thinks You're a Jerk: Rock vs. TelevangelistsSong Writing

When televangelists like Jimmy Swaggart took on rockers like Ozzy Osbourne and Metallica, the rockers retaliated. Bono could even be seen mocking the preachers.

David Gray

David GraySongwriter Interviews

David Gray explains the significance of the word "Babylon," and talks about how songs are a form of active imagination, with lyrics that reveal what's inside us.

Album Cover Inspirations

Album Cover InspirationsSong Writing

Some album art was at least "inspired" by others. A look at some very similar covers.