Imagine Dragons: On Top of the World Meaning
Song Released: 2013
On Top of the World Lyrics
Better tell them while they’re here ’cause
They just may run away from you
You’ll never know quite when, well
Then again it just depends on
How long of time is left for you
I’ve had the highest mountains
I’ve had...
-
1TOP RATED
#1 top rated interpretation:I think it’s about the ups and downs of life and how you need to appreciate the moments when someone understands what’s going through your head and tries to lift you up. It’s about finding the happiness in everything you do. It’s not the world pushing you down and pulling you up, it’s your perspective of the world and the people around you that makes you feel certain things. Usually you’d look back at the past and think about the good old days. This song is about realizing you’re in the good old days right now, you just have to look.
-
2TOP RATED
#2 top rated interpretation:Literally it means that you are on top of the world. Take that to any context that fits. It feels very close to my circumstance of having a mutli-gifted son, who, in his 25 years of life, fit in what most people never do in an entire lifetime. He died doing what he loved most....mountain climbing. While he was alive, he truly loved his life. A good example for everyone.
-
3TOP RATED
#3 top rated interpretation:The very first line "If you love somebody you better tell them while there here because they just might run away from you" meaning that he lost a close person in his life, they left on there own terms. From that day on, he had developed depression. But now he is coming out of depression and excepting it. The line "I'm on top of the world" meaning he is happy, and is living his life once again.
-
Well, its obviously about a person who doesn't know how to live their life, and who the singer used to love before she broke up with him. Then he got over it and then realized that while she was "looking down" the whole time, he was "on top of the world," and had been working towards it "since they were a child."
-
I think that this song means that to find a path to happiness you have to dream and cherish the person you love while there here because they might disappear some day.
-
I feel like he may be coming out of depression.
"I'm on top of the world..." meaning I'm finally happy.
"Been dreaming of this since a child" he's been in depression since he was young.
"Paying my dues to the dirt" he's been putting up with put downs for his entire life. -
I take this song in that you should live life how you want to. Do the things that you want to do. Don't wait around and put things off, if you want to do it, DO IT!!! It could also be taken as overcoming a large obstacle or taking the weight on your shoulders away. It's saying that although you may have these problems in your life, you can't "Take the easy way out". You have to overcome obstacles.
-
I think that when it says "Im on top of the world", its like a hyperbole because your exaggerating that he's literally on top of the world. But it just means that he achieved something very meaningful in life despite all the obstacles.
-
I think this song is about being on top of the world.
-
do what you love and don't take a moment of life for granted, because its too short to be depressed, and make sure to appreciate what you have worked hard for.
-
I feel as though this song was written to express the "big risk, big reward" aspect of life.
"I could've gave up then, but, then again I couldn't have, 'cause I traveled all this way for something", in my opinion, is a nearly-literal statement on the fact that he's worked too hard to just give into the pressure of trying to claim his place in the world.
"waitin' on this for a while now, been dreaming of this since a child" represents the fact that he'd been chasing a childhood dream and is ecstatic at having finally made them come true. -
I have this kind of a specific image about this song. Maybe a traditional epic love story: I see a young man, the singer.
Maybe at first he is this kind of a free-thinker travelling and enjoying the life as it is, but then he realizes that this is not the real goal... "and time keeps moving..." So he gets it, that he should seek the true love - perhaps a girl he always liked since he was a child (they just have lost contact for a very long time). By a chance he meets her and he spontaneously falls in love with her. She would have loved him back if only she wasn't just about to move to some third-world country as a volunteer. The singer had tried to persuade her to stay, but she wouldn't. After some time of indecision, our man understands he doesn't want to lose his chance. He packs his things and there he is. "traveled all this way for something" :-)
And so he is eventually "on top of the world" as he had been dreaming of deep in his heart since being a child :-) -
It's saying do something before it's too late. Like with me I have this guy that I like and he likes me back but he doesn't know that I know that because a friend told me but I'm too afraid to talk to him so this song is saying to me TALK TO HIM BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!!
-
To me this song means that YOLO and you could and should feel on top of the world.
-
I think this song is kind of meant to be taken however you choose to. Have it relate to your life in whatever makes you feel 'on top of the world', but I think the true meaning behind this song is finally overcoming a large obstacle (depression and anxiety, as the lead singer suffered from these). "Waiting on this for a while now", "And I know it’s hard when you’re falling down and it’s a long way up when you hit the ground", "I tried to cut these corners, tried to take the easy way out." It matches it perfectly. I can completely relate to this song after overcoming such struggle myself and these words express every last thing in my mind practically :)
-
this song is about how letting go of the past was hard because his girlfriend that he grew up with is now gone but he has to look at the good things in life, even threw all of the pain in the past he feel that he is at a good place in his life. He feel that he's on top of the world.
-
This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
-
This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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
-
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
Bel Air | 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 |
Beautiful People | anonymous |
Amnesia | anonymous |
Your Smiling Face | anonymous |
You Should Be Dancing | anonymous |
Washing Machine Heart | anonymous |
Souvenirs | anonymous |