In the early era of YouTube’s creative explosion, few collaborations carried the raw, “cinematic” weight of the 2013 meeting between acapella giants Pentatonix and “hip-hop violinist” Lindsey Stirling. Their cover of Imagine Dragons’ “Radioactive” wasn’t just a music video; it was a “post-apocalyptic” rebirth. The performance was so visceral that during the high-energy filming, Stirling played with such “ferocity” that the horsehair on her violin bow began to snap—a visual that became the perfect metaphor for the track’s industrial power.
The collaboration was a digital earthquake, culminating in a historic win for “Response of the Year” at the inaugural YouTube Music Awards.
Weaponizing the Strings: The “Frayed” Performance
The image of Lindsey Stirling’s bow disintegrating as she played was no special effect. Stirling later recounted that the “weaponized” nature of the arrangement—driven by Kevin Olusola’s heavy, industrial beatboxing and Avi Kaplan’s rumbling bass—pushed her to a “wild” intensity.
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The Visual Impact: As the bow hairs snapped and whipped around her during the solo, it created an “incredibly powerful” image of survival. Fans noted that the debris from the bow looked like “battle scars” earned in the desert wasteland where they filmed.
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Technical Innovation: The cover “shattered” the industry’s view of acapella. By combining Stirling’s classical-crossover style with “celloboxing” (Kevin Olusola playing cello and beatboxing simultaneously), the group created a wall of sound that felt “heavier” than the original rock track.
The Inaugural YouTube Music Awards: A Landmark “Response”
The 2013 YouTube Music Awards, directed by Spike Jonze, were designed to celebrate the artists the internet had built from the ground up. When Pentatonix and Stirling were announced as winners for “Response of the Year,” it signaled a “tectonic” shift in how the industry valued creators over traditional labels.
| Metric | Detail |
| Award Category | Response of the Year (2013) |
| Status | Inaugural YTMA Winner |
| YouTube Views | Over 198 Million (as of late 2025) |
| Genre | Cinematic A-capella / Instrumental Hybrid |
The “Radioactive” Legacy: A 500-Week Surge
The success of the “Radioactive” cover (featured on PTX, Vol. II) didn’t just fade; it “propelled” both acts to multi-platinum status.
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The Pentatonix Rise: Shortly after this win, the group signed with RCA Records, eventually “conquering” the industry with three Grammy Awards and becoming the most successful acapella group in history.
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The Stirling Influence: Lindsey Stirling used the momentum to launch global arena tours, proving that a “dancing violinist” could be a mainstream headliner. In 2024 and 2025, she has revisited these “apocalyptic” aesthetics in her latest project, Duality.
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Imagine Dragons’ Nod: The original band publicly praised the cover, noting that the acapella version managed to “reclaim” the grit of the lyrics in a way that felt entirely new.
As the final, echoing harmonies of the track faded into the desert wind, Pentatonix and Lindsey Stirling had done more than just cover a hit. They had proven that with five voices and one “weaponized” violin, they could “reconstruct” the sound of a world ending—and beginning again.