Protest Song Research Assignment

Single by John Lennon from the album Imagine
Released October 11 1971
Produced by John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Phil Specter

The song Imagine isn’t protesting any specific event or person. The song is protesting many different events, people and society as a whole. The song urges you to imagine a world without countries or religions and to give peace a chance. Deep down this song is “anti-religious, anti-nationalistic, anti-conventional and anti-capitalistic”.

There is a verse in the song with the lyrics “Imagine there’s no countries/…nothing to kill or die for/and no religion too”. These specific lyrics want the listener to imagine what good would come out of there being no countries or different nationalities or different religions. People would be viewed as people and “Nothing to kill or die for” suggests that by doing so unnecessary violence and war wouldn’t be present. The third verse is the verse that protests against society. We as a society base so much on possessions and material things. “No need for hunger and greed”. These lyrics are saying that if people weren’t so greedy that no-body would have to go without anything, whether it be food or clothes or shelter because it wouldn’t be about personal gratification. It would be about “Sharing all the world”. These lyrics are so simple yet so effective because they are simple. This song is about something that should be so simple and the songs lyrics reflect that.

This song is one of the most famous protest songs partly because of its commercial success. It reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and was named as one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll and is still wildly well known today. I think part of the legacy of the song has to do with its relevance. Back when this song was released, it was dealing with issues of the time and almost forty years later, we as a society are still dealing with these issues. Nationality and religion are still many factors in violence and war today just as they were in 1971. Greed and the selfish actions of others single handedly caused as recession of proportions almost as large as the Great Depression in the thirties. World hunger is a huge concern in developing countries and even still in developed nations such as Canada and the United States. This song is just as relevant now as it was then.

I picked this song because it’s a song I’ve always known (John Lennon is my cousins’ idol). I especially agree with the message of the song and the lyrics perfectly transcribe how I feel about the world today. I thought it was interesting that while I have a connection to this song, people a generation older than me also have a connection to this song (though maybe for different reasons).

I personally think it’s ingenious for artists to use music to comment on social problems because it’s easy for them to be heard. Musicians have influence on fashion, style and pop culture and it only makes sense for them to expand this influence to social issues. By drawing attention or giving their own opinion on a issue causes people who might not normally care or even notice for that matter to become interested. Any artist who does this I support because while many of may not have the influence to have our voice heard, these people do and I think its important for at one person to be hard because sometimes all it takes is one person.



Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one