10 Perfect Rock And Roll Protest Songs
3. Imagine - John Lennon
What John Lennon started with the Beatles on Revolution was only a sign of things to come in his solo career. Getting more in tune with the political climate of the time, every song Lennon put out in the early years of his solo career tended to bring up politics of any kind, whether that be advocating for an end to war on Give Peace a Chance or the internal politics that people deal with every day on songs like Instant Karma. You can't just beat your audience over the head with it though, and Imagine was the more pop flavored version of what John's view of the world was supposed to be.
As much as people like to use this song as a hymn for peace during charity drives, there's a much more complicated mindset in Imagine, where John views a world that is connected as one people with no need for any type of countries, religion, or even possessions and still being able to live in peace. Although it came under fire back in the day for a rich rock star trying to live in a world with no possessions, the message is a bit more nuanced than just the man who's singing it.
This isn't a song that's meant to tell you how to live your life...only putting the seeds of ideas into your head and letting you picture a world in your mind that can actually live as one. We only have one real life to live on this planet, and a song like this is a much more optimistic look at the way that we treat everyone around us.