Roland Barthes' Semiotic Analysis of John Lennon's song lyrics "Imagine"

Abstract

In 1971, John Lennon wrote the song "Imagine." It embodies the spirit of world peace and encourages listeners to imagine a whole world without dividing boundaries such as nation, religion, possessions, and conflict. The song later evolved into a protest song and a global peace hymn. This study employs Roland Barthes' semiotic theory to deconstruct the lyrical text of John Lennon's "Imagine." Applying the concepts of denotation, connotation, and myth, the analysis reveals how the song systematically dismantles dominant societal myths of nationalism, religion, and private property. The research demonstrates that "Imagine" constructs an alternative myth of secular, borderless humanism, using a simple form to make its radical ideology palatable. This semiotic structure, however, also renders the song polysemic and vulnerable to ideological re-appropriation by various cultural contexts. Researchers divide the findings into five structures, namely denotative foundation of the literal landscape of lyrics, mythological deconstruction in challenging dominant societal narratives in "Imagine”, contextualizing meaning in its socio-historical and polysemic frames, the semiotic project a utopian vision through Barthes' lens.