Analysis Of Gil Scott Heron's The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
1234 Words5 Pages
‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’, the title of what is undoubtedly jazz poet Gil Scott Heron’s most influential piece of music, has become a canonical slogan not only of western, but indeed global, counterculture and resistance. Its political message has reverberated across swathes of protests throughout the 45 years since its birth, providing a common language for members of the global community who may be disenfranchised by the cultural and political status quo of their homelands, be this upon grounds of race, social class, age, or other forms of exclusion and oppression.
Composed in the midst of profound social unrest surrounding deep-seated racial tensions in the United States in 1970, the piece was originally written by Scott…show more content… Lyrics such as “You will not have to worry about a dove in your bedroom, a tiger in your tank, or the giant in your toilet bowl” articulates this sentiment in a darkly humorous manner. The most genuine peril facing humanity, Scott Heron appears to suggest, is far more tangible, and resides in the structural inequalities of society itself, as opposed to occupying a space which is external to it. As Smith observes on the New Statesman’s inclusion of “The Revolution…” in their “Top 20 Political Songs”, “The message of the song is the elusive nature of political culture in Nixon's America, and the inability of the mainstream to capture the real heart of the people”. The track conveys the notion that the paltriness of popular culture is an inadequate reflection of what truly occurs on the streets of America, and the mass media serves to avert the public’s eyes from such realities. The trivial cultural pastimes which characterise the American cultural landscape will be rendered obsolete when true revolution occurs, and as such “Women will not care if Dick finally screwed Jane on Search for Tomorrow [a now obsolete US television programme] because black people will be in…show more content… For instance, the track was playing in Tahrir Square in Egypt during the attempt to overthrow president Hosni Mubarak in 2011. Meanwhile, in the midst of the Greek financial crisis in 2013, when public broadcaster ERT was under threat of closure due to government cuts, a sign with the phrase “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” emblazoned upon it in Greek was posted in the broadcaster’s window by employees as an act of resistance, and subsequently commented upon by the global media. The track’s title has also been repeated in subsequent musical endeavours by artists as diverse as American rappers and Mexican rock bands. The ubiquity of the phrase - to the extent that it has now become a slogan of protest culture - is testament to the strength and simplicity of its emancipatory