"The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" by Gil Scott-Heron

**Name of the song and link to a YouTube video**

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised by Gil Scott-Heron (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnJFhuOWgXg)

**Name of musician(s) bio**

Gil Scott-Heron was born on April 1, 1949. He was a poet, author, and musician, and was well known for being a spoken-word performer between the 1970's and 1980’s. His stuff consisted of lyrics that liked to address social and political issues presented at the time. His presence in history and his own time influenced writers, academics and musicians, from indie rockers to rappers. He kept pursued creating his material up until his death.

**Approximate date song was produced**

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised was recorded on April 19, 1971 but was not released until a little bit later during the same year, though the exact date is a mystery.

**Location produced**

The song was produced in New York City, RCA Studios.

**Social ill/problem being protested: Event, person, and place at issue—be precise—do not say “BLM” describes what specifically spurred the creation of this track. Use statistics and citations to explain the prevalence or severity of this social ill.**

The lyrics to this song were written in 1969 at a time where the fight for civil rights was one of the biggest political themes and the line “The revolution would not be televised” was a slogan said by many of the black activists and protestors and you can hear in the song that many of the lines sang were also slogans used by protesters. This song was mostly written to showcase the anger that these activists had within them.

**Sample of the most compelling**

“The revolution will not make you look five pound thinner” These lyrics reflect on the business practices of companies of that day. Since the whole song centers around the notion of using the Civil Rights movement as a vehicle for advertising and profit, the words really describe how society at that time, and even now has evolved to take advantage of “what's popular” just for their own benefit.

**· Relevance of the words and phrases selected: is the song convincing in its message? Explain why you think so in detail.**

Inside of writing he tries to emphasize the fact that this revolution at the time was happening at the time. That there is no second revolution or second phase, the revolution and it was not whitewashed by listing prominent white figures and excluding them in history such as Francis Scott Key and General Abrams. The song is convincing in the way that the black community doesn’t need help or assistance from the white population which empowers the black community and that they need to act now from the continuous phrase throughout the passage which is “The revolution will not be televised”.

**Significance of the song in history (how does this song fit into the history to protest music?)**

* This song was important during its time period due to the fact that it told those who listened to the song that it is time to wake up and start making change in the American society. During this time period, the Civil Rights Movement was occurring and its peak, influencing many citizens to stand up and speak for the unfair treatment of the African American population. This song helped spread light in regard to how there is white power in the nation and that it should be stopped.

**Contemporary connections.**

* George Floyd was an African American man, born in Houston, and later lived in Minneapolis. However in 2020, he was choked to death in the street and did nothing wrong. This sparked huge outrage all across the United States, people saw this as an opportunity to take advantage of the popularity of the subject. Ads and merchandise focused mainly on using the situation to boost their moral status, or their profits for merchandise. Some examples of these include Popeyes, Target, and Amazon.
* This song can be seemingly tied back into the Black Lives Matter protests that have occurred during June of 2020 in regard to the whole incident relating to George Floyd. This movement caused many people to stand up for the equal rights of African Americans and make others recognize the white power that is present today in society.

**Trivia related to the events, people, and places**

* This song was written when Gil Scott-Heron was 21 years old. He worked and devised many versions of this song until he was satisfied with it, leading to the release of the song we know today.
* “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” has been referenced in pop culture various times today. It’s used as the name of a popular book made by Joe Trippi, for example.
* The song “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” was never a hit nor did it become immediately popular, basically proving his point that the “revolution” will not be covered by the media and was suppressed by those people in power.

**The reasons you selected this song and/or musician**

We selected this song because we thought that it is very clear in its approach to the subject and it has a renowned poet as the writer. The song was decently focused on what we wanted it to be in since what Gil liked to write about heavily coincided with the topic of this project.

**External links**

https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/Revolution.pdf

https://www.songfacts.com/facts/gil-scott-heron/the-revolution-will-not-be-televised

https://the-revolution-will-not-be-televisedwwl.fandom.com/f

https://1968-protest-songs.fandom.com/wiki/A\_page\_about\_your\_topic#