Line #113 Music/TheRevolutionWillNotBeTelevised


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/revolution_will_not_be_televised_6722.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350: ''The revolution will not be televised, brothers; the revolution will be live!'']]
3
4	''The Revolution Will Not Be Televised'' is a 1974 [[GreatestHitsAlbum compilation album]] by musical poet Music/GilScottHeron[[note]] It collects tracks from three of his earlier albums: "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised", "Brother" and "Whitey on the Moon" from ''Small Talk at 125th and Lenox'' (1970); "Save the Children", "Lady Day and John Coltrane", "Home Is Where the Hatred Is" and "Pieces of a Man" from ''Pieces of a Man'' (1971); and "Get Out of the Ghetto Blues", "Did You Hear What They Said?", "No Knock" and "Sex Education: Ghetto Style" from ''Free Will'' (1972)[[/note]].
5
6	The {{title track}} is a [[SpokenWordInMusic spoken-word piece]] wherein Scott-Heron recites {{poetry}} while a conga and bongo percussionist plays in the background. Despite this, it is still classified as a music album, usually as {{jazz}} and [[Creator/TheBeatGeneration beat poetry]].
7
8	The track[=/=]album's name has since become an iconic slogan, and the album itself has been praised for its [[ProtestSong political and social commentary]]. It's a CultClassic within the black consciousness movement, but also very popular in [[HipHop hip-hop]], as Scott-Heron's socially conscious and catchy vocal delivery is considered to be a predecessor of the genre, along with The Last Poets. Quotes from this record have made for rife {{sampling}}, especially in ConsciousHipHop and PoliticalRap.
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10	"The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" was added to the UsefulNotes/NationalRecordingRegistry in 2005 for being "historically, culturally and aesthetically important".
11
12	The album title itself has become so iconic that it [[TropeNamers inspired]] no less than '''''four''''' [[PunBasedTitle Pun-Based Titles]] on Website/TVTropes:
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14	* TheResolutionWillNotBeIdentified %%invoked
15	* TheRevolutionWillNotBeBureaucratized
16	* TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized
17	* TheRevolutionWillNotBeVilified
18
19	----
20	!!Tracklist
21
22	[[AC: Side One]]
23	# "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" (3:03)
24	# "Sex Education: Ghetto Style" (0:48)
25	# "The Get Out of the Ghetto Blues" (4:59)
26	# "No Knock" (1:27)
27	# "Lady Day and John Coltrane" (3:32)
28	# "Pieces of a Man" (4:59)
29
30	[[AC:Side Two]]
31	[numlist:7]
32	# "Home Is Where the Hatred Is" (3:18)
33	# "Brother" (1:42)
34	# "Save the Children" (4:22)
35	# "Whitey on the Moon" (1:26)
36	# "Did You Hear What They Said?" (3:25)
37	[/numlist]
38
39	!!The Revolution will not be read on TV Tropes, tropers, the Revolution will be in real life!
40
41	* AlbumTitleDrop: ''The revolution will not be televised''.
42	* AlliterativeTitle: "'''H'''ome Is Where The '''H'''atred Is" and "The '''G'''et Out Of The '''G'''hetto Blues".
43	* BadassPreacher: Scott-Heron sure counts as one.
44	* ConsciousHipHop: Inspiration to the genre.
45	* CoolPeopleRebelAgainstAuthority: Listen to that voice, brothers!
46	* CrapsackWorld: The very reason Scott-Heron started writing poetry.
47	* DrugsAreBad: ''Home Is Where The Hatred Is'' about a junkie trying to quit his habits.
48	--> ''Home is where I live inside my white powder dreams''
49	--> ''Home was once an empty vacuum that's filled now with my silent screams''
50	--> ''Home is where the needle marks''
51	--> ''Try to heal my broken heart''
52	--> ''And it might not be such a bad idea if I never, if I never went home again''
53	** "Get Out Of The Ghetto Blues" also addresses this matter:
54	--> ''I know you think you're cool''
55	--> ''Just 'cuz you shooting that stuff in your arm.''
56	--> ''I seen you nodding''
57	--> '''Cuz you shoot that STUFF into your arm.''
58	--> ''And it don't matter which pine box you choose:''
59	--> ''You got the get out of the ghetto blues.''
60	* FaceOnTheCover: Scott-Heron, arms folded behind his head.
61	* TheFutureWillBeBetter: If you believe in the revolution, it will be.
62	* UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHipHop: Despite not being hiphop Scott-Heron and Music/TheLastPoets were both important influences on the development of rapping. Thus ''The Revolution Will Not Be Televised'' is considered to be a predecessor of hiphop.
63	* GreatestHitsAlbum: All the material compiled here was from Scott-Heron's previous albums.
64	* GriefSong: "Did You Hear What They Said?"
65	--> ''Did you hear what they said,''
66	--> ''About his mother and how she cried,''
67	--> ''They said she cried,'cause her only son was dead''
68	--> ''They said she cried,'cause her only son was dead''
69	--> ''Woman, could you imagine if your only son was dead''
70	--> ''And somebody told you, he couldn't be buried,''
71	--> ''Hey,hey, come on, come on, come on, come on, this can't be real.''
72	* {{Homage}}: "Lady Day and John Coltrane" bring homage to Music/BillieHoliday and Music/JohnColtrane.
73	* TheManInTheMoon: "Whitey On The Moon", where it is implied that the problems on Earth haven't been solved, yet "Whitey is on the moon".
74	* MightyWhitey: Referenced and parodied in "Whitey On The Moon".
75	* MinisculeRocking: "Sex Education: Ghetto Style", "No Knock", "Brother" and "Whitey on the Moon" are all well under two minutes.
76	* MurderBallad: "Did You Hear What They Said?" and "No Knock" are both about murders of fellow black men.
77	* MyCountryTisOfTheeThatISting: Many tracks criticize the USA, especially "Whitey On The Moon".
78	--> ''With all that money I made last year''
79	--> ''For Whitey on the moon''
80	--> ''How come I ain't got no money here?''
81	--> ''Hmm, Whitey's on the moon''
82	* NarrativePoem: A lot of tracks have Scott-Heron tell a tale.
83	* NewAgeRetroHippie: The title track castigates them as ApatheticCitizens, claiming that, when the revolution comes, they will try to "plug in, turn on, and [[SellOut cop out]]" and sit on the sidelines.
84	* OneWordTitle: "Brother".
85	* PoliticalRap: Though not exactly rap this album was a huge inspiration to the genre.
86	* PopCulturalOsmosis: The phrase ''The Revolution Will Not Be Televised'' is more famous than the album itself, which not many people have ever listened to or are familiar with.
87	* ProductPlacement: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] and possibly [[ParodiedTrope Parodied]], since Scott-Heron includes many brand names and product slogans in the title track, but does so to criticize their triviality and the blind, self-centered consumer culture of America that prevents its people from perceiving real threats to society.
88	-->''The revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal'' (reference to Ultra Brite),
89	-->''The revolution will not get rid of the nubs'' (reference to Schick pens)
90	-->''The revolution will not make you look five pounds thinner'' (reference to Playtex)
91	-->''The revolution will not be right back after a message about a white tornado'' (reference to an Ajax slogan),
92	-->''White lightning or white people.''
93	-->''You will not have to worry about a dove in your bedroom'' (slogan for Dove antiperspirant),
94	-->''A tiger in your tank'' (a reference to the slogan of ''"Esso"''),
95	-->''Or the giant in your toilet bowl'' (reference to Salvo laundry detergent).
96	-->''The revolution will not go better with Coke'' (reference to Coca Cola).
97	* ProfessionalSexEd: "Sex Education: Ghetto Style".
98	--> ''I hope that when I have kids of my own they really don't get shook''
99	--> ''When I tell them that there are things they've got to learn that can't be found in books.''
100	* ProtestSong: Every track!
101	* PunBasedTitle: "Home Is Where The Hatred Is", instead of "home is where the heart is."
102	* QuestioningTitle: "Did You Hear What They Said?"
103	* RebelliousSpirit: See above.
104	* TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized: Scott-Heron predicts that the revolution will not be broadcast on TV for you to enjoy from your lazy seat, but it will indeed be a real society changing revolt that not to be underestimated and taken lightly.
105	* TheRevolutionWillNotBeVilified: Scott-Heron announces a revolution in a cool, but self-assured way that makes the listener believe that it will be a just event.
106	* ShoutOut:
107	** The title track makes all kinds of allusions to television shows and terms, specifically TV advertisements.
108	** "Sex Education Ghetto Style" namedrops UsefulNotes/SigmundFreud.
109	** "Brother" mentions UsefulNotes/MaoZedong and Frantz Fanon
110	--> ''Always does the man read Mao or Fanon''
111	* SkewedPriorities: "Whitey on the Moon" accuses the Apollo program of being a case of the United States government mis-investing taxpayer money with malevolent intent, funding propagandized efforts to put white men on the moon instead of funding socioeconomic reforms that would help disenfranchised Black communities.
112	* SomethingBlues: "Get Out Of The Ghetto Blues".
113	* SpokenWordInMusic: Scott-Heron recites his lyrics, rather than sings them.
114	* TakeThat:
115	** The title track attacks conformism of rather watching TV than rebelling against society, but also provides vicious shout-outs to Xerox, UsefulNotes/RichardNixon, John Mitchell, General Abrams, Mendel Rivers, Creator/NatalieWood, [[Creator/SteveMcQueenActor Steve McQueen]], ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'', ''Series/{{Julia}}'', Willie Mays, Creator/{{NBC}}, Whitney Young, Roy Wilkens, ''Series/GreenAcres'', ''Series/TheBeverlyHillbillies'', ''Series/PetticoatJunction'', ''Series/SearchForTomorrow'', UsefulNotes/JacquelineKennedy, Jim Webb, Francis Scott Key, Glen Campbell, Music/TomJones, Music/JohnnyCash, and Engelbert Humperdinck.
116	** The entire album is one long TakeThat against white supremacy and patriarchy in America.
117	* ThinkOfTheChildren! "Save The Children".
118	--> ''We've got to do something to save the children''
119	--> ''Soon it will be their turn to try and save the world''
120	--> ''Right now they seem to play such a small part of''
121	--> ''The things that they soon be right at the heart of''
122	* UncleTomFoolery: "Brother" criticizes blacks who attack their fellow brothers for being Uncle Toms.
123	--> ''I think it was a little too easy for you to forget that you were a negro before [[UsefulNotes/MalcolmX Malcolm]].''
124	--> ''You drove your white girl through the village every Friday night'',
125	--> ''While the grass roots stared in envy and drank wine.''
126	--> ''Do you remember?''
127	--> ''You need get your memory banks organized, brother.''
128	--> ''Show that man you call an Uncle Tom just where he is wrong.''
129	--> ''Show that woman that you are a sincere black man.''
130	--> ''All we need to do is see you SHUT UP AND BE BLACK.''
131	--> ''Help that woman.''
132	--> ''Help that man.''
133	--> ''That's what brothers are for, brother.''
134	* VoiceOfTheResistance: Scott-Heron is somewhat of a prophet in Afro-American consciousness movements.
135	* WhamLine:
136	--> ''The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised, will not be televised, will not be televised. The revolution will be no re-run brothers; the revolution will be live.''
137	* YouWatchTooMuchX: The title track informs listeners that the revolution will not be shown on TV to be enjoyed from the comfort of your own home.

Context Music / TheRevolutionWillNotBeTelevised