19 pages • 38 minutes read
Gil Scott-HeronThe Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1971A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Cultural Context: Counterculture
In the first stanza of “The Revolution Will Note Be Televised,” the speaker warns Black readers/listeners that they will “not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out / You will not be able to lose yourself on skag” (Lines 2-3). These lines are an allusion to Timothy O’Leary, an evangelist for the use of psychedelic drugs to untether one’s mind from conventional norms, which countercultural figures like O’Leary believed were the roots of suffering and injustice. Countercultural figures like the “hippies” rejected societal norms around dress, work, gender, sex, family, and race as a part of their efforts to achieve a more liberated consciousness. O’ Leary popularized the phrase “Turn on, tune in, and drop out,” by which he meant people should engage in introspection, sometimes with the help of drugs (turning on), instead of getting caught up in consumption of material goods. Dropping out is the rejection of conventional lifestyles that deny the authentic, natural self.
Scott-Heron’s poem does have a countercultural message. He critiques consumerist culture, epitomized by the passive activity of watching television programs and ads, by revising O’Leary’s catch phrase to include the words “plug” (Line 2) and “cop” (Line 2). Like O’Leary, Scott-Heron encourages introspection and rejects consumption of media. The speaker in Scott-Heron’s poem has a different take on the use of drugs to expand consciousness and self-knowledge. “Skag” (Line 3) is a slang term for heroin, so this revolution is not dependent on drugs, which Scott-Heron casts as an escape from the self.
Socio-Historical Context: Black Nationalist Art
In the 1960s, accessible art was central to the work of changing Black consciousness to create the conditions necessary for a revolution. In this context, Black art was for ordinary Black people, and creative works needed to circulate wherever such people might be found. Spoken-word poetry, poetry created with the intention of performing it in front of audiences using dramatic elements such as dance, music, or gestures, was thus an ideal genre for these purposes. Black nationalist poets and orators might stand in the street and “rap,” that is, share art, music, and/or speech, sometimes with accompaniment of drums, to incite their listeners to revolt figuratively or literally against the power structure in order to free Black people from oppression.
In the late 1960s, a group of Black nationalist musicians, activists, and poets formed the group the Last Poets in Harlem, New York. Works like their “When the Revolution Comes” include spoken words and strong, rhythmic drums as the vehicles for themes of revolutionary consciousness, armed Black revolt, and denunciation of police brutality (The Last Poets. “When the Revolution Comes.” 1970. Douglas Records; Content Warning: the lyrics include anti-gay slurs and antisemitic language). Scott-Heron came of age as a writer and poet in this milieu. Although he was never a member of The Last Poets, Scott-Heron was their contemporary and certainly encountered the Last Poets’ work and style in the Bronx borough of New York, where he lived during the 1960s (Bengal, Rebecca. “The Last Poets: The Hip-Hop Forefathers Who Gave Black America Its Voice.” The Guardian. 2018).
Like “When the Revolution Comes,” “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” denounces politics as usual and encourages the Black listener to reject popular American culture, with its emphasis on passivity and consumption, in favor of getting out in the streets to engage in activism that can cause real change. While The Last Poets’ song relies on drums, Scott-Heron speaks over a background of flute, saxophone, and piano, a blend typical of funk and jazz of the early 1970s. Thematically and stylistically, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” shows the influence of the thriving Black nationalist arts and music culture of New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
