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Using a comparison of ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’ and ‘Your Revolution’ as a starting point explore the media issues and debates which they raise.
Both songs are from very different times, ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’ is from 1971 when the civil rights act had been passed previously, but obviously Gil Scoot-Heron thought black people were still not being treated as fairly as white people. ‘Your Revolution’ by Sarah Jones in 1998 was centred on a different issue to do with women and their tights. Previously to that feminism has started and women were treated more equally to men in the 1970’s.
Gil Scott-Heron’s piece of music is all about the media and how it changes us and makes us believe what it wants us to believe. It says how everyone is influenced by the mass media and not to believe everything you watch on television. He always refers to the revolution, ‘The revolution will not go better with coke,’ he refers to advertising using coke, which is a major brand and one people always buy putting his point across very strongly about the media’s power. Black people are put across poorly in the media so it’s not something that is trustworthy and fair. It shows hegemony is present in society and ethnic minorities are under represented in the media.
Sarah Jones’s song is about the revolution of females in rap music, both texts are talking about different things but show the same concept as women are represented very poorly in hip-hop videos. She talks about misogyny with reference to sexual connotations about her body and how women are represented. ‘Your revolution will not happen between these thighs,’ is a statement proving that not all women are like those portrayed in rap videos and they are to be treated with respect. Both Gil’s and Sarah’s songs have messages about the media and the messages it influences audiences with.
In both pieces of music they show negative representations of their believes, in Gil’s he shows how black people are represented ‘…slide that colour TV into a stolen ambulance’. This shows that ethnic minorities are represented in such a way that people will be scared or will despise them. Gil is therefore talking about a revolution whereby things will change and their may be a black power of Marxism in the future, as black people are referred to as ‘brothers’ and police as ‘pigs’. The connotations of pigs are dirty and that’s how they describe the police.
In Gil’s the police are described as the bad guys, whereas Sarah’s enemies are rap stars. One which she refers to is LL Cool J and she mocks his song using intertextuality showing her hatred towards him for undermining women in such a way. Nowadays and from the 1970’s women have lots of rights in society but still rap videos at the time were very patriarchal sending out a bad message to the young audiences watching. Sarah’s revolution will be the day that rap videos do not undermine females, both texts talk about the revolution but the revolution is different to everyone.
Sarah shows that blacks in the media are represented as powerful in their rap videos, using their expensive cars and showing off huge homes, whereas Gil’s representation of blacks is completely different. In the same way audiences are led to believe what they see, young teenagers believe they can become like the artists so start disrespecting women and society becomes more patriarchal as a results. In Gil’s however people therefore disrespect black people so as a result they do not get treated fairly among society and are stereotyped as being trouble makers.
In conclusion both texts talk about a revolution where society changes but both about two completely separate issues. They are creating awareness and trying to get a message across but both groups are represented poorly.
Both songs are from very different times, ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’ is from 1971 when the civil rights act had been passed previously, but obviously Gil Scoot-Heron thought black people were still not being treated as fairly as white people. ‘Your Revolution’ by Sarah Jones in 1998 was centred on a different issue to do with women and their tights. Previously to that feminism has started and women were treated more equally to men in the 1970’s.
Gil Scott-Heron’s piece of music is all about the media and how it changes us and makes us believe what it wants us to believe. It says how everyone is influenced by the mass media and not to believe everything you watch on television. He always refers to the revolution, ‘The revolution will not go better with coke,’ he refers to advertising using coke, which is a major brand and one people always buy putting his point across very strongly about the media’s power. Black people are put across poorly in the media so it’s not something that is trustworthy and fair. It shows hegemony is present in society and ethnic minorities are under represented in the media.
Sarah Jones’s song is about the revolution of females in rap music, both texts are talking about different things but show the same concept as women are represented very poorly in hip-hop videos. She talks about misogyny with reference to sexual connotations about her body and how women are represented. ‘Your revolution will not happen between these thighs,’ is a statement proving that not all women are like those portrayed in rap videos and they are to be treated with respect. Both Gil’s and Sarah’s songs have messages about the media and the messages it influences audiences with.
In both pieces of music they show negative representations of their believes, in Gil’s he shows how black people are represented ‘…slide that colour TV into a stolen ambulance’. This shows that ethnic minorities are represented in such a way that people will be scared or will despise them. Gil is therefore talking about a revolution whereby things will change and their may be a black power of Marxism in the future, as black people are referred to as ‘brothers’ and police as ‘pigs’. The connotations of pigs are dirty and that’s how they describe the police.
In Gil’s the police are described as the bad guys, whereas Sarah’s enemies are rap stars. One which she refers to is LL Cool J and she mocks his song using intertextuality showing her hatred towards him for undermining women in such a way. Nowadays and from the 1970’s women have lots of rights in society but still rap videos at the time were very patriarchal sending out a bad message to the young audiences watching. Sarah’s revolution will be the day that rap videos do not undermine females, both texts talk about the revolution but the revolution is different to everyone.
Sarah shows that blacks in the media are represented as powerful in their rap videos, using their expensive cars and showing off huge homes, whereas Gil’s representation of blacks is completely different. In the same way audiences are led to believe what they see, young teenagers believe they can become like the artists so start disrespecting women and society becomes more patriarchal as a results. In Gil’s however people therefore disrespect black people so as a result they do not get treated fairly among society and are stereotyped as being trouble makers.
In conclusion both texts talk about a revolution where society changes but both about two completely separate issues. They are creating awareness and trying to get a message across but both groups are represented poorly.
posted by Rishi at 4:13 PM
1 Comments:
Haloo Sunshine...
This essay shows understanding of both texts as Rishi’s comparisons thoroughly demonstrate the similarities and differences that they both have, and clearly states the ideologies that they both portray about black people and women in society. His understanding of certain theories is made evident as he comments on Marxism, Feminism, and Effects Theory (e.g. black people seen as deviant as due to media) and Hegemony… ‘ethnic minorities are under represented in the media.’ However, no mention of Mulvey is made when commenting on the ‘poor representation of black women’ in Sarah Jones ‘Your Revolution.’
Furthermore, the quality of his writing can be improved as the overall structure lacks flow; nonetheless, he is straight to the point and avoids waffle in his argument. His overall debate is clear and concise and easily allows readers to comprehend his own points of view :)
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