Sunday, October 21, 2012

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised


I've been listening to a lot of Gil Scott Heron lately. He's an American jazz, blues and soul singer and poet who is known for the political content of his lyrics and his spoken word performances. He was an influential figure in the development of contemporary rap, hip hop and R&B. Some of his more politically and socially charged material is quite intense and probably not good for everyday relaxed listening but it's still quite inspirational on days when you need a little lift. The link below is one of his most famous compositions; "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" came out in 1970 and echoes the emotions and sentiments of many 1960s counterculture movements. I've never been a very big jazz and blues fan but it's difficult to narrowly define his music. Some songs like "The Bottle" has quite a mainstream feel (kind of reminds me of the style of John Legend). So definitely check out the musician who paved the way for a whole generation of artists!

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