wAbout Brief
By reading the brief, I learned that this project requires us to create books based on the poems we have been given.And draw a sketchbook in the process of research.
What I got is a song called The Revolution will not be televised.
Next, I will conduct a detailed analysis about this song.
Part 1 UNDERSTAND
1.Works/Author Introduction
“The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” is a poem and song by Gil Scott-Heron. The song’s title was originally a popular slogan among the 1960s Black Power movements in the United States. And The song is a response to the spoken-worPd piece “When the Revolution Comes” by The Last Poets, from their eponymous debut, which opens with the line “When the revolution comes some of us will probably catch it on TV”.
The author Gil Scott-Heron was a leading figure who used music to oppose the Vietnam War, alcohol and drugs, criticize Watergate and racial discrimination throughout the 1970s and 1980s. He participated in the classic anti-nuclear performance “No Nukes” at Madison Square Garden in New York in 1979 and Steve Wanda’s national tour of Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1981.
2.Creation Background:
In 1970 Gil Scott-Heron released his first colloquial work “Small Talk at 125th and Lenox”, the first of which was “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”.
This work was published in the context of the black art movement. It is a reactive rhetoric subject to the reality and integrity of the North American black liberation movement.
The lyrics of the entire song reflect the American fascination with pop culture, police violence, and drug culture centered on Harlem, the black mecca of New York City.
3.Music style：
1970：This singing style was simply called spoken word at the time. It was a form of poetry recitation with only a small number of beats. It mainly relied on the performance of the performer’s pronunciation and oral strength to interpret it. It was an ancient and traditional Abilities and manifestations.
1971：The new version of “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” released in 1971 is a Jazz Poetry work.
https://embed.music.apple.com/gb/album/the-revolution-will-not-be-televised/826571844?i=826574984
It is defined as poems expressed as jazz-style rhythms or improvisational feelings, as well as poems with themes of jazz music, musicians or jazz environment. It is a new style that emerged in the 1920s and 1950s.
Like jazz, Jazz Poetry has become a breakthrough point for the rationalism of blacks in social criticism. The perfect integration of this content with jazz, soul music and blues music is the revolution of Gil Scott-Heron.
It is precisely because of this innovation from content to form that the music headed by Gil Scott-Heron and “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” began to be called Proto-Rap, which can also be straightforwardly understood as “rap prototype”.
4.Content Analysis (Overall analysis)
The whole poem is divided into nine parts, Its lyrics either mention or allude to several television series, advertising slogans and icons of entertainment and news coverage that serve as examples of what “the revolution will not” be or do.
Six of the nine parts ended with the revolution not being broadcast on TV, and at the end of the poem the author wrote that the revolution would appear in live.
5.Content Analysis (Segment analysis)
By analyzing paragraph by paragraph, I provided a word for each paragraph to define its meaning.
First of all, the first paragraph is “escape”. The whole paragraph is the author’s call for people to escape from the status, calling on people not to lose themselves.
The main content of the second paragraph is “hypocrisy”. The content on TV is under political and commercial operations, completely contrary to the revolution. People cannot see the suffering and some cruel pictures hidden in the glorious scene.
The word in the third paragraph is “pure”. The author expresses that revolution does not care about personal interests. Revolution is the sublimation of personal thoughts and selflessness of personal behavior.
The main theme of the fourth paragraph is “anti-consumerism.” Abandoning the shopping cart and putting the TV in the ambulance all shows that capital is eroding people’s revolutionary consciousness, and the message conveyed by TV needs to be rectified.
The word in the fifth paragraph is “right”. The author described the scenes of black people being despised and oppressed, and wrote that the media will not spread the issue of human rights. The current situation of black people’s repressed lives cannot be changed!
The word in the sixth paragraph is “awakening”. The awakening of female consciousness and the behavior of people who came to the street to protest are all symbols of the rise of the revolution.
The seventh paragraph can be summed up with the word “obstacle”. All methods and channels that can convey information will not be allowed to promote revolutionary ideas and express the author’s helpless disappointment.
The word in the eighth paragraph is “on the road.” After the disappointment in the previous paragraph, the author conveyed an optimistic mood. Although the revolution will be late but will not disappear, people will also break the closure brought by capital and break through to seek revolution!
The word in the ninth paragraph is “existence”. The author keeps repeating the sentences to strengthen the tone, which can arouse the resonance of the audience. Finally, he points out the scene of the existence of the revolution, and reminds people how to revolutionize, and don’t give up the opportunity to pursue the truth and power.
6.Design plan
I plan to visualise the lyrics part to perform graphic design, and visualise the music rhythm part at the same time, combining the two parts, so that the meaning of the song can be conveyed more clearly and more emotionally, so that people can understand the song ，which make them leave an impression of the picture, not just words and music.
7.Idea Sketch (Book display & Content typesetting)
Scheme 1⃣️
The shape of each page is cut into different waves according to the melody. At the same time, different colors are used for graffiti according to the words of each paragraph. The colors can let readers better understand the content of the lyrics and can render different reading atmosphere.
Scheme 2⃣️
Use the folding method to display the content, the folding method has the feeling of a historical corridor; at the same time, I plan to use collages or illustrations to display the content of the lyrics.
Because of the need to better display the text content, the second option was chosen
8. Design
① Cover/back cover design
② Content layout design
9. Book sample
After designing on the computer, I started to implement the idea to the entity. First, I printed a sample of the book with a printer, and found the following problems: 1. There was a small error in typesetting, which caused the front and back images to not be aligned. 2. There was a problem with the size, and the folded inner pages could not be inserted in the book
10. Iteration / finished product
After rectifying the above problems, I began to enter the studio to make my final product.
During the production process, I found that the pages of the book could not be firmly fixed by relying on the folded and interspersed forms, so I used thread binding with five holes and folding binding methods to make this book.
Then I found that the cover paper was not hard enough, so I chose to use gray board to make the cover and back cover of the book
The entire book can be read either fully expanded or read by turning the pages.
The cut-off part of the book page represents the TV screen, and the interspersed pictures represent the picture being broadcast from the screen.
Final work display：
11. Reading method/ video display