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Spicy Ideas: The Revolution Is Being Televised

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Concept graciously remixed and mashed up from Gil Scott-Heron and his 1974 spoken-word single "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." Find out more about his original piece here.

You WILL be able to stay home, brother.
You will be able to plug in, turn on, download, and cop out.
You will be able to lose yourself on the World Wide Web and a 10MB connection,
Skip out for a microbrew during prerolls,
Because the revolution is being televised.

The revolution is being televised.
The revolution is being brought to you by Google, Adobe, and Microsoft
In four parts with limited commercial interstitials.
The revolution will show you video of politicians
Behaving badly on the campaign trail
And a charge led by LonelyGirl15, the Star Wars Kid, and Ask a Ninja
To create your own internet memes within the sanctuary of their comments section.
The revolution is being televised.

The revolution is not being brought to you by the Oscars, the Academy, or the Emmys and will not star Paris Hilton and Tom Cruise or SpongeBob and Martha Stewart.
The revolution will show you how to blend an iPod.
The revolution will give you an outlet for your unpopular views.
The revolution will cause you to create a rap video about SEO.
The revolution will inspire you learn about wine by tasting dirt,
Because the revolution is being televised, brother.

There will be live video from your mobile phone of you and Elon Musk
In the Tesla electric sports car beating Jason Calacanis in his Corvette,
And you will see live mobile video coverage from an earthquake in China, a hurricane in Texas, and a firefight in Iraq.
NBC is able to predict the winner at 8:32,
But it’s 10 minutes after you watched 29 citizen journalists break the story
On Qik, Mogulus, Flixwagon, and Ustream.
The revolution is being televised.

There will be video of Egyptian bloggers being wrongfully imprisoned
Embedded in your blog.
There will be video of foreign factory working conditions
With a million views.
There will be video of JetBlue CEO David Neeleman
Apologizing for mistakes his company made.
There will be video of OK Go
Using treadmills, a tarp, and a crappy camera
To create one of the most-watched music videos of all time.
There will be video of one of the most exclusive conferences in the world
Shared in full HD glory and accessible to all via TEDTalks.

Desperate Housewives, The Office, and Grey’s Anatomy
Will no longer be so damned relevant,
And people will not care if Dick finally gets down with
Jane on Big Brother 23 because we will be in the street,
Cameras in hand, telling our own stories.
The revolution is being televised.

There will be highlights on the 11 o’clock
News ripped straight from YouTube, blip.tv, Viddler, and Veoh
And videos of anonymous protests
And parodies of Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin.
The theme song is written by Danger Mouse and Tay Zonday
And performed by Arnel Pineda, the Evolution of Dance guy, Tommy DeCarlo, Andy McKee, and the Chinese Backstreet Boys.
The revolution is being televised.

The revolution will be right back after a message
About getting the attention of the opposite sex with your deodorant,
Getting a lower credit score, or getting a Mac instead of a PC.
You will not have to worry about DRM on your HD, a C&D from P2P, or CPMs on your UGC.
The revolution will go better with Diet Coke and Mentos.
The revolution will invite Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld into your home for fancy mustard.
The revolution will be your video replies on Seesmic, Disqus, 12seconds, and Kyte.
The revolution will put you in the driver’s seat.

The revolution is being televised, is being televised,
Is being televised, is being televised.
The revolution will be no rerun, brothers;
The revolution is live.

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