Revolt is here!
What’s Revolt? you ask.
Revolt is Sean ‘P. Diddy’ Combs’ latest venture whose singular goal is to turn the concept of a music video channel on its ear.
If you’re not up on Revolt, I don’t blame you.
The station just launched last night at 8:00 pm EST, and it’s only being carried by two carriers: Time Warner and Xfinity/Cablevision.
On Time Warner, it’s on channels 105 (standard def) and 692 (HD) but I couldn’t find the channel listings for Cable.
And if you’re like me, you’re ass out.
It’s not yet available on Fios.
But don’t fret, just visit Revolt.tv, click “Watch Live” and you can catch the live stream.
I’ve been doing just that since last night.
And you know what?
Diddy is on to something.
According to their website, Revolt “represents the architects who define culture and influence society.”
A bit of a stretch, but I see where he’s coming from.
Hip Hop went from fringe to mainstream, and today it’s a global phenomenon.
Musicians and performance artists have a significant influence on youth culture and society at large.
Think Jay Z, Beyonce, Obama and Cuba.
Or recently Miley Cyrus ‘twerking’ incident
Virtually any event from pop culture, which became mainstream news unequivocally supports this premise.
When MTV started 30 years ago, no one would have imagined that Hip Hop artists would dine with presidents, or pop stars would be advising major corporations.
Today, its a whole different story.
And Revolt is pushing the envelope.
For the most part Revolt is devoted to videos, which range from hip hop to alternative to heavy metal to pop to music that can’t fairly be defined by genre.
And they’re not you’re traditional MTV/VH1 videos either.
They’re highly stylized, graphic, trippy and a lil’ left of center.
You will find no bootleg Video Music Box videos on Revolt – sorry Ralph McDaniels.
In fact Diddy expressly states that artists who want their videos to appear on his station will have to step up their game.
Does that mean no more stripper poles and make it rain videos?
And while you may see some videos you recognize, a lot of them are being aired on Revolt for the first time.
Interspersed between videos are the occasional commercial, station identification and vignettes of Diddy walking around Brooklyn stopping traffic announcing the arrival of Revolt to the world.
In one Revolt clip, Diddy pays a cabbie $100 to stand on the roof of his cab, stopping traffic.
In another he encourages the gathering crowd to be disruptive by walking down the middle of the road.
He treats an entourage of young people to cheesecake at the world famous Junior’s, and lays out his game plan for eyeball domination.
Spinning a yarn, he tells the assembled youth that they are the future of music.
Per Diddy, Revolt is going to break the mold for music video stations, because Revolt won’t be restricted to one genre of music.
Revolt is for all genres.
While I was a lil’ tired of Diddy’s shameless self promotion, I have to acknowledge his genius, which stems from the fact that he’s tapped into music’s life blood – the youth.
I’m going to keep an eye on Revolt to see if it remains true to its mission of empowering youth.
Who knows, the iconic phrase “I want my MTV!” may one day become “I want Revolt TV!”
Stephen Chukumba 