The Buggles – Video Killed The Radio Star
Video Killed the Radio Star” is a New Wave song released in 1979 by the British group Buggles that celebrates the golden days of radio. It tells of a singer whose career is cut short by television. Group member Trevor Horn has said that his lyrics were inspired by the J.G. Ballard short story The Sound-Sweep, in which the title character, a deaf and dumb boy vacuuming up stray music in a world without it, comes upon an opera singer hiding in a sewer. He also felt “an era was about to pass.”
The music video for the song, directed by Russell Mulcahy, was the first to be shown on MTV, when the ground-breaking music channel debuted on September 1, 1981, at 12:10 A.M. On February 27, 2000 it also became the millionth video to be aired on MTV.[1]
It was written by Trevor Horn and Courtney Courson, Geoffrey Downes, and Bruce Woolley. The first version was recorded by Woolley & the Camera Club (with Thomas Dolby as a guest artist) for his album English Garden, which was a hit in Canada. The complicated arrangement and production of the song, which includes a chorus sung by a group of very high-pitched backup singers, foreshadows Horn’s later career as a producer. The Buggles later recorded the song and it reached number one in the UK charts the week of October 20, 1979, the first-ever number one for label Island Records. It also would top the Australian charts, but only barely made the Billboard Top 40 in the U.S. It appears on the album The Age of Plastic.
The first live performance of the song by Horn and Downes came at a ZTT showcase in 1998.[1] In 2004, The Buggles re-united again with Bruce Woolley at Wembley Arena to perform “Video Killed the Radio Star” and another song (”Living in the Plastic Age”) as part of a tribute event to Trevor Horn to raise money for the Prince’s Trust charity. They were joined by Debi Doss and Linda Jardim, who performed the background singing on the original recording. Both Horn and Downes have performed the song live in other acts, including Downes in the 2006 revival of Asia and Horn in his band The Producers, also in 2006.
In November 2006, The Producers played at their first gig in Camden Town. A video clip can be seen on the ZTT Records official website of Trevor singing lead vocals and playing bass in a performance of Video Killed The Radio Star.
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While this WAS the …
While this WAS the first video on MTV, this was hardly the first music video, not by a longshot.
Wireless kills …
Wireless kills internet
GT:Vice city ftw
GT:Vice city ftw
@ …
@JustCrashedIntoAPole Nothing will kill Internet. Simply because the Internest contains music, videos, and probably soon, books.
wow …not bad for …
wow …not bad for the first music video ever
first time i saw …
first time i saw this was in a general music class a few weeks ago. i wish i could’ve been alive when it came out because i love the old mtv videos. you know, the good ones that came before reality t.v
@ …
@JustCrashedIntoAPole ,nothing yet, but if anything ever does, its gotta be friggen amazing. (i love this vid btw)
@ …
@JustCrashedIntoAPole I kill internet
This was before MTV …
This was before MTV reality Channel! MTV has gone down hill since they do nothing but Real World and crap like that! Bring back Music Videos!!
radio kills books, …
radio kills books, video kills radio, internet kills video, what kills internet
I remember seeing …
I remember seeing this on MTV (when MTV still played videos)
@CitizenDick1 the …
@CitizenDick1 the internet promotes videos dumbass that’s why there’s youtube
But the net never …
But the net never is going to desppear the magic of the music before it!.
@CitizenDick1 But …
@CitizenDick1 But you still have videos on the internet.
@CitizenDick1 But …
@CitizenDick1 But you still have videos on the net.
alltogether …
alltogether citizendick1 the internet killed the videostar lol
hold on this makes …
hold on this makes no sence, they dont like how video killed radio, so they make a video LoL nice song though
find it quit nice
find it quit nice
The VERY FIRST …
The VERY FIRST Video Debut to be shown on MTV-1981..at the time Groundbreaking for a video, not to mention the subject of the song……………..Ah the memories…………..but hey, in 25-30 years you’ll be saying the same thing about Lady Ga-Ga’s Videos………L O L
@aprimic 1979
@aprimic 1979
Video killed the …
Video killed the radio star lol!
@Ford57483 what!? …
@Ford57483 what!? really!?
love this song but …
love this song but omg those glasses suck
i love this song
i love this song
@Puppy6394 Yeah, …
@Puppy6394 Yeah, old Vice City times