Video Killed the Radio Star
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| "Video Killed the Radio Star" | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
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| Single by The Buggles | ||
| from the album The Age of Plastic | ||
| Released | 1979 | |
| Format | 7" single | |
| Recorded | 1979 | |
| Genre | New Wave | |
| Length | 3:25 | |
| Label | Island | |
| Writer(s) | Geoff Downes, Trevor Horn and Bruce Woolley | |
| Producer(s) | Trevor Horn | |
| Chart positions | ||
| The Buggles singles chronology | ||
| Video Killed The Radio Star (1979) |
The Plastic Age (1980) |
|
"Video Killed the Radio Star" is a New Wave song released in 1979 by the British group The Buggles that celebrates the golden days of radio. With broadcast-quality vocals and a bouncy rhythm, the song plays like a jingle. It's a fitting sound, considering the song 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."
Appropriately, considering its subject matter, 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 August 1, 1981, at 12:15 A.M. On February 27, 2000 it also became the millionth video to be aired on MTV.[1]
Written by Trevor Horn, Geoffrey Downes, and Bruce Woolley, the song 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. A different version was recorded by Woolley (with Thomas Dolby) for his album Bruce Woolley and the Camera Club, 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 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 Debbie Doss and Linda Raoul, who had 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.
Contents |
[edit] Audio sample
- The Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star excerpt (file info) — play in browser (beta)
- An excerpt from Video Killed The Radio Star
- Problems listening to the file? See media help.
[edit] Notable cover versions
| Year | Artist | Album |
|---|---|---|
| 1997 | The Presidents of the United States of America | Rarities |
| 1998 | The Presidents of the United States of America | The Wedding Singer soundtrack, Pure Frosting |
| 1999 | Lolita No.18 | YALITAMIN |
| 2003 | Erasure | Other People's Songs |
| 2000 | The Presidents of the United States of America | Lump |
| 2005 | Amber Pacific | Punk Goes 80's |
| 2005 | Ben Folds Five | Whatever and Ever Amen (Digitally Remastered) |
| 2005 | Len | Diary of the Madmen (in hidden track) |
| 2007 | The Feeling | Rosé |
(It has also been covered by the Violent Femmes[citation needed] and Radiohead[citation needed], as well as arranged by Kushol Gupta for the Penn marching band). Sophie Ellis-Bextor has also sung it live providing backing vocals with THe Feeling and also with her on main vocals with her band.
[edit] Video games
- It appears in Dancing Stage Euromix, in both the arcade and the home versions.
- In the rhythm video game Pump it Up, the Korean pop-metal band Novasonic sings the line 'video killed the radio star' several times in their song "SLAM". "SLAM" originally appears on the album Novasonic 2, but has become a staple in the popular Pump it Up game series.
- This song appears in the home version of Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA.
- The song appears in the game Grand Theft Auto Vice City.
[edit] Parodies
During the 2006 VMA'S the Racountours performed the above titled song.
[edit] References
- ^ Dehnart, A. "Who really killed the video star?". Salon.com, 2000.
[edit] See also
- The Jazz Singer is a 1927 U.S. movie notable for being the first "talking motion picture" to be widely commercially distributed.
- Singing in the Rain is a musical film that explores the transition from silent film to sound film
- Radio stars are also a concept of astronomy.
- "Radio Ga Ga," a single by Queen, also laments the demise of radio as the primary mass medium.
[edit] External links
- Video Killed The Radio Star Music Video on YouTube
- Video Killed the Radio Star Music Video on AolMusic
- Video Killed The Radio Star Music Video (Requires RealPlayer)
- Video Killed the Radio Star lyrics
| Preceded by "Message in a Bottle" by The Police |
UK number one single October 20, 1979 |
Succeeded by "One Day At A Time" by Lena Martell |
