Video Killed The Radio Star
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"Video Killed the Radio Star" is a song written by Trevor Horn,
Geoff Downes Geoffrey Downes (born 25 August 1952) is an English keyboardist who gained fame as a member of the new wave group The Buggles with Trevor Horn, the progressive rock band Yes, and the supergroup Asia. Born in Stockport, Downes moved to Lon ...
and Bruce Woolley in 1979. It was recorded concurrently by Bruce Woolley and the Camera Club (with
Thomas Dolby Thomas Morgan Robertson (born 14 October 1958), known by the stage name Thomas Dolby, is an English musician, producer, composer, entrepreneur and teacher. Dolby came to prominence in the 1980s, releasing hit singles including " She Blinded M ...
on keyboards) for their album '' English Garden'' and by British new wave/synth-pop group
the Buggles The Buggles were an English new wave band formed in London in 1977 by singer and bassist Trevor Horn and keyboardist Geoff Downes. They are best known for their 1979 debut single " Video Killed the Radio Star", which topped the UK Singles Cha ...
, which consisted of Horn and Downes (and initially Woolley). The Buggles' version of the track was recorded and mixed in 1979, released as their debut single on 7 September 1979 by
Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, anothe ...
, and included on their first album ''
The Age of Plastic ''The Age of Plastic'' is the debut album by the English new wave duo the Buggles, released on 10 January 1980 on Island Records. It is a concept album about the possible repercussions of modern technology. The title was conceived from the gr ...
''. The backing track was recorded at Virgin's Town House in West London, and mixing and vocal recording was done at
Sarm East Studios Sarm Studios is an independent recording studio in London. Originally founded in east London in 1973, the studio's original location was renamed Sarm East Studios in 1982 when Jill Sinclair and Trevor Horn purchased Basing Street Studios from Isl ...
. The song relates to concerns about, and mixed attitudes towards 20th-century inventions and machines for the media arts. Musically, the song performs like an extended jingle and the composition plays in the key of D-flat major in
common time The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note val ...
at a
tempo In musical terminology, tempo ( Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (ofte ...
of 132
beats per minute Beat, beats or beating may refer to: Common uses * Patrol, or beat, a group of personnel assigned to monitor a specific area ** Beat (police), the territory that a police officer patrols ** Gay beat, an area frequented by gay men * Battery ...
. The track has been positively received, with reviewers praising its unusual musical pop elements. Although the song includes several common pop characteristics and six basic chords are used in its structure, Downes and writer Timothy Warner described the piece as musically complicated, due to its use of suspended and minor ninth chords for enhancement that gave the song a "slightly different feel." On release, the single topped sixteen international
music charts A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of recorded music according to certain criteria during a given period. Many different criteria are used in worldwide charts, often in combination. These include re ...
, including those in the UK, Australia, and Japan. It also peaked in the top 10 in Canada, Germany, New Zealand and South Africa, but only reached number 40 in the US. The accompanying
music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing devic ...
was written, directed, and edited by Russell Mulcahy. It was the first music video shown on
MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
in the US, airing at 12:01a.m. on 1 August 1981, and the first video shown on MTV Classic in the UK on 1 March 2010. The song has received several critical accolades, such as being ranked number 40 on VH1's ''100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders of the '80s''. It has also been
covered Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of copy ...
by many recording artists.


Background and lyrics

The Buggles, which formed in 1977, first consisted of Trevor Horn,
Geoff Downes Geoffrey Downes (born 25 August 1952) is an English keyboardist who gained fame as a member of the new wave group The Buggles with Trevor Horn, the progressive rock band Yes, and the supergroup Asia. Born in Stockport, Downes moved to Lon ...
and Bruce Woolley. They recorded the first demo of "Video Killed the Radio Star" on a Revox A77 tape recorder, one afternoon in 1978, in Downes' apartment located above a monumental stonemason's in Wimbledon Park,
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
. The piece was built up from a chorus riff developed by Woolley. It is one of the three Buggles songs that Woolley assisted in writing, the two others being " Clean, Clean" and " On TV". A later, more detailed demo of the song, featuring Horn's then-girlfriend Tina Charles on vocals, was recorded at Camden's Soundsuite Studios, and engineered by studio owner Peter Rackham. This demo became the blueprint for the final record, and helped the group get signed to
Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, anothe ...
to record and release their debut album ''
The Age of Plastic ''The Age of Plastic'' is the debut album by the English new wave duo the Buggles, released on 10 January 1980 on Island Records. It is a concept album about the possible repercussions of modern technology. The title was conceived from the gr ...
'', as well as producing and writing for the label, after Downes' girlfriend, who worked for Island, managed to get it played to executives there. Woolley left during recording to form his own band, The Camera Club, which did their own version of "Video", as well as "Clean, Clean" for their album '' English Garden''. Horn has said that J. G. Ballard's short story " The Sound-Sweep", in which the title character—a mute boy vacuuming up stray music in a world without it—comes upon an
opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...
singer hiding in a sewer, provided inspiration for "Video", and he felt "an era was about to pass." Horn claimed that
Kraftwerk Kraftwerk (, "power station") is a German band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk were among the first successful acts to popularize t ...
was another influence of the song: "It was like you could see the future when you heard Kraftwerk, something new is coming, something different. Different rhythm section, different mentality. So we had all of that, myself and Bruce, and we wrote this song probably six months before we recorded it." In a 2018 interview Horn stated: "I'd read
JG Ballard James Graham Ballard (15 November 193019 April 2009) was an English novelist, short story writer, satirist, and essayist known for provocative works of fiction which explored the relations between human psychology, technology, sex, and mass medi ...
and had this vision of the future where record companies would have computers in the basement and manufacture artists. I'd heard Kraftwerk's ''
The Man-Machine ''The Man-Machine'' (german: link=no, Die Mensch-Maschine) is the seventh studio album by German electronic music band Kraftwerk. It was released on May 1978 by Kling Klang in Germany and by Capitol Records elsewhere. A further refinement of the ...
'' and video was coming. You could feel things changing". All the tracks of ''The Age of Plastic'' deal with positives and concerns of the impact of modern technology. The theme of "Video Killed the Radio Star" is thus
nostalgia Nostalgia is a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. The word ''nostalgia'' is a learned formation of a Greek compound, consisting of (''nóstos''), meaning "homecoming", a Homeric word ...
, with the lyrics referring to a period of technological change in the 1960s, the desire to remember the past and the disappointment that children of the current generation would not appreciate the past. The lyrics relate to concerns of the varied behaviours towards 20th-century technical inventions and machines used and changed in media arts such as
photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is emplo ...
, cinema,
radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30  hertz (Hz) and 300  gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a tr ...
,
television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
, audio recording and
record production A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...
. According to Horn, the band initially struggled to come up with a line to follow the song's opening ("I heard you on the wireless back in '52"): he eventually came up with "Lying awake intent at tuning in on you", inspired by memories of listening to Radio Luxembourg at night as a child. Woolley worried about the song's name, given the existence of a band with the name Radio Stars and a song titled "Video King" by singer Snips.


Development and composition

The Buggles' version of "Video Killed the Radio Star" is a new wave and
synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...
song. It performs like an extended
jingle A jingle is a short song or tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. Jingles are a form of sound branding. A jingle contains one or more hooks and meaning that explicitly promote the product or service being advertised, usually ...
, sharing its rhythm characteristics with
disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric p ...
. The piece plays in
common time The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note val ...
at a bright
tempo In musical terminology, tempo ( Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (ofte ...
of 132
beats per minute Beat, beats or beating may refer to: Common uses * Patrol, or beat, a group of personnel assigned to monitor a specific area ** Beat (police), the territory that a police officer patrols ** Gay beat, an area frequented by gay men * Battery ...
. It is in the key of D♭ major, and six basic chords are used in the song's
chord progression In a musical composition, a chord progression or harmonic progression (informally chord changes, used as a plural) is a succession of chords. Chord progressions are the foundation of harmony in Western musical tradition from the common practice ...
. According to Geoff Downes, "It's actually a lot more complicated piece of music than people think, for instance part of the bridge is actually suspended chords and minor 9ths. A lot of people transcribed the song wrongly, they thought it was a straight F# chord. The song was written in D flat. The suspended gives it a slightly different feel." Writing in his book, ''Pop Music: Technology and Creativity: Trevor Horn and the Digital Revolution'', Timothy Warner said that the "relatively quiet introduction" helping the listener detect a high amount of "tape hiss" generated through the use of analogue multi-track
tape recorder An audio tape recorder, also known as a tape deck, tape player or tape machine or simply a tape recorder, is a sound recording and reproduction device that records and plays back sounds usually using magnetic tape for storage. In its present ...
s, as well as the
timbre In music, timbre ( ), also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound quality of a musical note, sound or tone. Timbre distinguishes different types of sound production, such as choir voices and musica ...
of the synthesized instruments, give an indication of the technical process and time of producing the song. Horn and Downes tried to interest labels in the song, but were turned down multiple times, including by Island Records. Downes' then girlfriend worked for Island and was able to get the song listened to again. The demo ended up being heard by
Chris Blackwell Christopher Percy Gordon Blackwell (born 22 June 1937) is an English businessman and former record producer, and the founder of Island Records, which has been called "one of Britain's great independent labels". According to the Rock and Roll ...
, who chose to sign the band. The song took more than three months of production. In 2018 Downes stated that the version that was released was rewritten from that recorded for the band's demo tape: the verses were extended and Downes contributed a new intro and middle eight, with the bulk of the original song having already been written by Horn and Woolley when he joined. The instrumental track was recorded at Virgin's Town House in West London in twelve hours, with mixing and recording of vocals held at
Sarm East Studios Sarm Studios is an independent recording studio in London. Originally founded in east London in 1973, the studio's original location was renamed Sarm East Studios in 1982 when Jill Sinclair and Trevor Horn purchased Basing Street Studios from Isl ...
. The entire song was mixed through a Trident TSM console. "Video" was the first track recorded for the group's debut LP ''
The Age of Plastic ''The Age of Plastic'' is the debut album by the English new wave duo the Buggles, released on 10 January 1980 on Island Records. It is a concept album about the possible repercussions of modern technology. The title was conceived from the gr ...
'', which cost a sum of £60,000 () to produce, and the song was mixed by Gary Langan four or five times. According to Langan, "there was no total recall, so we just used to start again. We’d do a mix and three or four days later Trevor would go, 'It's not happening. We need to do this and we need to do that.' The sound of the bass drum was one of his main concerns, along with his vocal and the backing vocals. It was all about how dry and how loud they should be in the mix without the whole thing sounding ridiculous. As it turned out, that record still had the loudest bass drum ever for its time." The song includes
instrumentation Instrumentation a collective term for measuring instruments that are used for indicating, measuring and recording physical quantities. The term has its origins in the art and science of scientific instrument-making. Instrumentation can refer to ...
of
drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...
,
bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...
,
electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...
, synth strings,
piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
,
glockenspiel The glockenspiel ( or , : bells and : set) or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the vibraphone. The gloc ...
,
marimba The marimba () is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the timbre ...
s and other futuristic, twinkly sounds, and
vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...
. Downes used a Solina,
Minimoog The Minimoog is an analog synthesizer first manufactured by Moog Music between 1970 and 1981. Designed as a more affordable, portable version of the modular Moog synthesizer, it was the first synthesizer sold in retail stores. It was first pop ...
and
Prophet-5 The Prophet-5 is an analog synthesizer manufactured by the American company Sequential. It was designed by Dave Smith and John Bowen in 1977, who used microprocessors, then a new technology, to create the first polyphonic synthesizer with f ...
to create the overdubbed orchestral parts. Both the male and female voices differ to give a tonal and historical contrast. When Langan was interviewed in December 2011, he believed the male vocal was recorded through either a dynamic Shure SM57, SM58,
Sennheiser MD 421 The Sennheiser MD 421 is a German cardioid dynamic microphone, widely used for speech in broadcasting and for music in live concerts and the recording studio. Introduced in 1960, the internal large-diaphragm transducer element of the MD 421 ...
, or STC 4038 ribbon microphone, and that four or five takes had to be done. The male voice echoes the song's theme in the tone of the music, initially limited in bandwidth to give a "telephone" effect typical of early broadcasts, and uses a Mid-Atlantic accent resembling that of British singers in the 1950s and '60s. The Vox AC30 amplifier was used to achieve the telephone effect, and Gary Langan says he was trying to make it "loud without cutting your head off", in others words make the voice sound soft. Gary Langan and Trevor Horn also tried using a
bullhorn A megaphone, speaking-trumpet, bullhorn, blowhorn, or loudhailer is usually a portable or hand-held, cone-shaped acoustic horn used to amplify a person's voice or other sounds and direct it in a given direction. The sound is introduced into ...
, but they found it too harsh. Langan later compressed and EQ'd the male vocals, and he said that doing the compression for old-style vocal parts was a "real skill". The female vocals are panned in the left and right audio channels, and sound more modern and have a New York accent. The single version of "Video Killed the Radio Star" lasts for 3 minutes and 25 seconds. The album version plays for 4 minutes and 13 seconds, about 48 seconds longer than the single version, as it fades into a piano and synth
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, which ends with a brief sampling of the female vocals.


Commercial performance

"Video Killed the Radio Star" was a huge commercial success, reaching number one on 16 national charts. The song made its debut on the
UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
in the top 40 at number 24, on the issue dated 29 September 1979. The next week, the track entered into the chart's top ten at number six before topping the chart on the week of 20 October. It was the 444th UK number-one hit in the chart's entire archive. In 2022, the single was certified platinum by the
British Phonographic Industry British Phonographic Industry (BPI) is the British recorded music industry's Trade association. It runs the BRIT Awards, the Classic BRIT Awards, National Album Day, is home to the Mercury Prize, and co-owns the Official Charts Company with ...
(BPI) for UK sales and streams of 600,000 units. In Australia, "Video Killed the Radio Star" reached number one, and for 27 years it held the country's record for best-selling single. In late 1979, while the single was still in an eight-week run at Number one in the charts, the single was awarded a platinum disc by Festival Records, the record's distributing company, for sales of over 100,000 copies in Australia. The song also made a number-one peak in France and Spain, where it was certified gold and platinum, respectively, as well as Austria, Ireland, Sweden and Switzerland. In other parts of Europe and Oceania, "Video Killed the Radio Star" was a number-two hit in Germany and New Zealand, and also charted in Flanders on the Ultratop 50 and in the Netherlands, on the Nationale Hitparade Top 50 (now the
Single Top 100 The Dutch Single Top 100 or Single Top 100 is a Dutch chart, based on official physical single sales, legal downloads and since July 2013 streaming and composed by Dutch Charts. It is one of the three official charts, the other two being the Du ...
) and
Dutch Top 40 The Dutch Top 40 ( nl, Nederlandse Top 40) is a weekly music chart compiled by ''Stichting Nederlandse Top 40''. It started as a radio program titled "Veronica Top 40", on the offshore station Radio Veronica in 1965. It remained "The Veroni ...
. "Video Killed the Radio Star" did not start charting in North America, however, until November 1979. In the United States, the song appeared on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and ''
Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an onli ...
'' Top 100, barely breaking into the top 40 on both charts. In a 2015 list from ''Billboard'', it tied with
Marvin Gaye Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who also spelled his surname as Gaye (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), was an American singer and songwriter. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo ar ...
's recording of " The End of Our Road" as the "Biggest Hot 100 Hit" at the peak of number 40. "Video Killed the Radio Star" debuted at number 86 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 on the week of 10 November 1979, while on the ''Cash Box'' Top 100 it debuted at number 83 that same week. It started also at number 83 on the Canadian ''RPM'' Top Single Chart. By January 1980, it entered the top 40 at number 31, and on 2 February made it into the top 20 at number 11. Two weeks later, the song earned its peak in the top 10 at number 6 and issue dated 16 February 1980.


Critical reception

The song became a ''
Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large adverti ...
'' Top Single Pick on 3 November 1979. The publication found the chorus catchy and also highlighted the orchestral instruments supporting the backing singers. Although there had been a mixed review of the single from ''
Smash Hits ''Smash Hits'' was a British music magazine aimed at young adults, originally published by EMAP. It ran from 1978 to 2006, and, after initially appearing monthly, was issued fortnightly during most of that time. The name survived as a brand ...
'', who found the song to be "too tidy, like vymura" (wallpaper), they listed it in a review of ''The Age of Plastic'' as one of the best tracks of the album, along with "
Living in the Plastic Age "Living in the Plastic Age" (on some releases simply listed as "The Plastic Age") is a synthpop song written, performed and produced by the Buggles. It was released as the second single from their debut album ''The Age of Plastic'' on 14 January ...
". Timothy Warner wrote that, although several common pop elements were still present in the song, it included stronger originality for its own purpose than most other pop hits released at the time. These unusual pop music characteristics include the timbres of the male and female vocal parts, and the use of suspended fourth and ninths chords for enhancement in its progression. He also felt it was unnecessary to dislike it as a "
novelty song A novelty song is a type of song built upon some form of novel concept, such as a gimmick, a piece of humor, or a sample of popular culture. Novelty songs partially overlap with comedy songs, which are more explicitly based on humor, and wit ...
".
AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Music ...
's Heather Phares said the track "can be looked on as a perfectly preserved new wave gem", "just as the song looks back on the radio songs of the '50s and '60s". She concluded her review by saying that it "still sounds as immediate as it did when it was released, however, and that may be the song's greatest irony". However, many writers called Woolley's recording of "Video" much better than the Buggles' version. This included one critic who called both acts overall as of being very high quality, but felt that Woolley's version was more faithful to the source material than that of The Buggles, noting the filtered vocals and cute, female vocals of the latter rendition as giving it a novelty feel. However, he also wrote of liking both versions of "Clean, Clean" on the same level.


Music video


Production and concept

The
music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing devic ...
for "Video Killed the Radio Star", written, directed and edited by Australian Russell Mulcahy, was produced on a budget of $50,000. It was filmed in only a day in South London, and was edited in a couple of days. The video starts with a young girl sitting in front of a radio. A black-and-white shot of Trevor Horn singing into an early radio-era microphone is superimposed over the young girl by the radio. The radio blows up by the time of the first chorus, then in the second verse, she is seen transported into the future, where she meets Horn and a silver-jumpsuited woman in a clear plastic tube. Shots of Horn and Geoff Downes are shown during the remainder of the video. There were about 30 takes required for shots of the actress in the tube. The tube falls over in the video, although Mulcahy claims it was not intended to be shown in the final edit.
Hans Zimmer Hans Florian Zimmer (; born 12 September 1957) is a German film score composer and music producer. He has won two Oscars and four Grammys, and has been nominated for two Emmys and a Tony. Zimmer was also named on the list of Top 100 Living G ...
can be briefly seen wearing black playing a keyboard, and Debi Doss and Linda Jardim, who provided the female vocals for the song, are also seen.


Broadcasting and reception

The video was first released in 1979, when it originally aired on the BBC's ''
Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British Record chart, music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show ...
'' for promotion of the single, in lieu of doing live performances. Zimmer recalled in 2001 that the video drew criticism from some viewers who watched it before it aired on MTV, due to being "'too violent' because we blew up a television." The video is best known as marking the
debut Debut or début (the first public appearance of a person or thing) may refer to: * Debut (society), the formal introduction of young upper-class women to society * Debut novel, an author's first published novel Film and television * ''The Deb ...
of
MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
, when the US channel started broadcasting at 12:01 AM on 1 August 1981. On 27 February 2000, it became the one-millionth video to be aired on MTV. It also opened MTV Classic in the UK and Ireland. The video marked the closing of MTV Philippines before its shutdown on 15 February 2010 at 11:49 PM. MTV co-founder Bob Pittman said the video "made an aspirational statement. We didn't expect to be competitive with radio, but it was certainly a sea-change kind of video." In July 2013, multiple independent artists covered the song for the launch of the TV channel Pivot, which launched with the music video of the cover on 1 August at 6am.


Live performances and cover versions

A notable interpretation of the melody was released in 1979 by French singer
Ringo Sir Richard Starkey (born 7 July 1940), known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the ...
, using French language lyrics by Étienne Roda-Gil supplying a new title ("Who is this big black raven?") Ringo's version peaked at number 8 in France. The Presidents of the United States of America recorded a cover of the song which appeared on the soundtrack of the 1998 film ''
The Wedding Singer ''The Wedding Singer'' is a 1998 American romantic comedy film directed by Frank Coraci, written by Tim Herlihy, and produced by Robert Simonds and Jack Giarraputo. The film stars Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, and Christine Taylor, and tell ...
'' starring
Adam Sandler Adam Richard Sandler (born September 9, 1966) is an American comedian, actor, screenwriter, producer and singer. He was a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1990 to 1995, before going on to star in numerous Hollywood films, those of wh ...
. A rare live performance of the song by Horn and Downes came at a ZTT showcase in 1998. In November 2006, the Producers played at their first gig in
Camden Town Camden Town (), often shortened to Camden, is a district of northwest London, England, north of Charing Cross. Historically in Middlesex, it is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Camden, and identified in the London Plan as ...
. A video clip can be seen on ZTT Records of Horn singing lead vocals and playing bass in a performance of "Video Killed the Radio Star". Tina Charles appears on a YouTube video singing "Slave to the Rhythm" with the Producers and Horn reveals that Tina was the singer and originator of the "Oh Ah-Oh Ah-Oh" part of "Video"; fellow 5000 Volt member Martin Jay was also a session musician on The Buggles record.
Robbie Williams Robert Peter Williams (born 13 February 1974) is an English singer and songwriter. He found fame as a member of the pop group Take That from 1990 to 1995, and achieved commercial success after launching a solo career in 1996. His debut stud ...
performed the song with Trevor Horn at the
BBC Electric Proms The BBC Radio 2 Electric Proms (formerly the BBC Electric Proms) was an October music festival in London run by the BBC for five years, 2006–2010. On 31 January 2011, the BBC announced that the event would be discontinued with immediate effec ...
on 20 October 2009. Anne Dudley, composer and co-founding member of The Art of Noise with Trevor Horn, performed the song on solo piano on her album ''Anne Dudley Plays the Art of Noise''.


In popular culture

The song was used in 2002 video game '' Grand Theft Auto: Vice City'' on the in-game radio station Flash FM. In mid-2020, the song became popular among
TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version o ...
users as a trend to revisit celebrity death conspiracies, and across the internet when a deepfake of
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and the ...
and
Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet Union, Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as Ge ...
singing the song went viral on multiple social media sites.


Personnel

Sources:


Bruce Woolley version

* Bruce Woolley
songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music ...
, guitar, vocals *Paul Robinson – drums * Debi Doss – backing vocals *Linda Jardim – backing vocals *Dave Birch – lead guitar * Gary Langanmixing, recording * Hugh Padgham – recording,
audio engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduction ...
ing *John Dent – mastering


The Buggles version

*
Geoff Downes Geoffrey Downes (born 25 August 1952) is an English keyboardist who gained fame as a member of the new wave group The Buggles with Trevor Horn, the progressive rock band Yes, and the supergroup Asia. Born in Stockport, Downes moved to Lon ...
– songwriter, producer, keyboards,
percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
* Trevor Horn – songwriter, production, bass guitar, vocals * Bruce Woolley – songwriter


Charts


Weekly charts


Year-end charts


Sales and certifications


Accolades


See also

*''
Reality Killed the Video Star ''Reality Killed the Video Star'' is the eighth solo studio album by English singer-songwriter Robbie Williams, released in November 2009. The album was produced by Trevor Horn and recorded between September 2008 and August 2009 in London and L ...
'', a 2009 album by Robbie Williams produced by Trevor Horn *" Internet Killed the Video Star", a 2010 song by the Limousines *" Check It Out", a 2010 song by will.i.am and
Nicki Minaj Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty (; born December 8, 1982), known professionally as Nicki Minaj ( ), is a Trinidadian-born rapper based in the United States. She is known for her musical versatility, animated flow in her rapping, alter egos and accents ...
which heavily samples the song. No. 1 chart lists *
List of number-one singles in Australia during the 1970s The following lists the number one singles on the Australian Singles Chart during the 1970s. The source for this decade is the "Kent Music Report". 1970 Other hits Songs peaking at number two included " Fortunate Son" / " Down on the Corner ...
* List of European number-one hits of 1980 * List of number-one singles of 1979 (France) * List of number-one singles of 1979 (Ireland) * List of number-one hits of 1980 (Italy) *
List of number-one singles of 1980 (Spain) This is a list of the Spanish Singles number-ones of 1980. Chart history See also *1980 in music *List of number-one hits (Spain) * List of number-one singles of the 1980s in Spain References {{Spanish number-one hits 1980 Events Ja ...
*
List of number-one singles and albums in Sweden A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby union ...
*
List of number-one singles from 1968 to 1979 (Switzerland) This is a list of singles that reached number one on the Swiss Hitparade from 1968 through 1979. Number-one singles See also *1968 in music *1969 in music *1970s in music References {{DEFAULTSORT:List of number-one singles from 1968-1979 ...
*
List of UK Singles Chart number ones of the 1970s A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby union ...
*
List of 1970s one-hit wonders in the United States A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...


References

Bibliography * {{Authority control 1979 debut singles 1979 songs The Buggles songs Epic Records singles European Hot 100 Singles number-one singles Irish Singles Chart number-one singles Island Records singles MTV Music videos directed by Russell Mulcahy Number-one singles in Australia Number-one singles in Austria Number-one singles in France Number-one singles in Italy Number-one singles in Spain Number-one singles in Sweden Number-one singles in Switzerland Oricon International Singles Chart number-one singles Song recordings produced by Trevor Horn Songs about radio Songs about television Songs about nostalgia Songs written by Bruce Woolley Songs written by Geoff Downes Songs written by Trevor Horn UK Singles Chart number-one singles