As many will know, this was the first video shown on MTV when the station launched in the summer of 1981. The song was originally recorded in 1979, concurrently by Bruce Wooley and the Camera and the duo the Buggles. Wooley's version contained different lyrics and did not have the" oh-a, oh-a" hook (link). It is the Buggles' version that is better known and that was played on MTV. It was included on their first album, The Age of Plastic. The song is about concerns and mixed attitudes toward 20th-century inventions and machines for media arts, how some musicians did not translate visually to video. Now MTV shows no videos! The irony!
The Buggles consisted of singer and bassist Trevor Horn and keyboardist Geoff Downes (who cowrote the song with Bruce Wooley). Horn and Downes joined the band Yes in 1980 after that group's original lead singer Jon Anderson and keyboardist Rick Wakeman departed. Downes and Horn would record one album with Yes before the band's temporary breakup in 1981. Downes joined the new supergroup Asia, with former Yes guitarist Steve Howe. When Yes regrouped two years later (with Anderson back as lead singer), Horn signed on as the band's producer, producing Yes's bestselling album 90125.
The song was recently parodied as "New AI's Filling Us With Alarm." Ain't that true!
9 comments:
Always liked that song. The AI parody is pretty good too!
I've heard of this song but all I can remember is the chorus 'video killed the radio star'...
Have a lovely day.
Yup, very familiar with this song. Didn't realize there's another version of it. We didn't get MTV until 1983, and we (my brother and I) were fascinated with how ugly a lot of the musicians were. The first time we saw the Rolling Stones... Yikes.
I remember watching MTV at that time. It was nice back when they played music. lol
I do know this catchy song, and indeed knew this MTV trivia.
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J Lenni Dorner (he/him 👨🏽 or 🧑🏽 they/them) ~ Speculative Fiction & Reference Author and Co-host of the April Blogging #AtoZchallenge
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Always loved this song.
I remember this one. It's got a great beat.
Ah, the good old days when MTV actually had M!
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