Today’s classic song of the day celebrates the launch of MTV on this date in 1981 with “Video Killed the Radio Star,” by the Buggles. This is the first video that MTV played when it launched and it became a bit of a theme song for the MTV generation. The song was less successful on the charts, only reaching #40 on the Billboard Hot 100—but #1 in the UK.
The Buggles were a two person New Wave/synth-pop band consisting of Trever Horn and Geoff Downes. Horn, Downes, and Bruce Woolley wrote the song in 1978. Both the Buggles and Woolley’s then-new band, Camera Club (which included future mad scientist Thomas Dolby on keyboards), released the tune, with the Buggles’ version being the most successful. That was due in no small part by its science fiction-themed video, complete with attractive futuristic female models in giant transparent tubes. It was distinctive.
Future famous Australian film director Russell Mulcahy directed the video, for a then large budget of $50,000. It took only a day to film it and another few days to edit it. Ah, life was simpler back then.
Interestingly, the guy in the black suit you briefly see playing the keyboard in the background is Horn’s friend Hans Zimmer. If that name sounds familiar to you, that’s because Mr. Zimmer went on to become one of the most successful soundtrack composers of modern times, scoring such films as The Lion King, Gladiator, The Dark Knight, Inception, Interstellar, and Dune. Little parts sometimes lead to big things.
After the success of “Video Killed the Radio Star,” Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes were asked to join the group Yes for a short period in 1980, replacing departing members Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman; they were not well received by that group’s die-hard fans. Horn then got into music production for groups like Dollar and ABC; he produced the latter group’s 1982 album, The Lexicon of Love, with the hits “Poison Arrow” and “The Look of Love.” He later produced Frankie Goes to Hollywood (the album Welcome to the Pleasuredome and the hit “Relax”), Foreigner (Agent Provocateur), and Yes (the album 90125 and the single “Owner of a Lonely Heart”). Horn co-founded the group Art of Noise and kept producing for artists like Seal, LeAnn Rimes, Belle and Sebastian, Jeff Beck, and Pet Shop Boys. He’s still around today, aged 74.
Geoff Downes, after leaving Yes, co-founded the supergroup Asia with ex-Yes guitarist Steve Howe, ex-King Crimson vocalist and bassist John Welton, and ex-ELP drummer Carl Palmer. That group had a big hit with “Heat of the Moment” in 1982. He also released a few solo albums and produced albums for others, including Mike Oldfield and Thompson Twins. He has also reunited with Trevor Horn as the Buggles on occasion. He’s still out there, too, aged 70.
As for MTV, that cable channel is still around but they haven’t played videos full time since the late ’90s. For the past several decades, all MTV plays is reality programming, most of which sucks. The worries back in the ’80s were that video truly would kill the radio star; while it’s true that the music video era did affect what music got played on the radio for awhile (and every artist had to make a video), the music business survived just fine, thank you, and in fact has outlasted that radio killer MTV. Put the blame on VTR, indeed.
