Видео убило звезду радио: История создания хита The Buggles

1979 song by Trevor Horn, Geoff Downes and Bruce Woolley

The Buggles, which formed in 1977, first consisted of Trevor Horn, Geoff Downes and Bruce Woolley. It is one of the three Buggles songs on which 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 to record and release their debut album The Age of Plastic, 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 claimed that Kraftwerk 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 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 and video was coming. You could feel things changing".

The Buggles' version of "Video Killed the Radio Star" is a new wave and synth pop song. It performs like an extended jingle, It is in the key of D♭ major,

The song took more than three months of production. and the song was mixed by Gary Langan four or five times. The song includes instrumentation of drums, bass guitar, electric guitar, synth strings, piano, glockenspiel, marimbas and other futuristic, twinkly sounds, and vocals. 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. In 2022, the single was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for UK sales and streams of 600,000 units. The song also made a number one peak in France and Spain, "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. Although there had been a mixed review of the single from Smash Hits by Andy Partridge of XTC, 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". 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". AllMusic'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.

The music video for "Video Killed the Radio Star", written, directed and edited by Australian Russell Mulcahy, The video was shot in one day in South London, and was edited over two days. The video begins 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 explodes by the time of the first chorus, then in the second verse, the girl 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. Around 30 takes were 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.

The music video was first released in 1979, when it was originally broadcast on the BBC's Top of the Pops for promotion of the single, in lieu of doing live performances. On 27 February 2000, it became the one millionth video to be broadcast 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."

A notable interpretation of the melody was released in 1979 by French singer Ringo, using French language lyrics by Étienne Roda Gil supplying a new title italic=no ("Who is this big black raven?") Ringo's version peaked at number 8 in France. 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. 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 performed the song with Trevor Horn at the BBC Electric Proms on 20 October 2009. Erasure covered this song as a final track to their Other People's Songs album. Vince Clarke in an interview said that he considers it "the perfect pop song"

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 mid 2020, the song became popular among TikTok users as a trend to revisit celebrity death conspiracies, and across the internet when a deepfake of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin singing the song went viral on multiple social media sites. In February 2002, while on international duty with England, David Beckham got into an argument with journalist Rob Shepherd, during a press conference, after Shepherd made a joke about David and Victoria Beckham’s habit of finishing second (David finishing second in the recent FIFA World Player of the Year vote, and Victoria’s inability to have a number 1 hit). Beckham sarcastically asked Shepherd “what do you know about music? How many people in your family have ever had a number one?”. Shepherd replied “one. My sister was in The Buggles”. His sister was Linda Jardim Allen, who sang vocals on the number one hit.

Publication/TV show/author(s)CountryAccoladeYearRank20 to 1AustraliaTop 20 One Hit Wonders20063Bruce PollockUnited StatesThe 7,500 Most Important Songs of 1944–20002005*Giannis PetridisGreece2004 of the Best Songs of the Century2003Gilles Verlant, Thomas CausséFrance3000 Rock Classics2009The GuardianUnited KingdomThe Top 100 British Number 1 Singles53Hervé BourhisFranceLe Petit Livre Rock: The Juke Box Singles 1950 20092009*Les Inrockuptibles1000 Indispensable Songs2006MashableUnited States32 Unforgettable Music Videos2013MSN MusicUnited KingdomBest Song Titles Ever200319NBC 10United StatesThe 30 Best Songs of the 80s2006*Pause & PlaySongs Inducted into a Time Capsule, One Track at Each WeekPopMattersThe 100 Best Songs Since Johnny Rotten Roared200373QUnited KingdomThe 1010 Songs You Must Own (Q50: One hit Wonders)2004*TimeUnited StatesTop 10 MTV Moments2010Time OutUnited Kingdom100 Songs That Changed History100Triple J Hottest 100AustraliaHottest 100 of All Time199879VH1United States100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the 80's200179Volume!France200 Records that Changed the World2008*XfinityUnited StatesTop 10 Groundbreaking Videos10WhatCulture!10 Controversial Music Videos That Look Tame Today2013*WOXY. comThe 500 Best Modern Rock Songs of All Time2008348"*" indicates the list is unordered.