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Information about Video Killed The Radio Star

"Video Killed the Radio Star"
Enlarge picture
"Video Killed the Radio Star" cover
Single by Buggles
from the album The Age of Plastic
ReleasedSeptember, 1979
Format7" single
Recorded1979
GenreNew Wave
Length4:13
LabelIsland
Writer(s)Geoff Downes, Trevor Horn and Bruce Woolley
Producer(s)Trevor Horn
Peak chart positions
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 Buggles that celebrates the golden days of radio. It 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 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." The theme of the song is thus nostalgia, which is also echoed in the tone of the music[1]. The lyrics refer 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. In the 1950s and early 1960s, radio was an important medium for many, through which "stars" were created.

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 12:10 A.M. On February 27, 2000 it also became the millionth video to be aired on MTV.[2]

The song was written by Trevor Horn and Courtney Courson, Geoffrey Downes, and Bruce Woolley. The first version was recorded by Woolley & the Camera Club (with Thomas Dolby as a guest artist) for his album English Garden, 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 Buggles later recorded the song and it 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, where it has an additional piano coda.

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 Debi Doss and Linda Jardim, who 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.

The song also became part of a popular internet meme sung by "The Wrong Trousers". It was voted best viral in the Yahoo! 9 series

Notable cover versions

YearArtistAlbum
1997The Presidents of the United States of AmericaPure Frosting
1999Lolita No.18YALITAMIN
2003ErasureOther People's Songs
2005Amber PacificPunk Goes 80's
2005Ben Folds FiveWhatever and Ever Amen (Digitally Remastered)
2005LenDiary of the Madmen (in hidden track)
2007The FeelingRosé
2007Haruko MomoiHaruko Momoi
2007KlubkidzSeveral versions on one issue
(It has also been covered by the Violent Femmes, Pixies,The Offspring and Radiohead 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.

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 excerpted form) in the home version of Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA.
  • The song appears in the game .

Parodies

References

1. ^ The vocals are initially limited in bandwidth, giving a "telephone" effect typical of early broadcasts
2. ^ Dehnart, A. "Who really killed the video star?". Salon.com, 2000

See also

External links

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
In music, a single is a short recording of one or more separate tracks. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats.
  • Vinyl singles consist of one or more tracks on a traditional gramophone record.

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The Age Of Plastic
(1980) Adventures in Modern Recording
(1981)

The Age of Plastic (1980) was the first album released by synthpop group The Buggles, which consisted of Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes.
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2007 September >>
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
  1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30

September is the ninth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of four Gregorian months with 30 days.
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1940s  1950s  1960s  - 1970s -  1980s  1990s  2000s
1976 1977 1978 - 1979 - 1980 1981 1982

Also: 1979 by Smashing Pumpkins.

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gramophone record (also phonograph record, or simply record) is an analogue sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed modulated spiral groove starting near the periphery and ending near the center of the disc.
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A music genre is a term that describes the process of dividing popular music into categories. Some treat the terms genre and style as the same, and state that genre should be defined as pieces of music that share a certain style or "basic musical language.
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New Wave was a rock music and pop genre and movement that existed during the late 1970s and the early-to-mid 1980s. In those days, many music groups were inspired by punk rock and used elements of other genres, such as electronic music, reggae, and ska.
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In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. In everyday usage, a record label is also a company that manages such brands and trademarks; coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution,
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Island Records is a record label that was founded by British record producers in Jamaica. It was based in England for many years, but is now owned by Universal Music Group of the United States, and is operated through The Island Def Jam Music Group.
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A songwriter is someone who writes the lyrics to songs, the musical composition or melody to songs, or both. That is to say, a songwriter is a lyricist, a composer, or both.
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Geoffrey Downes (born August 25, 1952 in Stockport, Cheshire, England) is a rock keyboard player/songwriter/producer. He is best known as the keyboardist for the band Asia, the Buggles, and also his stint with Yes in 1980.
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Trevor Charles Horn (born 15 July 1949 in Durham, England) is an English pop music record producer, songwriter and musician. Horn has produced commercially successful songs and albums for numerous British and international artists.
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Bruce Woolley is a British performer/songwriter/producer. He initially worked with Trevor Horn and Geoffrey Downes as a writing team. Bruce Woolley co-wrote "Hand Held In Black and White" and "Mirror Mirror" for Dollar in 1982.[https://www.harryfox.com/public/songfile.
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In the music industry, a record producer (or music producer) has many roles, among them controlling the recording sessions, coaching and guiding the musicians, organizing and scheduling production budget and resources, and supervising the recording, mixing and mastering
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Trevor Charles Horn (born 15 July 1949 in Durham, England) is an English pop music record producer, songwriter and musician. Horn has produced commercially successful songs and albums for numerous British and international artists.
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__NOEDITSECTION__ A record chart, also known as a music chart, is a method of ranking music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of record charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40.
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UK Singles Chart is currently compiled by The Official UK Charts Company (OCC) on behalf of the British record industry. The chart week runs from Sunday to Saturday, with the chart being printed in Music Week magazine, and published online at Yahoo! Music UK (formerly Dotmusic)
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AUS or Aus can refer to the following items:
  • American University of Sharjah
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  • Lauri Aus (1970-2003), Estonian cyclist
  • Association of University Staff of New Zealand

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The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by a music enthusiast, David Kent from May 1974 through to 1998. After 1988, the Australian Recording Industry Association, who had been using the report under license for a
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Motto
Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno (Latin) (traditional)[1]
"One for all, all for one"
Anthem
"Swiss Psalm"
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Oricon (オリコン Orikon
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Motto
"In God We Trust"   (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum"   ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on airplay and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday; while the airplay
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B-side(s) Island
Released 1980
Genre New Wave
Length 3:44 (Music Video), 5:08
Label Island Records
Writer(s) Trevor Horn / Geoff Downes
Producer(s) The Buggles

The Buggles singles chronology
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New Wave was a rock music and pop genre and movement that existed during the late 1970s and the early-to-mid 1980s. In those days, many music groups were inspired by punk rock and used elements of other genres, such as electronic music, reggae, and ska.
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Buggles (the official version of the band name, used on their albums, singles, and publicity material, omits the prefix "The") were a New Wave band formed in 1977 consisting of Trevor Horn, born 1949 in Durham (bass guitar, guitar, percussion, and vocals), Geoff Downes, born 1952
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worldwide view.
Old-Time Radio (OTR) and the Golden Age of Radio refer to a period of radio programming lasting from the proliferation of radio broadcasting in the early 1920s until television's replacement of radio as the dominant home entertainment medium in
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Television (often abbreviated to TV, T.V., or more recently, tv; sometimes called telly, the tube, boob tube, or idiot box in British English) is a widely used telecommunication system for broadcasting and receiving moving pictures
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Trevor Charles Horn (born 15 July 1949 in Durham, England) is an English pop music record producer, songwriter and musician. Horn has produced commercially successful songs and albums for numerous British and international artists.
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