Video Killed the Radio Star - on repeat
As someone of a certain pop culture vintage, it’s incredible to think that it was a whole forty five years AND one month ago today, that MTV (Music Television) began transmission in the ‘States. The initial Tx date was 1st August 1981.
Famously, the first song played on the station was The Buggles’ “Video Killed The Radio Star”; aptly chosen as the anthem to usher in a new era of visual entertainment where fans could feast their eyes as well as their ears.
The man responsible for the song, producer-musician Trevor Horn is a name etched deeply into the memory banks of Eighties music lovers. His signature production for Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Sheffield’s ABC are just two examples where he became as vital to the band’s sound as any of their on-stage personnel. The roll call goes on and on, but other notable alumni of Trevor Horn’s midas touch include Grace Jones, The Pet Shop Boys, Dollar, The Art of Noise, Seal and controversially, rock giants Yes.
It was back in 1977 when Horn, then a vocalist and bassist for hire kept crossing paths with fellow session musician Geoff Downes, and the two were inspired to form a band. This was initially with Bruce Woolley as third member before he left two years later to pursue his own project, The Camera Club which also boasted keyboard maven Thomas Dolby. In the eye of the storm where new wave, synth pop and progressive pop were emerging all at once, The Buggles were born.
A mere two years later, after forming the band, The Buggles had shrunk from three-piece to duo and then quickly back to three again with the addition of the man we now know as a soundtrack maestro, Hans Zimmer. “He had his own Prophet Five”, Horn recalls of Zimmer’s synth gear.
The Buggles released their debut single on 7th September 1979, which was also to be the lead-off from their forthcoming album. “The Age of Plastic” would be released a few months later in January 1980.
“Video Killed The Radio Star” became a number one hit in sixteen countries, and Horn’s first huge hit, selling five million copies worldwide and topping sixteen international record charts.
I can remember hearing the song appear on radio playlists at the time of release, and how different it sounded to anything else around. Listening back even now still fills me with the same thrill: Sumptuously multi-layered futuristic synths and drums juxtaposed with both plaintive and joyous bubblegum pop aural echoes of the past.
As a child who grew up listening to a solid diet of BBC’s Radio Two in the ‘Seventies, when DJs still talked about the golden era of radio as if it was yesterday, I could just about relate to the nostalgia element evoked. Add in the melancholic lyric around dying genres that meant so much and the march towards progress at all costs despite what might be lost in the mix - pun intended - and the song takes on a dual role of cultural observer and catalyst.
The Buggles’ own concept as band was that they were supposedly created by “a record company by computers in a basement”, as explained by Horn in his autobiography, “Adventures in Modern Recording”.
He goes on to explain that the name was also meant to be a word play on The Beatles, and further clues to their self-cultivated myth came as a deep love of music nostalgia hinted by the intro line, “I heard you on the wireless back in Fifty-Two”. Add that to a mic effect to replicate old AM radio audio evokes a golden era of British Radio comedies from the nineteen fifties alongside a burgeoning hopeful view of early sci-fi. A time when everyone thought we’d all be wearing jetpacks and tin foil trousers in a few years. Part of the song’s magic is how it manages to capture both the past and the future with impressions of happy memories whilst pondering on how the world would change in some hitherto unknown futuristic landscape.
It’s said that Horn and Downes didn’t really push their performing career that hard as they found their bliss more in production rather than on-stage. However, this was partly due to the influence of the formidable producer Jill Sinclair, who soon became Horn’s producer wife. She astutely declared him less of a front man, and instead as a gifted producer who went on to define the decade.
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The concept for MTV went from strength to strength for years - until it didn’t. In a world that had moved on from the sensory delights of music video wallpaper, even zeitgeist developments into reality TV and off-shoot channels representing various sub-genres and music decades weren’t enough to keep audiences engaged. Especially in the age of individualised on-demand viewing online.
The Music Television empire encompassed many facets to cater for changing tastes including MTV Music, MTV 80s, MTV 90s, Club MTV, MTV Base, MTV Classic, MTV Dance, MTV Hits, MTV Rocks and MTV Live.
The killer blow came a year ago in August 2025, when parent company Paramount Networks UK decided to close five of the MTV-branded channels. A merger with Skydance Media two months later only served to ring the death knell for all the channels as part of the company’s restructure. Sting may not have liked the news, but it was time to turn off the MTV.
In a poetic closing of the circle, the last music video to play out on MTV Music in the UK was again, “Video Killed The Radio Star”. The haunting chorus of “You are a video star” echoed away to a final fade for its last time on MTV on 31st December 2025.
Put the blame on VOD.