"Video Killed The Radio Star" - The Buggles, 1979 (new wave)

I heard you on my wireless back in '52
Lying awake intent on tuning in on you
If I was young it didn't stop you coming through
Oh oh
They took the credit for your second symphony
Rewritten by machine on new technology
And now I understand the supernova scene
Oh oh
I met the children
Oh oh
What did you tell them

Video killed the radio star
In my mind and in my car
We can't rewind we've gone too far

And now we meet in an abandoned studio
You hear the playback and it seems so long ago
And you remember the jingles used to go
Oh oh
You were the first on
Oh oh
You were the last one

Video killed the radio star
In my mind and in my car
We can't rewind we've gone too far
Too far!
Alright

Video killed the radio star
It's my mind and in my car
We can't rewind we've gone too far
Pictures came and broke your heart
So put all the blame on vcr

You are radio star
Video killed the radio star
Yes video killed that radio star, yes it did

Exactly! A blog about history within music and finally we have a song whose sole purpose what just that - remember. "Video" is all about the coming to a close of the golden age of radio. The song is about a character whose musical career is cut short by the video age. Buggles band member Trevor Horn was inspired to write this song after reading the short story "The Sound-Sweep" by JG Ballard.

The main character in the story is a mute boy who lives in a world that has no music. His job is to vacuum up any stray music he finds. While he is sweeping, he discovers and opera singer hiding in the sewer; the singer has been rendered obsolete. The entire theme of the story (and this song) is nostalgia - the passing from one era to the next. What is often missed about this song's concept is that it really doesn't have a lot to do with music, outside of a few references. Music wasn't actually the chief programming format during the radio days.

By the early 1920s, radio broadcasting was prolific and was the chief form of home entertainment until the 1960s. During this era, families would gather around their radios much like we gather around our television sets today to enjoy stories of drama, comedy, suspense, romance, and adventure cast by radio actors the same way our movies, reality TV, sitcoms, and news broadcasts are presented today. By 1947, a Hoover survey reported that 82 out of 100 surveyed were avid radio listeners. People all had their favorite shows, plus the Armed Forces Radio Network did a tremendous job broadcasting US radio programs overseas to fighting men and women everywhere.

But by the 1960s, technology had grown from the characteristic live broadcasts of the radio stations to electric transcription discs, magnitic wire recordings, reel-to-reels, eventually progressing to an entirely new medium...a medium we could actually see with our own eyes - Television.

As early as the late '40s, television sets were slowly replacing the radio as the family's first choice of entertainment. However, there was very little to actually view, so viewers would again schedule their entertainment agendas around the tv station programming schedule. But the trend was growing. This not only effected how people would take in the programming, but it also changed the programming itself. Radio shows were built around character actors who could simply just read well and be interesting. Acting on radio consisted of a microphone, a script, and a sound-effects guy. There was no need for props or wardrobe or even real acting skills outside of one's own interesting voice and interpretation of the written word. However, when television made its way onto the scene, now the audience was having to view the actors. Now the actors had to portray, from head to toe, a convincing character. There was no more room for the "creative reader". The screen required a total package.

This song actually does play a small, poetically odd part in the drama between radio and television. "Video Killed the Radio Star" was the very first music video to air on MTV, and as we know, the music television industry would soon become an indispensible staple in the music entertainment industry. Unlike the opera singer in the short story, radio never did become obsolete. It found a niche in broadcasting that didn't require its listeners to imagine charcters. It found its purpose in broadcasting music and news, just as it had always done, only now it did so exclusively. Yet, with the dawning of the age of music videos, it would appear that now even music sounds and looks better after one's seen the video that goes with the song.

"Video Killed The Radio Star" - The Buggles, 1979

(complied from various technological places...like the www)