Music and television changed forever in 1981, when MTV began by playing their first music
video, "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles. This is what it was really like to
be the first music video on MTV.
By the mid-1970s, work-for-hire English bassist Trevor Horn had moved into production and
opened a studio. He was tasked with putting together a touring band for his girlfriend
at the time, pop singer Tina Charles. Keyboardist Geoff Downes auditioned, and they hit it off
so well that he and Horn decided to form a band, bringing in guitarist Bruce Woolley.
The three started jamming and writing music together; the third song they composed was
"Video Killed the Radio Star."
Woolley soon dropped out though to pursue a solo career, so Horn and Downes continued
as a duo. Horn told The Guardian
"[I] had this vision of the future where record companies would have computers in the basement
and manufacture artists."
With that in mind, they decided to style themselves as, quote, "robot Beatles," and thus The Buggles
were born.
It took a while for The Buggles to finally get a record deal and release "Video Killed
the Radio Star," and the delay nearly derailed them, as their own cohort Bruce Woolley ended
up recording his own version and rushing it to stores before the Buggles could get their
single out.
Luckily for The Buggles, though, Woolley's version failed to make an impact. The Buggles'
attempt to get a record deal also paid unexpected dividends, as Horn ended up marrying Jill
Sinclair, one of the executives who tried to sign the band. Eventually they got a deal,
but it still took three long months of work in the studio to perfect "Video Killed the
Radio Star" before it was finally released 1979.
It was worth the effort. In September 1979, "Video Killed the Radio Star" spent a week
at #1 on the singles chart in the Buggles' native United Kingdom, boosted by an appearance
on the show Top of the Pops. Then the song hit big all around the world — "Video Killed
the Radio Star" topped the localized pop chart in Ireland, Italy, Switzerland, France, Sweden,
and Austria. It arguably did the best in Australia, where it not only hit #1 on the hit parade
but remained the most successful single in the country for nearly three decades.
About the only place it wasn't a bankable hit was the United States, where it only reached
#40 on the charts. But "Video Killed the Radio Star" would get a second chance thanks to,
appropriately enough, video itself.
Though The Buggles lip synched their hit on Top of the Pops, it wasn't their favorite
thing to do, which is why the new idea of making a music video rather than performing
live appealed so much to the group. Downes later told People,
"We were not a live band. We were studio boys."
So they decided to go all out with a shoot that cost a staggering amount for the time
- $50,000 at a point where most music videos were just basic shots of the band singing.
The Buggles, though, featured special effects, elaborate costumes, and even a cameo by future
Oscar-nominated composer Hans Zimmer.
One of the handful of pre-existing music videos MTV had in its possession when it began broadcasting
in 1981 was the one for the "Video Killed the Radio Star." In retrospect, it seems like
the obvious choice to kick off the channel, but program director Steve Casey said he had
to fight for it. In the tell-all book I Want My MTV, he said,
"Nobody wanted to launch with 'Video Killed the Radio Star. They thought we had to play
a hit. I said, 'Nobody's going to be watching. It's symbolic.'"
Casey's argument prevailed, and MTV brass slated the video to be the first one it played.
MTV co-founder Bob Pittman said,
"It was too obvious not to do it. We didn't expect to be competitive with radio, but it
was certainly a sea-change kind of video."
Despite how famous "Video Killed the Radio Star" is now for being the first MTV music
video, being featured on MTV didn't really help the band much. By the time MTV debuted
in 1981, the single was two years old and had long since dropped off the charts.
The boost wasn't enough to return it to the charts. And whatever bump it may have provided
didn't seem to help sales on their next album either. Adventures in Modern Recording was
released in November, 1981, just three months after MTV began broadcasting, but it only
managed to reach number 161 on the American Billboard charts.
One likely reason was a lack of support from the band itself, because by this point there
actually was no band. Horn and Downes both joined the band Yes in 1981 for a single year;
by 1982, Horn had become a full time producer, and Downes was busy founding the supergroup
Asia. The Buggles disappeared as quickly as they arrived.
Though they only had one hit that wasn't even a hit in the U.S., The Buggles and "Video
Killed the Radio Star" continue to have a long legacy, thanks in part to the song's
association with MTV. On February 26, 2000, the channel celebrated a million videos with
a special broadcast - the millionth video being, of course, "Video Killed the Radio
Star.
That clip is so associated with big MTV moments that other channels have adopted the tradition.
When millennial-targeted cable network Pivot launched on August 1, 2013, (exactly 32 years
to the day after MTV's debut), it did so with an airing of "Video Killed the Radio Star."
And when MTV Philippines went off the air in 2010, it faded away with "Video Killed
the Radio Star."
Since then the song has received a second, less savory life as a popular TikTok meme,
making it clear that The Buggles are going to keep killing it forever - something that's
fine with Horn.
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