Looking at Music Videos: The Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star

"Video Killed the Radio Star" is a song by the British synthpop/New Wave group The Buggles, released on the 7 September 1979 on Island Records. It celebrates the golden days of radio, describing a singer whose career is cut short by television. The song topped several music charts and has been covered by many recording artists. It was the first music video shown on MTV in North America at 12:01am on August 1, 1981 and has been widely parodied in popular media.


From first glance, the video is in keeping with The Buggles’ pop, techno genre. There are neon lights, techno glasses, and very much a depiction of what people thought people would dress and look like in the future. The futuristic theme is carried on through-out the video, focusing on the loss of the ‘golden age’ of radio to the much more colourful TV scene.


The two backing singers in the video are representative of the dying radio scene and the flourishing television craze. The one on the left, a plainer, dressed down woman, represents radio. While the brightly coloured, ‘sexier’ woman represents television. At the end of every line the singers sing, the radio singer lowers her head, suggesting the death of radio. During this, the television singer carries on dancing, suggesting she is the livelier, better version of the two.

In this scene especially, the radio singer is shown to be inactive, while the television singer is shown to be a little in front of her opponent, and, especially taller.


The stance between the two back up singers show hostility, during this and another scene, the two are scene facing each other, as if trying to out sing, out perform each other.



During the song, the camera focuses strictly on the radio singer, while the lyrics ‘Oh radio star, Oh radio star’ are sung. The radio singer then turns to the television singer and the camera pans out, accusingly, the lyrics ‘Video killed the radio star’ are sang repeatedly, the television singer remains unfazed and entirely glamorous.

At the end of the song, the television singer is the only singer to be facing the camera, aware of her victory. She is shown to be happy, the focus is kept on her as the camera zooms out and pans away.

The setting of the video is simple, on a stage with two microphones and three singers. Below the stage is the keyboard player in the band. There is a crowd formed around the stage, but none of them are looking at the main singer or backing vocalists. This suggests the crowd are unaware to the changes the song is about, and unaware of the mini-feud between the singers on stage. The lead singer is present in most of the scenes, although he never moves except to sing, and although the focus is kept on him a lot of the time, the scene forming behind him is obvious to the audience as more important.