Song written by Trevor Horn, Geoff Downes and Bruce Woolley. It was first recorded by Bruce Woolley and The Camera Club (with Thomas Dolby on keyboards) for their album ‘English Garden’, and later by British group the Buggles, consisting of Horn and Downes. The track was recorded and mixed in 1979, released as their debut single on 7 September 1979, and included on their first album ‘The Age of Plastic’. The song’s theme was promotion of technology while worrying about its effects. This song relates to concerns about mixed attitudes towards 20th-century inventions and machines for the media arts.
Commercially, ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’ was also a success. The track topped sixteen international music charts, including the UK singles charts.
The song’s music video was written, directed, and edited by Russell Mulcahy, and is well-remembered as the first music video shown on MTV in the United States at 12:01 AM on 1 August 1981, and the first video shown on MTV Classic in the United Kingdom on 1 March 2010.
The song’s intro was performed by Ricky Wilde and included at the beginning and end of the album version and 12″ remix of Kim Wilde’s 2018 single Pop Don’t Stop.