Tina Earles 'Video Killed The Radio Star'

The transition from the 1970's to the 1980's was dominated by new wave and synthpop music. These genres were characterized by synthesizers and keyboards, giving this transition a futuristic and science-fiction-like soundtrack. An iconic song of this era would be "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles. In addition to its ~ this song expresses a theme of older technology being overshadowed by newer, more advanced technology. Trevor Horn met Geoffrey Downes at an audition for Tina Charles’ backing band in 1976. While neither of them got the part, the two got along and kept up communications. In 1977 the two got together to form the group The Buggles with Downes on the keyboard and Horn on vocals. The duo worked on writing and recording …show more content…
During the 50's radio plays were very popular. Children would gather around the radio to listen to the latest radio programme the same way children today will gather around a smartphone to watch the latest YouTube vlog. The artists would have been at just the right age to have grown up listening to the radio as their main source of entertainment. This is confirmed by the lyrics of the first verse “I heard you on the wireless back in ‘52/ Lying awake intently tuning in on you/ If I was young it didn’t stop you coming through,” This line establishes the relationship between the narrator and the radio, as he uses imagery to depict his younger self eagerly waiting to listen to the radio. In the second verse radio is surpassed by newer, more advanced technology. “They took the credit for your second symphony/ Rewritten by machine on new technology/ And now I understand the problem you can see.” This line refers to how television took the radios area of expertise and combined it with imagery, making the radio more obsolete. The “problem” he mentions would be that because the radio is now obsolete, radio stations are no longer making as much money as they did before television arrived, leaving the industry unable to operate on the same level as they had before. The narrator also expresses grief that …show more content…
The intro begins with a soft, simple piano melody mixed with a base guitar with the male vocals tuning in after a bit. The music then starts adding more instruments to make the song more complex and ‘futuristic’ sounding, becoming characteristic of the new wave and synthpop genres. The tone of the music is upbeat and is similar to a commercial jingle. The male vocals are distorted as if we are listening to them through a radio. The accent and general tone of the vocals are vaguely reminiscent of an old time radio host. These vocals represent the old technology. In contrast to this, the female vocals are much crisper and clearer. They have much more energy behind their voices and more nasally, ‘modern’ accent. These vocals represent new technology. The synthpop and new wave genres were an ideal fit for this song and it’s theme, as they both focus on a synthetic, futuristic type sound. Covers have popped up over the years featuring many different genres, including a country version and an acapella version, but all fail to capture the theme and tone of the song as accurately as the original synthetic version. Although this song was written in the late 1970’s it projects a theme that is still relevant today, and will continue to be relevant as long as society exists: old technology will always be replaced by newer, more advanced technology. The case of radio being replaced by television