This song will always be famous, for one reason - when MTV debuted in 1981, the VERY FIRST video they showed on air was this one. And yes, MTV predated VH1 by several years.
"Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll!" My friends and I couldn't wait for the debut! It was really awesome to witness what was going to become an epic moment in music and pop culture. It was equally sad to see what it evolved into! But, those of us who experienced it won't forget it!
On August 1, 1981, the Music Television Network aired its very first broadcast. It opens with footage of the Apollo 11 rocket launch and transitions to an astronaut planting an MTV flag on the moon. An announcement from MTV creator John Lack chimes in-“Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll”- Then THIS video played.
The guy with glasses is Trevor Horn he went on and produced for an array of music icons including ABC, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Grace Jones, Tom Jones, Barry Manilow, Paul McCartney, Pet Shop Boys, Rod Stewart, and Tina Turner. Another member of buggles was Hans Zimmer a German film score composer and music producer, who has composed music for over 100 films, including Hollywood blockbusters such as the Pirates of the Caribbean series, Gladiator, The Lion King, The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons and Sherlock Holmes. This was advertised as the first ever video.
Kasey Kasem was a famous "Radio Star" in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. He was the host of American Top 40 or AT40. A countdown of the top songs in America. That's show still exists today, Ryan Secreat has been the host for a while and they have had guest hosts too, I heard Megan Thee Stallion host one last year. At40 is a syndicated show meaning it would air on multiple station so lots of people heard Kasey. Of course I could name other radio stars but you would know them because FM radio is localized. Meaning famous people in my area who were on the radio would be unknown in your area unless they were known for something else or where in the news. Also Kasey Kasem was the Original voice for Shaggy from Scooby Doo
Dick Clark was never a radio star but his television show _American Bandstand_ helped to introduce audiences to the newest and hippest musical acts of the show’s times. Also gotta shout out all the late night variety show hosts, from Sullivan, Paar, Carson, Letterman and Leno to today’s emcees for having on all the most popular and a few more niche bands and artists over the decades, helping them to get over with audiences too.
I remember one of the test stations changed its pattern one day, my dad and brothers kept checking and eventually a countdown showed up, so we made sure we were watching and there it was, the MTV rocket, the riff, and this video, we were so confused 🤣 I was 12, my brothers were 10 and 7, alot of the first videos shown were aired on cable networks like showtime, HBO, in between movies to fill time slots out, and were made by record companies who would use live concert footage behind a radio popular song, to help promote bands to different promoters, basically a video and audio job resume to get the bands booked at venues for tours, these were played alot on mtv in the beginning until record companies began requiring bands to make videos and the rest is my teenager history 🎉😂❤
Fun Fact: This song is widely considered to have at least partly inspired Roger Taylor of Queen to write the similar-themed Queen hit "Radio Gaga", which came out about 4 or 5 years later. :D
In the UK they were showing music videos when artists couldn't appear on a show called Top Of The Pops. Not many artists made music videos until the 80s and when that was the case they had dancers come in and perform to the tracks. So this wasn't the first ever music video, but the first one to play on MTV.
MTV debuted August 1 1981 with this video... I watched it from day one! the cable station in my neighborhood was one of the test stations so I literally grew up on this. It was 2 months before my 11th bday.. my friends and I watched MTV all day every day after school and on the wknds.. kind of like how kids now have phones in their hands all day watching tiktok, we were glued to the tv to watch the video age come to life. prince madonna michael jackson duran duran were all big when I was 12 - 15 yrs old... such a great time to be a teen!
This song was originally recorded in 1979 by the Buggles, but was (as everyone else has already told you) the first song played on MTV 2 years later. It changed the way musical groups operated: now they had to look good on their music videos, and things like Michael Jackson's Thriller, with elaborate costumes and an actual director (as if it was a movie) became the thing you had to do. However, my favorite story along these lines goes much further back in time. Back in the 1950s (no I'm not this old, I only heard the story, born in '59 thank you) there was a radio serial, a drama that was recorded and broadcasted every week. There were a bunch of these; this one called "Gunsmoke" was one of the most popular. The star was a gravelly-voiced actor named William Conrad. He played Matt Dillon, a fictional Sheriff of Dodge City back in the Old West. Tough, fair, compassionate, quick with his gun if he needed to be but of course very honest etc. The character was of course tall and imposing. When the decision was made to move the show from radio to TV the first thing they had to do was jettison Conrad. Nice guy but he was only average height and...to be kind he was what we used to call "portly"...or to be less kind pretty fat. The actor they got instead (James Arness) probably wouldn't have had quite the appeal on radio, but he was well over 6' tall and imposing, and in pretty good shape. Being able to see someone and hear them, as opposed to just hearing them, changes the game a great deal...
Back in the day, people didn't care so much about what music artists looked like. The music is all that mattered. Then music videos and music television was born, and the focus shifted to looks and, for the most part, people had to be physically appealing or interesting. "Video Killed the Radio Star"
Casey Kasem and later Rick Dees had the Weekly Top 40. We listened each week to try and record our favorite songs on a cassette tape. Pray that we didn't miss it! LOL
Yes! There were radio shows before television - not just music. Variety shows, radio plays, comedy... Soap operas started out on radio. "Guiding Light" was a soap opera that started out on radio before television was available, moved to television, and was still on TV at least into the '80s. My mom used to watch it. George Burns and Gracie Allen were radio stars first, before they were on TV.
@Ok Sceez ...The Lead Singer is Trevor Horn who became a very famous Producer for bands like Frankie Goes To Hollywood with the song you reacted to already "RELAX" and also produced almost all of the Albums by SEAL ( Kiss From A Rose). He is a musical legend.
Yes radio stars were an actual thing. It's a really fascinating art form when you think about it, of course they were constrained by the medium of their time, and the technological limitations, but it's quite a feat to tell an entire gripping story just through audio. They would have a bunch of really interesting ways to organically and in real time create sound effects. No buttons on laptops just a dude or two with the crazy setup making the sounds of horse hooves, thunder, etc. As others have noted this song will always be historical because it was the first one played on MTV and I remember it vividly. It's also just a really cool song and the lead singer went on to become a producer of some note
This was the very first video on MTV and its funny how they thought this would replace the radio star. Videos actually helped increase radio play and record sales. This song was so catchy and well done. It's fun to look back at the creativity of the very early MTV videos. MTV was 24/7 music videos not like now where it's focused on reality shows.
By the time I see your reaction all the questions have been answered. Lol. So I just enjoy myself. 🙂 I won a VCR from a radio station years back. 🔥Now they are basically obsolete I guess.
Adding to the pile of trivia on this, the real lyric isn't "but the blame on VCR", it's actually "VTR" for "video tape recorder." The generic term for video cassettes (hence VCR) wasn't a thing until the mass adoption of home decks for VHS and Beta became mainstream. VRTs were the thing in professional video at the time Trevor wrote this song.
Every Sunday there was a radio show mystery theater we used are imagination to picture the scene,and its MTV that played first video which was this song
That video shift in bands caused a lot a nervous concern because groups suddenly thought they needed to reinvent themselves to cater to the visual aspect that MTV brought to the consumer and a lot of bands went down the drain trying to reinvent themselves. This particular era of music was also being dominated by DISCO during this time which to my chagrin was one of the worst things to happen to traditional rock and roll music. DISCO came from Europe and its basically a constant monotonous beat in the background made for the dancefloor to which bands tried to create their own version of DISCO music here in north America. Thank goodness Punk Rock took hold later on in the music industry and ended DISCO forever. Rock and Roll did come back for a while longer until it too died out. Sad because there has never been such a surge of incredible diversity and creativity of music like Rock and Roll bands. I get sad and melancholy and it breaks my heart whenever I hear this song because it spoke of a truth that really did happen but not quite in the way it predicted.
In similar concept of times changing... You should check out the video for Queen's "Radio Ga Ga" That song also has a future prediction and a young fan that makes it to stardom. 🤩
The video and the song are TRYING TO EXPLAIN that when the video industry appeared the radio singers if they were not beautiful, would be left aside by the beautiful singers on MTV.
OMG, thought - hoped - this would never see the light of day again - remember thinking as a teen it was cringingly crap then and it still is IMO lol. Glad it gave you a laugh. If you're into having a giggle for tunes and hilarious video, I recommend Vitas - 7th Element although strangely I actually love the song and the video - it's just so off the wall and random it never fails to make me laugh
Argh, you're just a hair off. Basically everything you thought of is right. From MTV bringing in a visual listening experience to the people that introduced a new, untapped form of entertainment that by (depending on the band) could be used to put a visual story w/ their song, or try some "brand new, top of the line computer generated 3D graphics that'll blow your mind" kinda thing. (Granted, lil me thought those 3D square blocks representing people WERE mind-blowing 😊) or just anything that was thought of that has never been done before to promote the band & music. So it wasn't necessarily the individual DJ/announcer like you were thinking but just the idea that everyone would just turn off their radio altogether just because WE WANT OUR MTV!!! Great pick & catch ya next vid 😊😊😮😮 Damn....I'm old😢😢😢
This song will always be famous, for one reason - when MTV debuted in 1981, the VERY FIRST video they showed on air was this one. And yes, MTV predated VH1 by several years.
I was one of those watching the countdown!
"Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll!" My friends and I couldn't wait for the debut! It was really awesome to witness what was going to become an epic moment in music and pop culture. It was equally sad to see what it evolved into! But, those of us who experienced it won't forget it!
MTV had this, and a bunch of Rod Stewart videos. Didn’t matter. Hours in front of the awesome tv set.
This song was the death of just music.
Thanks to the Buggles and MTV every great band/singer was forced to make music videos or get left behind.
On August 1, 1981, the Music Television Network aired its very first broadcast. It opens with footage of the Apollo 11 rocket launch and transitions to an astronaut planting an MTV flag on the moon. An announcement from MTV creator John Lack chimes in-“Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll”- Then THIS video played.
Reminds of when some silent movie era stars lost work due to accents, pitch, and tone of their voices when talkies came along.
Yes, as seen in Singing in the Rain, lol!
The guy with glasses is Trevor Horn he went on and produced for an array of music icons including ABC, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Grace Jones, Tom Jones, Barry Manilow, Paul McCartney, Pet Shop Boys, Rod Stewart, and Tina Turner.
Another member of buggles was Hans Zimmer a German film score composer and music producer, who has composed music for over 100 films, including Hollywood blockbusters such as the Pirates of the Caribbean series, Gladiator, The Lion King, The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons and Sherlock Holmes.
This was advertised as the first ever video.
Kasey Kasem was a famous "Radio Star" in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. He was the host of American Top 40 or AT40. A countdown of the top songs in America. That's show still exists today, Ryan Secreat has been the host for a while and they have had guest hosts too, I heard Megan Thee Stallion host one last year. At40 is a syndicated show meaning it would air on multiple station so lots of people heard Kasey. Of course I could name other radio stars but you would know them because FM radio is localized. Meaning famous people in my area who were on the radio would be unknown in your area unless they were known for something else or where in the news. Also Kasey Kasem was the Original voice for Shaggy from Scooby Doo
Oh man.....I miss listening to Kasey Kasem so much!!!
Dick Clark was never a radio star but his television show _American Bandstand_ helped to introduce audiences to the newest and hippest musical acts of the show’s times. Also gotta shout out all the late night variety show hosts, from Sullivan, Paar, Carson, Letterman and Leno to today’s emcees for having on all the most popular and a few more niche bands and artists over the decades, helping them to get over with audiences too.
4:24 A closeup look of that little girl looking up while feeling in shock is so adorable ❤
I remember one of the test stations changed its pattern one day, my dad and brothers kept checking and eventually a countdown showed up, so we made sure we were watching and there it was, the MTV rocket, the riff, and this video, we were so confused 🤣 I was 12, my brothers were 10 and 7, alot of the first videos shown were aired on cable networks like showtime, HBO, in between movies to fill time slots out, and were made by record companies who would use live concert footage behind a radio popular song, to help promote bands to different promoters, basically a video and audio job resume to get the bands booked at venues for tours, these were played alot on mtv in the beginning until record companies began requiring bands to make videos and the rest is my teenager history 🎉😂❤
Fun Fact: This song is widely considered to have at least partly inspired Roger Taylor of Queen to write the similar-themed Queen hit "Radio Gaga", which came out about 4 or 5 years later. :D
I love that song 😂
In the UK they were showing music videos when artists couldn't appear on a show called Top Of The Pops. Not many artists made music videos until the 80s and when that was the case they had dancers come in and perform to the tracks. So this wasn't the first ever music video, but the first one to play on MTV.
MTV debuted August 1 1981 with this video... I watched it from day one! the cable station in my neighborhood was one of the test stations so I literally grew up on this. It was 2 months before my 11th bday.. my friends and I watched MTV all day every day after school and on the wknds.. kind of like how kids now have phones in their hands all day watching tiktok, we were glued to the tv to watch the video age come to life. prince madonna michael jackson duran duran were all big when I was 12 - 15 yrs old... such a great time to be a teen!
This song was originally recorded in 1979 by the Buggles, but was (as everyone else has already told you) the first song played on MTV 2 years later. It changed the way musical groups operated: now they had to look good on their music videos, and things like Michael Jackson's Thriller, with elaborate costumes and an actual director (as if it was a movie) became the thing you had to do. However, my favorite story along these lines goes much further back in time.
Back in the 1950s (no I'm not this old, I only heard the story, born in '59 thank you) there was a radio serial, a drama that was recorded and broadcasted every week. There were a bunch of these; this one called "Gunsmoke" was one of the most popular. The star was a gravelly-voiced actor named William Conrad. He played Matt Dillon, a fictional Sheriff of Dodge City back in the Old West. Tough, fair, compassionate, quick with his gun if he needed to be but of course very honest etc. The character was of course tall and imposing. When the decision was made to move the show from radio to TV the first thing they had to do was jettison Conrad. Nice guy but he was only average height and...to be kind he was what we used to call "portly"...or to be less kind pretty fat. The actor they got instead (James Arness) probably wouldn't have had quite the appeal on radio, but he was well over 6' tall and imposing, and in pretty good shape.
Being able to see someone and hear them, as opposed to just hearing them, changes the game a great deal...
Back in the day, people didn't care so much about what music artists looked like. The music is all that mattered. Then music videos and music television was born, and the focus shifted to looks and, for the most part, people had to be physically appealing or interesting. "Video Killed the Radio Star"
That's how I've thought about this song. BTW. I was watching😊
Ironically this was the first music video played on MTV. The classic flip picture design called Kinetogragh was how movies were done.
There were music video shows that would play late on Friday night, but MTV was the first network dedicated to music videos.
Loved it, when it came out and still do love it decades later ! 🎉
Casey Kasem and later Rick Dees had the Weekly Top 40. We listened each week to try and record our favorite songs on a cassette tape. Pray that we didn't miss it! LOL
Yesss🙌🙌🙌
Yes! There were radio shows before television - not just music. Variety shows, radio plays, comedy... Soap operas started out on radio. "Guiding Light" was a soap opera that started out on radio before television was available, moved to television, and was still on TV at least into the '80s. My mom used to watch it.
George Burns and Gracie Allen were radio stars first, before they were on TV.
@Ok Sceez ...The Lead Singer is Trevor Horn who became a very famous Producer for bands like Frankie Goes To Hollywood with the song you reacted to already "RELAX" and also produced almost all of the Albums by SEAL ( Kiss From A Rose). He is a musical legend.
Yes radio stars were an actual thing. It's a really fascinating art form when you think about it, of course they were constrained by the medium of their time, and the technological limitations, but it's quite a feat to tell an entire gripping story just through audio. They would have a bunch of really interesting ways to organically and in real time create sound effects. No buttons on laptops just a dude or two with the crazy setup making the sounds of horse hooves, thunder, etc.
As others have noted this song will always be historical because it was the first one played on MTV and I remember it vividly. It's also just a really cool song and the lead singer went on to become a producer of some note
One of the first videos on mtv!!!!
Thats it Sceez, you're on it!
Wolfman Jack
song's catchy as fock! ♥
This was the very first video on MTV and its funny how they thought this would replace the radio star. Videos actually helped increase radio play and record sales. This song was so catchy and well done. It's fun to look back at the creativity of the very early MTV videos. MTV was 24/7 music videos not like now where it's focused on reality shows.
By the time I see your reaction all the questions have been answered. Lol. So I just enjoy myself. 🙂 I won a VCR from a radio station years back. 🔥Now they are basically obsolete I guess.
This was the first song played on MTV in 1981
Wolfman Jack was a big radio star , he's also the guy that made the midnight special
I am appreciating your new knowledge
MTV came out first in 1981 and MuchMusic came out in 1984.
Nicki Minaj sampled this, that’s where you’ve heard it 😁
The radio stars died out, just like 'talking pictures' killed the 'silent movie stars'
In my opinion, the Sonny and Cher shiw would act out their songs in skits. I believe this to be among the origins of the music video we know today.
Adding to the pile of trivia on this, the real lyric isn't "but the blame on VCR", it's actually "VTR" for "video tape recorder." The generic term for video cassettes (hence VCR) wasn't a thing until the mass adoption of home decks for VHS and Beta became mainstream. VRTs were the thing in professional video at the time Trevor wrote this song.
Every Sunday there was a radio show mystery theater we used are imagination to picture the scene,and its MTV that played first video which was this song
I guess the invention of television was important, lol!
That video shift in bands caused a lot a nervous concern because groups suddenly thought they needed to reinvent themselves to cater to the visual aspect that MTV brought to the consumer and a lot of bands went down the drain trying to reinvent themselves. This particular era of music was also being dominated by DISCO during this time which to my chagrin was one of the worst things to happen to traditional rock and roll music. DISCO came from Europe and its basically a constant monotonous beat in the background made for the dancefloor to which bands tried to create their own version of DISCO music here in north America. Thank goodness Punk Rock took hold later on in the music industry and ended DISCO forever. Rock and Roll did come back for a while longer until it too died out. Sad because there has never been such a surge of incredible diversity and creativity of music like Rock and Roll bands. I get sad and melancholy and it breaks my heart whenever I hear this song because it spoke of a truth that really did happen but not quite in the way it predicted.
Kasey Kasem... Doctor Demento,,, Wolfman Jack... Jean Shepard
It was an oldie & enjoyed it, especially at the disco, those were the days!! Obviously you've missed out a lot!! But happy to know you like it!! xx
In similar concept of times changing... You should check out the video for Queen's "Radio Ga Ga" That song also has a future prediction and a young fan that makes it to stardom. 🤩
My favorite radio star was the Lone Ranger and Tonto.😊
…and internet killed television 😂😂😂
" Is that a radio? I thought that thing was a washing machine at first!"
~Big Sceez
**MTV**
😳_🤣😂>😜🤘
VH1 is owned by MTV
Mtv and this was the fitst song played.
The video and the song are TRYING TO EXPLAIN that when the video industry appeared the radio singers if they were not beautiful, would be left aside by the beautiful singers on MTV.
OMG, thought - hoped - this would never see the light of day again - remember thinking as a teen it was cringingly crap then and it still is IMO lol. Glad it gave you a laugh. If you're into having a giggle for tunes and hilarious video, I recommend Vitas - 7th Element although strangely I actually love the song and the video - it's just so off the wall and random it never fails to make me laugh
MTV was first …. …. Should do Dire Straits ….. I want my MTV! We had to get it on satellite …. That’s before they scrambled the signals
Sceez you got to react to 50 cent on everything it's his hardest song and nobody had reacted to it
Argh, you're just a hair off. Basically everything you thought of is right. From MTV bringing in a visual listening experience to the people that introduced a new, untapped form of entertainment that by (depending on the band) could be used to put a visual story w/ their song, or try some "brand new, top of the line computer generated 3D graphics that'll blow your mind" kinda thing. (Granted, lil me thought those 3D square blocks representing people WERE mind-blowing 😊) or just anything that was thought of that has never been done before to promote the band & music. So it wasn't necessarily the individual DJ/announcer like you were thinking but just the idea that everyone would just turn off their radio altogether just because WE WANT OUR MTV!!! Great pick & catch ya next vid 😊😊😮😮 Damn....I'm old😢😢😢
You evidentially do not have a clue what this song is about.