"Video Killed the Radio Star" is a song written by Trevor Horn, Geoff Downes and Bruce Woolley in 1979.

On release, the Buggles single topped sixteen international music charts, including those in the UK, Australia, and Japan.

[3] Horn has said that J. G. Ballard's short story "The Sound-Sweep", in which the title character—a mute boy vacuuming up stray music in a world without it—comes upon an opera singer hiding in a sewer, provided inspiration for "Video", and he felt "an era was about to pass.

"[6] In a 2018 interview Horn stated: "I'd read JG Ballard and had this vision of the future where record companies would have computers in the basement and manufacture artists.

[11] According to Horn, the band initially struggled to come up with a line to follow the song's opening ("I heard you on the wireless back in '52"): he eventually came up with "Lying awake intent at tuning in on you", inspired by memories of listening to Radio Luxembourg at night as a child.

[15] According to Geoff Downes, "It's actually a lot more complicated piece of music than people think, for instance part of the bridge is actually suspended chords and minor 9ths.

"[5] Writing in his book, Pop Music: Technology and Creativity: Trevor Horn and the Digital Revolution, Timothy Warner said that the "relatively quiet introduction" helped the listener detect a high amount of "tape hiss" generated through the use of analog multi-track tape recorders, as well as the timbre of the synthesized instruments, give an indication of the technical process and time of producing the song.

[7] "Video" was the first track recorded for the group's debut LP, The Age of Plastic, which cost a sum of £60,000 (equivalent to £434,785 in 2023) to produce,[19] and the song was mixed by Gary Langan four or five times.

[21] When Langan was interviewed in December 2011, he believed the male vocal was recorded through either a dynamic Shure SM57, SM58, Sennheiser MD 421, or STC 4038 ribbon microphone, and that four or five takes had to be done.

[7] The male voice echoes the song's theme in the tone of the music, initially limited in bandwidth to give a "telephone" effect typical of early broadcasts, and uses a Mid-Atlantic accent resembling that of British singers in the 1950s and '60s.

[21] The Vox AC30 amplifier was used to achieve the telephone effect, and Gary Langan says he was trying to make it "loud without cutting your head off".

[7] "Video Killed the Radio Star" was a huge commercial success, reaching number one on 16 national charts.

[22] The song made its debut on the UK Singles Chart in the top 40 at number 24, on the issue dated 29 September 1979.

[22] In 2022, the single was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for UK sales and streams of 600,000 units.

[1] In Australia, "Video Killed the Radio Star" reached number one, and for 27 years it held the country's record for best-selling single.

[26] The song also made a number-one peak in France and Spain,[27][28] where it was certified gold and platinum, respectively, as well as Austria,[29] Ireland,[30] Sweden[31] and Switzerland.

[38][39] In a 2015 list from Billboard, it tied with Marvin Gaye's recording of "The End of Our Road" as the "Biggest Hot 100 Hit" at the peak of number 40.

[50] These unusual pop music characteristics include the timbres of the male and female vocal parts, and the use of suspended fourth and ninths chords for enhancement in its progression.

In 2024, Billboard recognized "Video Killed the Radio Star" as one of the 100 greatest songs about the music industry, ranking it at number one.

A black-and-white shot of Trevor Horn singing into an early radio-era microphone is superimposed over the young girl by the radio.

The radio explodes by the time of the first chorus, then in the second verse, the girl is seen transported into the future, where she meets Horn and a silver-jumpsuited woman in a clear plastic tube.

[57] Hans Zimmer can be briefly seen wearing black playing a keyboard,[59] and Debi Doss and Linda Jardim-Allen, who provided the female vocals for the song, are also seen.

[60] The music video was first released in 1979,[61] when it was originally broadcast on the BBC's Top of the Pops for promotion of the single, in lieu of doing live performances.

[4] Zimmer recalled in 2001 that the video drew criticism from some viewers who watched it before it aired on MTV, due to being "'too violent' because we blew up a television.

[107] The Presidents of the United States of America recorded a cover of the song which appeared on the soundtrack of the 1998 film The Wedding Singer starring Adam Sandler.

Tina Charles appears on a YouTube video singing "Slave to the Rhythm" with the Producers[110] and Horn reveals that Charles was the singer and originator of the "Oh Ah-Oh Ah-Oh" part of the song; fellow 5000 Volt member Martin Jay was also a session musician on The Buggles record.

[111] Robbie Williams performed the song with Trevor Horn at the BBC Electric Proms on 20 October 2009.