Video Killed The Radio Star by The Buggles

"Video Killed The Radio Star" by The Buggles (1979) OK, so the video didn't really kill the radio star -- FM stations certainly still exist. But this song, also the very first music video MTV played when the awful network debuted, was more of a warning than a prophecy. Travis Horn wrote the song after reading "The Sound-Sweep" a short story by J.G. Ballard about a world in which music no longer exists. In the story, a little mute boy is wandering around, vacuuming up stray sounds, when he befriends an opera singer (her occupation now obsolete) hiding in an abandoned recording studio. A world without music? That's the kind of tragedy that would really be murder.

LYRICS:

I heard you on the wireless back in fifty two
Lying awake intent at tuning in on you
If I was young it didn't _______ you coming through
Oh a oh

They took the credit for your second symphony
Rewritten by machine on new _________________
And now I understand the problems you can see
Oh a oh

I met your ______________
Oh a oh

What did you tell them?
Video killed the radio star
Video killed the radio star

Pictures came and broke your heart
Oh, a, a, a, oh

And now we meet in an abandoned _______________
We hear the playback and it seems so long ago
And you remember the jingles used to go
Oh-a oh

You were the first one
Oh-a oh

You were the last one

Video killed the radio star
Video killed the radio star
In my mind and in my car, we can't rewind we've gone to _______
Oh-a-aho oh
Oh-a-aho oh

Video killed the radio star
Video killed the radio star
In my mind and in my car, we can't rewind we've gone too ______

Pictures came and broke your_________
Put down the blame on VCR

Oh, you are a radio star
You are a radio star
Video killed the radio star