One of those pieces of trivia that everyone knows is that the first music video ever aired on MTV was The Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star,” a catchy piece of nerd synth-pop that’s become a shorthand way to identify the time period as “early ‘80s” in films and TV shows, even if the song itself was released in 1979. The video itself, an early effort from video director auteur Russell Mulcahy, is relatively unmemorable, consisting largely of repetitive images of singer Trevor Horn singing and playing guitar as Geoff Downes plays synthesizers in the type of completely white room that only exists in music videos and existentialist dream sequences. If it’s remembered at all, it’s for the appearance of backup singers Debi Doss and Linda Jardim as shinily-dressed space girls who appear mostly within a television set. The nostalgic lyrics are driven home by some TVs popping up via superimposed explosion over a pile of old radios.
“Video Killed the Radio Star,” wasn’t, however, the only Buggles video on MTV that day. Much later in the day, just before midnight of day two, MTV aired “Living in the Plastic Age,” also directed by Mulcahy, and a short that stands as a much more creative, bizarre piece of work.
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