This demo became the blueprint for the final record, and helped the group get signed to Island Records to record and release their debut album The Age of Plastic, as well as producing and writing for the label, after Downes' girlfriend, who worked for Island, managed to get it played to executives there. A later, more detailed demo of the song, featuring Horn's then-girlfriend Tina Charles on vocals, was recorded at Camden's Soundsuite Studios, and engineered by studio owner Peter Rackham. It is one of the three Buggles songs on which Woolley assisted in writing, the two others being ' Clean, Clean' and ' On TV'. The piece was built up from a chorus riff developed by Woolley. They recorded the first demo of 'Video Killed the Radio Star' on a Revox A77 tape recorder, one afternoon in 1978, in Downes' apartment located above a monumental stonemason's in Wimbledon Park, London. The Buggles, which formed in 1977, first consisted of Trevor Horn, Geoff Downes and Bruce Woolley. It has also been covered by many recording artists.

The song has received several critical accolades, such as being ranked number 40 on VH1's '100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders of the '80s'. on 1 August 1981, and the first video shown on MTV Classic in the UK on 1 March 2010. It was the first music video shown on MTV in the US, airing at 12:01 a.m. The accompanying music video was written, directed, and edited by Russell Mulcahy. It also peaked in the top 10 in Canada, Germany, New Zealand and South Africa, but only reached number 40 in the US. On release, the single topped sixteen international music charts, including those in the UK, Australia, and Japan. Although the song includes several common pop characteristics and six basic chords are used in its structure, Downes and writer Timothy Warner described the piece as musically complicated, due to its use of suspended and minor ninth chords for enhancement that gave the song a 'slightly different feel.' The track has been positively received, with reviewers praising its unusual musical pop elements. Musically, the song performs like an extended jingle and the composition plays in the key of D-flat major in common time at a tempo of 132 beats per minute. The song relates to concerns about, and mixed attitudes toward 20th-century inventions and machines for the media arts. The backing track was recorded at Virgin's Town House in West London, and mixing and vocal recording was done at Sarm East Studios. The Buggles' version of the track was recorded and mixed in 1979, released as their debut single on 7 September 1979 by Island Records, and included on their first album The Age of Plastic. It was recorded concurrently by Bruce Woolley and the Camera Club (with Thomas Dolby on keyboards) for their album English Garden and by British new wave/synth-pop group the Buggles, which consisted of Horn and Downes (and initially Woolley). ' Video Killed the Radio Star' is a song written by Trevor Horn, Geoff Downes and Bruce Woolley in 1979.

Entropy lyrics