Released on Feb. 4, 1980 in the UK, The Age of Plastic heralded a period that no one knew was coming yet — the MTV era. In fact, more than a year would pass before this album’s breakout single, “Video Killed the Radio Star,” became the new music-video channel’s premiere clip at 12:01 a.m. August 1, 1981.
That definitively confirmed what the Buggles seemed to know all along: Technological advances were overtaking the music industry and, in a larger sense, reshaping the world. That was the message of
The Age of Plastic then, offered with a
synthy sheen of pop coolness by Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes, and it still resonates today.
“That was the whole essence of the song,” Geoff Downes tells us, in an exclusive Something Else! Sitdown. “It wasn’t specifically about video succeeding over radio. The song was about how technology was changing lives. In many ways, that was a very prophetic statement — when you look at the way that people receive music now. Technology is very much the medium now. The lyrics talk about machines writing music, and that’s actually happened, too. All things considered, it was a very prophetic song.”
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FROM A DIFFERENT ERA, BUT HERE IS YES CURRENTLY AVAILABLE AT GONZO
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