Saturday, October 11, 2008

Rewritten By Machines On New Technology
I've tended toward videos that had some personal resonance for me or that I thought had some intrinsic importance. It struck me (as my iPod was shuffling along) that I've neglected perhaps the seminal video of the whole genre: The Buggles's "Video Killed The Radio Star." 197freaking9. And the first viddy played on MTV two years later. Here is the Wikipedia page on the band for lots more information that you'd ever need or want. Yet there is a kind of perverse comfort in its being there. (A note on sources: Wikipedia is not to be trusted on anything of substance as it's run by left-wing ass-wipes. But when it comes to pop culture, the Wiki is very good at accumulating details. So I will definitely use it when it comes to things like this.)
I see that the band actually preferred their name without using the definite article but I don't care. PoW uses its own style book.
There's no question of the dated look of the viddy. The rippling plastic sheet under the fake moon light source to simulate water. The over-exposed black and white. The silly glasses. The whole woman-in-a-tube thing. But the music still holds up. It's pure pop. It's got more hooks than a charter fishing boat. And, at a very basic level, I totally dig the song. I hope you do too.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Check out the remake by Presidents of the United States of America....