I randomly will think of the song, "Video Killed the Radio Star," on occasion. This isn't a, "Music Monday," post because while I think of the song it is quite old and I'm going to talk more about what it represents as a metaphor. It is a great song by The Buggles, however, and there is a fantastic cover of it by The Presidents of the United States of America (the band, not literal Presidents). It was one of the first songs to get a music video, interestingly enough, being the first ever music video aired on MTV. Seriously, at 12:01 AM on August 1st, 1981, it appeared as MTV launched with music television (I will spare you a joke about how MTV dropped music videos long ago, as everyone tells those). The song is arguably about how the rise of television/video has made the traditional radio celebrity obsolete. It is fitting that such a song kicked off MTV and even though the idea of, "Video," is outdated, it still stands as a metaphor.
Video killed the radio star. Internet killed video star. Social Media apps killed the Internet celebrity. It keeps moving along with the new generation latching onto something popular that the older generations decry as rotting their brains. "Stop listening to that radio and do something productive! Stop watching that television/VCR! Get off the internet websites or chatroom! Stay away from Youtube or Facebook! Quit using TikTok! It keeps moving along with many thinking their old way was better and this new technology is wretched and destroying the good old ways. How dare you youth watch T.V. and wreck your eyes! Get off that internet with all the dangerous strangers! You kids with your mini-video TikTok celebrities don't recognize how better it was when we had long YouTube videos that required us to pay attention for more than 10 to 60-second bursts! Video keeps killing the radio star with, 'Video," and, "Radio Star," constantly evolving.
I'll admit even though I try to stay informed on popular culture I don't always, "Get it," anymore. Back when I was a teen we liked to actually play video-games and would only look at an internet video of a game if we needed to figure out how to get past a difficult segment (or maybe re-watch a cool moment/cinema scene). The idea to me of watching someone streaming themselves playing a game for hours upon hours simply does not appeal to me. A guy or gal chatting with everyone as they play a video-game sounds fun for the person playing who gets to talk with everybody tuning in, but I have zero desire to be one of those people who observe them playing--I'd rather play the game, myself! Someone reading my thoughts on this probably is rolling their eyes right now and saying, "Okay, Grandpa, you clearly don't get it," and that is my point! I'm the old fogey in this case. There is hope, however.
Many of the old ways do manage to stay around and evolve. Radio is still here and we all enjoy it. Folks listen to radio shows in the morning and when driving. There are apps to stream radio too, and podcasts are like a modern talk radio on the internet that people adore. We don't gather around the big old radio in our living room, but it still has found a way to be important and present in the modern-day. We don't rent VHS tapes or DVDs as much but we stream movies and shows quite a lot. Even books have found ways to incorporate technology from e-readers to people discussing and promoting books on things like social media (BookTok and such). Video killed many of the radio stars, but it didn't kill them all.
The song goes, "Video killed the radio star," and it serves as a fantastic metaphor for much of popular culture. Many new things come and trample the old ways that either disappear or evolve. This isn't a good thing or a bad thing, it is just the way it simply is. The older folks look back with a yearning as they remember how things once were and the younger people think it outdated (or maybe appreciate it as nostalgic in the manner teens getting into VHS tapes these days or vinyl has made a mini-resurgence in the formats). Video killed the radio star, but it didn't completely wipe them out, in other words. I do wonder if the Buggles realized how potent a concept they had all those decades ago and I thank them for it.
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