Album · The Buggles
The Age of Plastic by The Buggles
The Age of Plastic is an album by The Buggles, released in 1980. 3 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 52 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “Video Killed The Radio Star”, on 50 lists with a best position of #42.
The Age of Plastic, the Buggles' debut, came out on Island on 10 January 1980, riding the slipstream of "Video Killed the Radio Star", the single that had already conquered the UK chart. Singer and bassist Trevor Horn produced it, with keyboardist Geoff Downes as his partner in the duo, and it's a concept record about what modern technology might do to us, dressed in shiny synths and chirpy, deadpan vocals.
Horn had Kraftwerk's The Man-Machine ringing in his ears and went hunting for odd ways to record; Downes called the result futuristic science-fiction music. Backing tracks went down at Virgin's Town House in West London, vocals and mixes at Sarm East, all on a £60,000 budget, and singer Bruce Woolley drifted out of the group partway through. The album stalled at number 27 in the UK amid mixed notices, and before long Horn and Downes had decamped to Yes.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from The Age of Plastic on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Video Killed The Radio Star | 50 | #42 | – | 1988–2023 | |
| 2 | Clean Clean | 1 | #135 | – | 1988 | |
| 3 | I Love You (Miss Robot) | 1 | #1775 | – | 2003 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.