Amazon.co.jp
ザ・バグルスは、のちに『フランキー・ゴーズ・トゥ・ハリウッド』などを手がけた敏腕プロデューサーのトレヴァー・ホーンと、後期イエスに在籍したジェフリー・ダウンズによるユニットである。
エレクトリックポップの超名曲にして、79年の大ヒットシングル<2>を含む本作。ひたすらビジネス化していく80年代以降のポップミュージック界を予言するかのように、シニカルな終末観に貫かれている。「Video killed the radio star」という超有名なフレーズを聴くだけでも価値のある1枚だ。(森 朋之)
From Amazon.com
Part of the early-1980s great explosion of pop music (witness: Squeeze, Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson) to have any real impact, an accident of fate-titled "Video Killed the Radio Star" inextricably links the Buggles to the rise of MTV. Unfortunate for the band's future, the two best Buggles tracks (the other, "Clean Clean") were cowritten with Bruce Woolley, who simultaneously released them (with less success) with his new band, The Camera Club. The artificial sound of these comparatively primitive keyboards and drum machines, once embraced by nihilist popsters on the edge of punk, has since mutated (Gary Numan, Eno, Woodentops, etc.) into the all-but-voiceless electronic music of the late '90s. Regardless, the Buggles manifested a handful of pop gems in science fiction clothing. And why not? We still read Bradbury and Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke. Oddly, what once seemed such smart and jaded music now plays as the voice of joyous optimism. Go figure. --
Grant Alden