The Buggles were an English synth-pop duo, Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes, and their place in history is secured by a single, prophetic song. "Video Killed the Radio Star", released in 1979, was a sleek, melancholy meditation on technology sweeping away the past, and it became a UK number one.
Then it earned a second kind of immortality: in 1981 it became the very first music video ever broadcast on MTV, a perfect, self-aware choice that fixed the song forever in pop culture. The duo did not last long, but both members thrived afterward: Horn became one of the most successful producers in pop history, and Downes joined Yes before co-founding the prog-rock band Asia.
On streaming, "Video Killed the Radio Star" sits near 474 million plays, with everything else by the duo trailing far behind. The ratio clears our 5.0 line.
By our measure The Buggles are a certified one-hit wonder, and a fittingly meta one. The song that warned about a new medium replacing the old became the anthem of that very medium, and it remains, by a wide margin, the only Buggles track most listeners know.