The song is about the cyclical nature of musical taste, and how certain styles come into vogue over and over. While the "Video killed the radio star" reference is obvious, you need to check out "Losing My Edge" by LCD soundsystem to really get the stakes here, particularly the part:
"I hear you're buying a synthesizer and an arpeggiator and are throwing your computer out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Yaz record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitars and bought turntables.
I hear that you and your band have sold your turntables and bought guitars.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know."
I guarantee that's where the Limousines got the line "They trade those guitars in for drum machines and disco balls" - but it's only half of the line - they're not concerned with the future when they'll trade the drum machines back in for guitars.
But really, this song is a celebration of getting to make fun, electronic based pop music, while recognizing that the tide will eventually shift and rock will make a comeback "like a zombie." It's a cycle, even if we don't think of it like that - this is pointed out by the line "we think we've seen it all" - we think that the music of our present age is the begin-all, end-all.
For example, you have the classic Rock heyday of the late '60s and early '70s (the "glory days are gone" is a Bruce Springsteen reference) followed by the rise of fun but shallow dance music - disco in the '70s - and then electronic pop experimentation of the '80s (think Prince, Soft Cell, Flock of Seagulls type stuff). Then rock made a comeback in the grunge movement in the early '90s (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins) but was followed by the boy bands/Britney/Christina type pop in the late '90s —Â but returned in bands like The White Stripes, the Killers, Jet, Franz Ferdinand, etc. - but for the last 3 years its been pretty dominated by the electronic sound again and that dreadful autotuning.
Of course, this timeline ignores other genres - notably hip hop, rap, punk, indie - and ignores many important bands that were doing something different and cool in those other eras, but my point is that rock has been pronounced dead several times only to "dig itself back up again" like a zombie because of the excesses of dance music. The dance music and electronica is fun and people get into it for a while, but then get tired of the fakeness, artificiality and lack of substance - Then we want something more authentic, so rock will come back again in a different form. But the song is about celebrating what's going on now, even though we'll probably look back on it a lot like we do the '80s. We'll say, man that poppy dance music was fun at the time, but I will shoot myself if I have to listen to one more song with autotuned vocals or over-the-top electronic boops and beeps.
The song is about the cyclical nature of musical taste, and how certain styles come into vogue over and over. While the "Video killed the radio star" reference is obvious, you need to check out "Losing My Edge" by LCD soundsystem to really get the stakes here, particularly the part:
"I hear you're buying a synthesizer and an arpeggiator and are throwing your computer out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Yaz record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitars and bought turntables. I hear that you and your band have sold your turntables and bought guitars.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know."
I guarantee that's where the Limousines got the line "They trade those guitars in for drum machines and disco balls" - but it's only half of the line - they're not concerned with the future when they'll trade the drum machines back in for guitars.
But really, this song is a celebration of getting to make fun, electronic based pop music, while recognizing that the tide will eventually shift and rock will make a comeback "like a zombie." It's a cycle, even if we don't think of it like that - this is pointed out by the line "we think we've seen it all" - we think that the music of our present age is the begin-all, end-all.
For example, you have the classic Rock heyday of the late '60s and early '70s (the "glory days are gone" is a Bruce Springsteen reference) followed by the rise of fun but shallow dance music - disco in the '70s - and then electronic pop experimentation of the '80s (think Prince, Soft Cell, Flock of Seagulls type stuff). Then rock made a comeback in the grunge movement in the early '90s (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins) but was followed by the boy bands/Britney/Christina type pop in the late '90s —Â but returned in bands like The White Stripes, the Killers, Jet, Franz Ferdinand, etc. - but for the last 3 years its been pretty dominated by the electronic sound again and that dreadful autotuning.
Of course, this timeline ignores other genres - notably hip hop, rap, punk, indie - and ignores many important bands that were doing something different and cool in those other eras, but my point is that rock has been pronounced dead several times only to "dig itself back up again" like a zombie because of the excesses of dance music. The dance music and electronica is fun and people get into it for a while, but then get tired of the fakeness, artificiality and lack of substance - Then we want something more authentic, so rock will come back again in a different form. But the song is about celebrating what's going on now, even though we'll probably look back on it a lot like we do the '80s. We'll say, man that poppy dance music was fun at the time, but I will shoot myself if I have to listen to one more song with autotuned vocals or over-the-top electronic boops and beeps.