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ONE HIT WONDERLAND: "Pop Muzik" by M

🕑 Added 2025-08-14 01:21:17 +0000 UTC

Comments

Michelle F. Granfield

I definitely saw this song on VH1 as well as the Pop Up Video thing. I used to love watching that show because I love trivia. lol

Steph

I know this song from being a VH1 junkie. After watching the video it’s clear that this guy had exactly one decent song in him and that was it.

Marcus Lauer

I do remember this song but from Mtv back in the mid 80s because I'm old. Just noticed that quaalude backup singer is probably the same woman dancing in a sari at 10:02 or so and felt like pointing that out.

Judgesaturn507

I only know this song from Tom Breihan's column.

Christopher Teuma

The thread goes Gary Numan - Cars > Ian Dury and the Blockheads - Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick > M - Pop Muzik > 1980.. 1982. > Huey Lewis and the News - I Wanna New Drug > Ray Parker Jr - Ghostbusters

RedBedroomRecords

same here, never heard of this song or this band before in my life.

RedBedroomRecords

that's how I felt about "Into the Night"(which I REALLY hope Todd covers at some point) was surprised it came out in 1980 as opposed to a few years later.

RedBedroomRecords

well it finally happened-a OHW song i've never even heard of before.

Connor Rankin

Even Morrissey seems to have some level of reasoning… not that he’s any better

Cody Baird

My reaction to this song compared to "Video Killed the Radio Star" is very much that "Hello, Human Resources?" meme, where I love that one but "Pop Muzik" just makes me uncomfortable, despite many stylistic similarities down to the video. Maybe because that one is an actually well made pop song while this one is just sort of a groove with a bunch of goofy lyrics. And considering how the Buggles members went on to either be a massively important producer or a talented session musician, while this guy made racially questionable lyrics and AI slop... I'm gonna have to say my choice holds up.

Andrew Huntley

At the very end, the credit is for "In a Big Country" being owned by Mercury. That's the only mistake I caught in the vid. I enjoyed this a lot. Pop Muzik wasn't as big a hit in Canada as it was elsewhere, and as a result I was surprised that it was released in '79 as opposed to coming out two or three years later.

Pietro Gagliardi

Oh dear god this M guy thinks he's a social commentator. *covers face with hands*

The Hand Of The People

expected a Benson Boone joke after hearing "Moonlight and Muzak" and you did not disappoint

Kylie McInnes

This is a staple on my dance playlists.

Jon Heiman

As iconic as the intro to "Video Killed the Radio Star" is, the intro to "Pop Muzik" is a capital-S Statement! Plus the written "M"... they couldn't have asked for a better first video!

Jon Heiman

I'm legitimately shocked that nobody--not even those older than me--mentioned how this song played over the closing credits for Casey Kasem's syndicated "American Top 40" countdown show for many years (maybe a little too on-the-nose, but I liked the song so I never had a problem with it). Am I the only Todd-watching music nerd who used to listen to that every Sunday in his teenage years??

Jon Heiman

Yep, that's The Who Alright! :)

Jon Heiman

You could call it... Pop-punk!

Paul McA

I definitely remember this from when it was out, but I would have been 9 and lived close enough to the origin for it to have been a thing. Plus it has strong earworm energy. In a similar space you had Ca Plane Pour Moi a couple of years earlier (yeah, I know, more punky, but still pretty pop).

Michael

That 16 tons joke was very good!

mimsycast

In another timeline, this is the first video on MTV and Video Killed the Radio Star is the obscure hidden gem

Beau Dure

If you're of a certain age, you heard this every Saturday at the roller rink.

Laura Quin

I have always known this song because I’m old and it was still getting airplay in the U.K. in the early-mid 1980’s. I remember my husband excitedly singing it when we first landed in Munich in 2011 because it meant we had visited all the places mentioned in the song.

Kayla Chenault

I kid you not. I literally had the thought on Monday "I wonder if Todd is going to do 'Pop Muzik' by M. " And lo and behold! I learned of it that V1H one hit wonder countdown that most people did, but it turns out my mom really liked this song when it came out, so she would play it in the car sometimes.

Pooga

I posted a similar comment on YouTube, but... it is very typically me that after waiting for the better part of a year - seeing all the other requests drop before mine - knowing mine *had* to be coming next because he mentioned this would be the last of the requests... I managed not to check my personal email at all yesterday after I got to work and only saw the notification while cleaning out my inbox this morning. 🤦 Still worth the wait. Thanks, Todd!

Connor Rankin

Well he already covered the New Radicals and Lauryn Hill… Postal Service I guess

Connor Rankin

This song sounds like if Ron Mael of Sparks didn’t care anymore

Johanna M

I don't know if it's my headphones but the ad for Amy's dream house seemed out of sync for me. I have heard this song before but only a tiny snip which honestly leads me to believe there was a two second clip in some other Todd video at some point

Nicholas

When you post these I end up watching them on the YouTube app just because it makes it easier if I have to stop and come back to it later. At the end of this one it auto rolled an ad for an AI powered therapeutic plush toy called Pandi. Just had to share the irony.

Jared Walske

To answer the question you ask at the beginning: I do know this song, but I learned about it because was on VH1's 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders series and I was very much a kid who watched all of those VH1 countdowns

James Eldred

Unfortunate mistake considering the context, but when you talk about him being in China, the footage you show is of him in Japan, Asakusa precisely.

Empyre18

I honestly hadn’t heard this song before this video. Definitely fascinating. To use the car metaphor, if, say, Video Killed The Radio Star is the Model T of the 80’s music era, this song is like the Benz Motorwagen. Those racial attitudes, though…

Lucy

It got popular on tiktok because some young girls danced to it in a dance competition show and the choreography went viral! The choreographer Molly Long is fairly well known apparently

Jennifer Layton

I can't wait to watch this!! I LOVE this song.

Gareth

Pop Muzik definitely still gets played in the UK a fair bit, I heard it at a wedding last year! I’m shocked that the guy was only 31 when it came out, he looked much older on that TOTP clip

Sugarbombd

The video is great; however, I noticed the lack of mention of this song's second life on TikTok. This song has about 250k videos of people dancing to the "radio video" portion of the song, and that's how I, and I'd assume most people younger than 30, know the song at all.

James Washburn

“Pop was garbage. It’s not like now.” *cuts to garbage pop star*

mer2

I've heard it a lot on Dutch radio in the 90s and early 00s, as a data point. When I was young, growing up in The Netherlands in the 80s and 90s, the term "popmuziek" (which sounds exactly like the backing vocals in this song) was used as referring to all popular music, encompassing soul, rock, disco, metal, you know the deal. It was also the standard term for any of this music, as in you would describe say U2's music as "popmuziek" and then you could specify this as "rock". Pop music in the English sense, as much as it has a name, was "top 40-muziek", that is music you typically found in the top 40. I am borne in 1979 so I don't know for sure, but I think this use of "popmuziek" started in the 60's. I think that in the last decades the meaning has shifted more in the direction of the English use.

Chamois Chui

Hello Todd! Fantastic video as always, been looking forward to this one... a couple of glitches though: At 3:58 the video glitches and there's two different shots bleeding through At 18:00 there's a quick flash of another shot before cutting straight back to you Hope other people catch others if there are any!

RabidKelp

Ironically, one of the few one hit wonders I recognize and listen to often! P sure I first heard it on the soundtrack for the Sing Street movie

jhavent1

Todd, Bright Eyes hit number 1 at that time in the UK for one simple reson: Watership Down. Cultural, scarring phenomenon of a film in the UK, and that version is on the soundtrack. Also, still hear Pop Musik a lot on UK Radio stations

Miss Chriss

Aw that’s cute

Dovis Bellwood

Did not know this song. All I can hear is Ghostbusters 😅

Vinyl Acropolis

The end credits still list the song as Big Country. And yeah, I’d never heard of this song before

Bailey Vogt

10:22. The audio track drowns you out. Also the video is super cropped out 12:55 also has an audio drown out Potentially 20:13 too

JasSpy

Maybe a year or two ago, I was doing research on wikipedia about number one hits on the hot 100 (for no real reason, I was bored), and noticed "Pop Muzik", was surprised I didn't recognize it, and looked at its page. I was like "Wait, I thought "Video Killed the Radio Star" was the first synth hit, wasn't it?". I immediately went to rewatch your OWH on VKtRS to see if you mentioned "Pop Muzik" in it and you didn't, so I was left just baffled. What a relief to see someone requested it. Now I know this guy, as you put it, was "Right too early, so might as well have been wrong".

horse9000

Seconded, I had to rush to tell my partner this was the new OHW because they’ve been singing it nonstop ever since it blew up on tiktok a couple months ago. Had never heard of it before that

Kristopher Bluth

Look up the UK Christmas Number Ones sometimes. Utter insanity.

Karl Voelker

I don’t think I’d ever heard this song before and yeah, I can see why it’s considered important but it’s still pretty meh.

MJS

This was definitely used for some sort of commercial, possibly for VH1 programing, that got played ad nauseam. Was much more familiar with this than the Big Country song in the last episode.

Adam F

If you wanted to do more requests I'd be willing to pay.

Stephen

I knew of this song when I was a kid in the early 90s, because of … reasons https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwuQMpI-EgE

Kristopher Bluth

YESSSSSSSSS!!!!!!! I dunno, he seems like he knew he’d bowled his perfect game and said, “Fuck it, I’ll do what I want now." You kind of have to respect that, dated videos and all (And if memory serves, the backup singer on 'ludes is his wife and the baby on the cover of the single is his daughter.)

David L. Lebovitz

The version you put in the credits is the version I remember the most. They definitely played it on Radio Disney

Mr J

Yeah I heard it pre tik-tok revival, but I’m Australian and our late 70’s/80’s pop charts were…….odd thanks to countdown.

Bruno Sauvagnat

After the guy released an AI song I was like, yeah doesn't deserve any better.

JazzySpF

Mistake found: The first part of the credits is for In a Big Country instead of Pop Musik

JazzySpF

I feel like there's a charm in separating the art from the artist when it's this song lol

Taylor Abrahamse

Volume of The Who clips a bit overpowering at 10:22

Dan O'Neill

Bright Eyes is better than any song Fraud Simon sang.

Alina

No, I've never heard it before, but it somehow sounds like every 80s synth song I've ever heard.

Taylor Abrahamse

This song was massive on Tiktok/Shorts/etc this year. You might need to update this video mentioning that or ppl will spam you about it.

ParsnipPizza

I have a psychological compulsion to finish the 4 city cycle anytime I hear New York, London, Paris and/or Munich. Love the song

L

The song from Watership Down kept this from the top spot? Really? The UK is a strange place to me sometimes.

Shiny Skunk

It is honestly impressive the way this guy managed to make one really great song and then go "what if I did the worst thing ever" over and over and over.

Patrice Keville

OMG YES! This is one of my favorite one-hit wonders. I actually do remember this for two reasons: 1.) My siblings loved it. 2.) When I was very little (2 years old or so), the image on the back cover of New York London Paris Munich—the photo of Einstein sticking out his tongue presented Andy Warhol-style—freaked me out.

Angela

...Am I the only one getting distracted by the random lady in the sari in that one performance clip? 😆

Colton Rice

The end says “in a big country is owned by…” instead

David Yurch

I'm 32, and the only reason I know this song is because I sought it out after seeing it on a bunch of Top One Hit Wonders of All Time lists.

thapoint09

I'm one of those who know the song from VH1. I think it was the "I Love the 70s" special

Ryan Fischer

Even the African move feels like it's ripping off his buddy Malcolm McLaren's 1983 Duck Rock album.

James Gardiner

Definitely excited for this one! Oh, and on a side note the backup singer in the blue sweater is Robin's then-girlfriend/wife (I've seen reports of both online) Brigit Novik.

Paul Anderson

Gen X here! We'd sing Pop Muzik on the school bus and playground. To kids BOOGIE WITH A SUITCASE was hilarious. Radio stations like Mighty 690 and 91X kept it in rotation well into the 80's, as did MTV's early years. For a while it was just part of the landscape.

Anthony Hansen

the amount of times this man's creative choices made my eyes widen in horror

Jordan Blossey

The song had a major resurgence on TikTok that originated from a choreography done by Molly Long. To be fair, you probably wouldn't know that if you weren't on TikTok.

Marie Dacy

The end of the request train! It’s been fun considering there’s been nothing else in music to talk about this year At 3:57 I’m not sure if it’s part of the original video but there’s a weird glitchy mess (could be intentional, I could be wrong). Also the end screen is the “in a big country” end screen (Oh god not the Benson Boone jumpscare 😂😭)

Garf H.

A little weird cut at 15:30

Jacob Dickens

Very funny timing for you to ask if people still know or hear this song considering it’s been all over my TikTok feed for months. At least one of the sounds on the app with this song has 250,000+ videos attached to it so it’s still kicking all these decades later

Kellie Hedgers

this episode had so many plot twists

sconce

He was such a trendsetter, he set the trend of the weird racism that thrived in the 1980’s pop scene

sophie jane

this song had a minor tiktok revival last year-ish when some people paired a dance with it. didn’t take the app by storm or anything, but i heard it plenty. it’s the first time i heard it and the only reason i know it. i think others my age (21) would likely say they know it from there as well, to answer your question in the intro.

candidgamera

Oh lord, I remember this one. I think it was used in a commercial somewhere.

Connor Rankin

Rats. No Marcy Playground. Oh well.

Jordan Blossey

Hey Todd, would you ever do a series of One Album Wonders? I think One Album Wonderland could be very interesting!

David Claiborne

As a Zillenial (born 96), I occasionally heard this song on the oldies station that played when my Mom drove me to school when I was a preteen. And it got lodged in my head immediately.

Herbieguy

This is a great pick. If we're really lucky we'll eventually have ALL of the 'true' one hit wonders done in the future. I think he's covered about half of them at this point.