Unintended Consequences, Now Streaming

Jun 17, 2026 12:34 PM EDT, Wed

“New AI’s Filling Us with Alarm” - Marsh Family version of The Buggles “Video Killed the Radio Star”

Feb 9, 2025 FAVERSHAM AI has been all over the news lately, and we decided to the subject matter to build an updated parody of one of our (and our Patreons’) ALL-TIME favourite pop tunes – created by Trevor Horn and The Buggles (co-written with Geoff Downes and Bruce Woolley) in 1979. “Video Killed the Radio Star” is about how iconic inventions and machines from the twentieth-century affected music and the arts – and was the feature single on their album “The Age of Plastic.”

We took a lot of time to try to get some of the music and video elements close to the vibe of the original – to build the nostalgic feel – and although we experimented with real cornet and violin, we abandoned these. There was lots of arguing about using the earpieces to perform the vocals (which are all live, except one boys’ lyrics cock-up that we overdubbed), but we’re trying to get used to ear monitors for live gigs so we persisted.

But hopefully amidst it all (and several dated movie references and dance moves) we are still landing the core point that AI is a fantastic transformative/exciting tool, but seems to be on a path to unleashing all of humanity’s ills faster than it opens up positives, unless measures are taken to control and regulate it. It’s a topical issue particularly for musicians in the UK as the government is currently consulting about a worrying plan that would open up a lot of dangers for human creators and composers.

The music industry has until 25 February 2025 to push back against an “opt-out” system being proposed that would ride roughshod over lots of artists’ rights and be a further blow in the wake of digital streaming and the collapse of many music venues and live performance horizons.

For details about that (and a link to a petition if you’re in the UK) see here: What Will The Government’s Proposed Changes to the Rules on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence Mean for the UK Music Industry? - UK Music

Marsh Family - YouTube

We have stuck up some of our family songs and music videos on this channel since our “One Day More” parody went viral, charting our musical journey during & beyond the pandemic, here in Kent (UK). Along the way, we’ve been proud to support & work with the COVID-19 Solidarity Fund (2020), Comic Relief (2021), Prostate Cancer UK (2021), the Menopause Cafe (2022), Refugee Week & the Red Cross (2023), & Save the Children (2024).

Since 2021 we decided we’d set up a support base for our material & future projects: join us here as a monthly fan (various tiers with bonuses available) https://www.patreon.com/marshfamilysongs or make a one-off donation here: https://paypal.me/marshfamilysongs - clickable links below!

Our debut album “Hollow Chapters” is out in March 2026:

Thanks for your lovely comments in recent months - we’re so glad to bring smiles & music to quite a few people who need them.

The Marsh Family (Ben, Danielle, Alfie, Thomas, Ella, & Tess)

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