Bang! 101 Songs about Nuclear War from the 1980s20 Okt 2025

This Ain't No Party. This Ain't No Disco.

It’s Episode 17. With the recent news that MTV is to cease broadcasting in large parts of Europe and South America, we thought we might try and find songs by artists who appeared on MTV on its very first day…. And we were not disappointed, as 5 songs we had planned to discuss anyway all fell into that category.

Buggles opened up MTV’s account, and we remember their catchy wartime hit “Clean, Clean”, complete with arcade game tank video. Trevor Horn has already featured in our podcasts as a producer so it’s a pleasure to include one of his own compositions.

Fischer-Z, fronted by the legendary John Watts, released the album Red Skies over Paradise from which the amazing, fearful and brooding “Cruise Missiles” was a memorable album track.

Next, comes the anti-world leader hit from Genesis – “Land of Confusion”, which was all the more memorable for its Spitting Image based video featuring the band, US and UK leaders in warmongering mood, and a cast of a hundred well known puppets.

We then discuss the excellent song “Bunkers” by British post-punk band The Vapors. Again, their album “New Clear Days” had (unsurprisingly) a Cold War theme, and this was the one we chose.

We conclude the episode with one of the greatest songs by one of the greatest bands – “Life During Wartime” by Talking Heads. Despite not being a hit at all, there are few music fans who wouldn’t recognise the album and live versions as being hugely influential.

All 5 artists had at least one song played on MTV’s opening day of pop-videos.

Our playlist now stands at 87 songs! Only 14 to go….

Our previous episodes are all here for you to enjoy too.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0vLjQBbJEhiDaFNOTz9snD?si=4da04b17ed3347ea

https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/bang-101-songs-about-nuclear-war-from-the-1980s/pl.u-6mo4j9KFByBgKXl

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Email: bangnuclearpodcast@gmail.com

Opening and closing music: (Waiting for the) Heatwave – Fay Ray, appears courtesy of Fay Ray. Written by John Lovering

Artwork: Rachel Malbon

Assistant Producer: Shivam Pathak

Opening words: Richie Wheeler

Ident intro from MTV.

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