3. “Fade Away and Radiate”
Blondie (1978)
A hauntingly pretty take on the otherworldly impact of watching too much TV. As in many songs about TV, “Fade Away and Radiate” portrays the effects of the “blue blue neon glow” as similar to the effects of drugginess and sleep. The speaker, in the emotional voice of Debbie Harry, is almost moving backward in time, fading away to dormancy as her brainwaves merge with the screen’s beams of light. Robert Fripp plays the trippy guitar on this sad and lovely track.

Pictured: Blondie in Philadelphia in 1979, from left: Clem Burke, Deborah Harry, Jimmy Destri, Chris Stein, Frank Infante, and Nigel Harrison.