The Day the World Turned Day-Glo

X-Ray Spex were a British UK Punk Rock group formed in 1977 by vocalist Poly Styrene (born Marianne Elliott-Said), bassist Paul Dean, guitarist Jak "Airport" Stafford, drummer Paul "BP" Hurding and saxophonist Lora Logic. This song was the first of their three UK Top 40 hits. The band dissolved in Autumn 1979 and Poly Styrene temporary pursued a solo career before giving up music to pursue her interest in Eastern mysticism. Stafford and Hurding went on to form the new wave band Classix Nouveaux together with Mik Sweeney and Sal Solo with whom they achieved some chart success.

Dean told Mojo magazine September 2008 how the band did their songwriting: "Poly wrote the songs with the top line melody and the lyrics sung into a tape recorder. Then Jak and I worked out the riffs. Listening now I think, Bloody hell Jak, you liked The Stooges! Lora worked out the bass lines and we all had a free rein to experiment. It was quite collaborative."

Poly Styrene explained this song to Mojo magazine: "Most people thought the song was about tripping, but I was using images of artificiality. I grew up in a generation where all we had was brown paper bags in the local store, but gradually everything became more colorful. Day-Glo symbolized the shift from natural to synthetic. We weren't buying cotton any more but Bri-Nylon. It was a great time, people were discovering things with technology. Bri-Nylon you could wear to school and your mum didn't have to iron it."