Did Kate Bush achieve unexpected success with a 37-year-old song? Stranger things have happened, if you can excuse the pun, but not many. Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God), which initially reached number 3 in the UK in 1985, has suddenly risen to the top of the UK and US iTunes charts after appearing on the Netflix series Stranger Things. It has also shot at number 4 on the Spotify Top 200 chart, after a 153% increase in playbacks, and the Stranger Things effect means that it is now the most played song by the artist, overthrowing the sacred Wuthering Heights.
Stranger Things, a supernatural, sci-fi horror set in the fictional city of Hawkins, Indiana, in the 1980s, is a particular hit with Generation Z of 10- to 25-year-olds, and so is exposing our youth vulnerable to all. way of sound and visual nostalgia, from vintage pop to wet haircuts.
Running Up That Hill, from Bush’s classic album, Hounds Of Love, debuted in the first episode of the fourth season. Play a character’s Walkman and reappear in other key scenes. The lyrics of Running Up The Hill – “If only I could make a deal with God, I would get him to move” – are appropriate and illustrate the power of music as a therapeutic revitalizing force.
This isn’t the first time an old song has enjoyed a surprise Indian summer after appearing on Stranger Things. Limahl’s theme for The NeverEnding Story enjoyed an 800% increase in YouTube searches after appearing in the third season, on which the former Kajagoogoo leader told Entertainment Weekly that he was ” very touched “by its resurgence.
Could other songs appearing in the fourth season enjoy this Stranger Things effect? Keep an eye on You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) by Dead Or Alive, Psycho Killer by Talking Heads, Musical Youth’s Pass The Dutchie and the Cramps, the wonderfully titled cult classic, I Was a Teenage Werewolf to find out.
This article was modified on May 31, 2022 to remove spoilers from the plot related to the fourth season of Stranger Things