The British singer released her song “Running Up That Hill” in 1985. But he is only now becoming a global hit: thanks to the TV series “Stranger Things”, in the fourth season of which he provides courage and comfort.
Kate Bush staged herself as a pop fairy in the 1980s.
How is that possible? A pop song from the 1980s is experiencing a revival and becoming a world hit: Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” topped the Swiss charts a week ago. Just like in England, Australia, New Zealand and Sweden. In the USA, the piece is number four of the most listened to pieces. And the streak of success of the 1985 classic seems to have no end.
The science fiction mystery series «Stranger Things», which revives the eighties, makes it possible. In the fourth season, which started at the end of May, the song “Running Up That Hill” is not just film music in the background; he is involved in the action. Again and again one of the characters – the skater Max – puts on her Walkman headphones and is comforted by Bush’s driving rhythms.
Can that be?
As a result, the song acquires almost life-saving qualities, as is sometimes the case with works of art. Apparently young fans of the series could identify with it. They loved it, googled it, and revived it to fantastic effect.
There are critics who see damage in it. Damage to the art, which will be sold at a sale. They believe that noble things degenerate into pure marketing. But what’s wrong with a new generation discovering the old for themselves and maybe reading, feeling and using it differently? Nothing better can happen to a piece of music, a book, a picture or a film.
63-year-old Kate Bush, who is touched and amazed by the renewed triumph of her work (which already climbed the charts when it was published, albeit not as high), knows this. The echo of the song has “its own energy and will”. It shows how a direct relationship between the series and the audience has developed outside of the music business.
The musician herself has consented to the use of the piece in the series. Apparently she herself is a fan of the story, which focuses on a girl with psychokinetic abilities. The affinity is no wonder. Because the “Stranger Things” fit Kate Bush’s world. This is woven into fantasies, (night) dreams, memories and visions, musically innovative and always original. The young Kate Bush portrayed herself as an esoteric fairy at home in the sphere of literary references and myths. The TV series “Stranger Things”, on the other hand, creates references to the cinema cosmos of the 1970s and 1980s – with allusions to “Poltergeist”, “Alien”, “ET” and “Shining”.
A star for everyone
Kate Bush may have lived in hermitic seclusion for decades, but her fame has not diminished – an irresistible combination that makes her an almost mythical figure. She had not been on stage since 1979 when she announced a series of 22 comeback concerts in 2014. The tickets were sold out within minutes. Seeing them live was a rarity. Then she disappeared from the stage again. She is certainly one of the least marketing-affine pop stars. Hounds of Love, the entirely self-written and produced album, which is derived from Running Up That Hill, is her best.
When Kate Bush sang, cooed and shrieked through her videos at the top of her voice in skin-tight cat suits in the 1980s, she also earned the ridicule of those who wanted their pop stars to be more down-to-earth. It was considered to be extravagant, extremely idiosyncratic and unconventional. Kate Bush was a star, but not one everyone could agree on. Now, almost forty years later, mainstream audiences have gotten their taste.