Kate Bush and Her Renewed Success After the new Season of Stranger Things

The new season of the series Stranger Things, exclusive to Netflix, has served as a breath of oxygen for the platform that has been in the news in recent months for its controversial marketing strategies. The premiere of the fourth season of the popular show has captured the attention of audiences around the world and, in addition to bringing the streaming platform back to life, has earned British singer Kate Bush new successes.

Without incurring spoilers for the series, the song “Running Up That Hill (Make a Deal With God)” by the British singer, released in 1985 as the first song of her fifth studio album titled “Hounds of Love”, plays a important role in the fourth season of the series. According to the program's music supervisor, Nora Felder, the theme was chosen to match the "complex feelings" of Max, a character played by actress Sadie Sink, who repeatedly gets away from his problems listening to music, being the album of Bush his favourite.

Singer Approval

After determining that the British soprano's song was ideal to align with Max's plot due to the parallels between the lyrics and the problems that the character goes throughout the season due to the events with which the third season concluded. Nora Felder explains that, in order to include the track in the series, permission was required from Kate Bush herself, who is quite selective when it comes to allowing the use of her music.

However, Bush has unhesitatingly approved of her classic theme being used at multiple key moments in the first part of the sci-fi show's final season, both because Felder tremendously set up the scenes in which the song would be played, and because the British is a fan of the program.

After the premiere of the fourth season, Kate Bush has issued a statement expressing her appreciation for the success of the song on digital music services such as Spotify and Apple Music. As reported by the specialized music page, Consequence of Sound, the reproductions of the song released almost forty years ago increased by a massive 8,700% worldwide, leading the lists of both platforms.

In the terse statement, Bush acknowledges that the song "has been brought back to life by the young fans who love the show," stating that she, too, is a fan of Netflix's flagship series. In addition, she has thanked those who have supported the single to enter the list of most played songs in the United Kingdom in the eighth box.

Also read: Stranger Things 4: the long-awaited premiere of the fourth season

Surpassing the original success

Upon its release in 1985, “Running Up That Hill” reached No. 30 on the Billboard charts and it is expected that thirty-seven years later, the series will propel the track to surpass itself on the same chart.

A similar success occurred months ago with Nirvana's "Something in the Way" after the release of the feature film The Batman. The song written by Kurt Cobain in 1991 was a phenomenon on the Billboard charts during the film's opening week, reaching number 46 and breaking the record set in the year when the Nevermind album was released.