The upshots of Mark and Ross Duffer using Kate Bush’s song, Running Up That Hill, for the fourth season of Strangers Things have been better than I could have imagined. Just hearing the song again was enough for me. So having it hit all major charts and be embraced by the current generation is icing on the cake. But I might have expected those outcomes because it’s an amazing song. But what I didn’t anticipate is the reemergence of Kate via official statements and now an interview. We haven’t heard much from her until now on this side of the Pond. And to hear how thrilled she is to see her music charting is making me all tingly inside. (But in a good way, not a Vecna kind of way.) Kate gave an interview to BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour to talk about becoming a Gen Z hero. As she’s been saying, she’s tickled pink. She loves the show, loves how the song is used in the show, loves that people are discovering her music and loves that there’s room in this world for her.
Kate Bush has admitted she is shocked and excited to be discovered by young people thanks to the recent chart success of “Running Up That Hill.”
The 63-year-old singer’s 1985 hit has climbed back to the top of the charts after being featured in popular Netflix sci-fi show Stranger Things. Bush has given a rare interview to BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour as a result.
“It’s just extraordinary,” the British singer shared. “I mean it’s such a great series, I thought that the track would get some attention. But I just never imagined that it would be anything like this. It’s so exciting. But it’s quite shocking really, isn’t it? I mean, the whole world’s gone mad.”
She added: “What’s really wonderful, I think, is this is a whole new audience who, in a lot of cases, they’ve never heard of me and I love that.
“The thought of all these really young people hearing the song for the first time and discovering it is, well, I think it’s very special.”
In the fourth series of ’80s-set Stranger Things, currently airing on Netflix, Max Mayfield, played by Sadie Sink, listens to the song on her Walkman in an attempt to ground herself to the real world.
Bush said: “I thought what a lovely way for the song to be used in such a positive way, as a kind of talisman almost. … I think it’s very touching, actually.”
She added she wants new fans to “take from it what they want.”
Not only do I appreciate Kate’s attitude about the younger generation discovering her, but I wish everyone would take a page from her on this. I do not understand the OKF (Original Kate Fans) having any issue with younger people celebrating her music. I love Jesu Joy of Man’s Desire so much I have it on my running playlist. But I wasn’t there when Bach released it. Does that make me a poser? I also agree with Kate that Running being used as the tether Max’s friends use to keep her in the real world, but also to them, is beautiful. For me, music and “favorite” songs are personal. The fact that the gang knew Max’s favorite song to play was as big a part of the story as any dialogue.
Speaking of favorite songs, while Running is right up there, I’m with CB in that I’m waiting for these new fans to discover Wuthering Heights. That’s the Kate song that impacted me the most. I fell in love with it before I read the book. The first time I listened to the song after reading the story, I cried. And Babooshka is a freaking masterpiece. These kids have a whole library to get through.
I’m totally on board with women artists from the 70s/80s coming back. With Pistol streaming, the Chrissie Hynde resurgence is just waiting in the wings.
Photo credit: Avalon Red, Netflix and Getty Images
Probably not a popular opinion but…Pat Benatar did a cover of Wuthering Heights that I like much better.
Heck to the yeah!!!!
I agree. I love Kate Bush but Pat Benatar’s version still gives me goosebumps
Kate Bush is having the Jackie Earl Haley effect happening to her and I think it’s so incredible. Good for her.
I hadn’t heard of Kate Bush in years. Then yesterday morning, on our national broadcaster’s morning news program, they announced that our Kate would be appearing on the show shortly. Sure enough she came on. She spoke about her album finally being released, after being held back in 2020 because of the pandemic. She told of how influenced she had been by Kate Bush while growing up and attending the Conservatorium of music, how inspired she had been to push forward in her own musical career and how much she still loved and admired the British artist. She and the interviewer spoke about this new wave for Kate Bush. And then I realised that our Kate is very much like the more famous Kate Bush. Not in a copycat way, but in the musical styles, songwriting abilities, vocal ranges, and really using their voices as part of their instrument kit. Our Kate is also innovative. Some of you may already know of her.
https://www.katemillerheidke.com/
Kate Bush is a goddess of music, video, performance–the more exposure to a new generation she receives, the better. And you are so right about ‘Wuthering Heights’ and ‘Babooshka.’ I would add her album The Dreaming as well, particularly the song ‘All the Love.’
Co-signing all the love for Kate Bush. Her music steadfast on all my playlists and has been for years.
I don’t think OG fans really exist for the most part. The thing I love about music is that is personally tied to your own life and when you discover it and how it resonates with your personal circumstances at that time.
Certain songs bring me back to certain eras of my life, but they are not necessarily when the song is from. For instance, Blister In The Sun is pure reminder of college parties for me, but the song was 15 years old by then.
Yes to this and I have to add This Woman’s Work that song has brought me to tears many a time (today I love listening to the remixes!). My modern dance teacher in Jr. High was obsessed with Kate Bush and did the most amazing choreography to Hounds of Love. Dancing to that onstage in my shiny blue unitard is a happy memory from oh so long ago that I find myself returning to again and again…
My boyfriend’s pet name for me is “Babushka” and I like to play the song for him. He hadn’t heard it when he came up with the nickname. Never did I think a whole new generation of kids would be listening to “Babooshka” and loving it!
I love Kate Bush. I missed her in the 80s (I think i was a little too young for her) but I started listening to her in law school a lot (I think she was always popping up on my pandora lol) and I’m a big fan.
I don’t understand why OKF would be mad that people are just discovering her? No one is acting like “hey there’s this great artist that I love that no one else has heard of, I’m just so original and groundbreaking bc I like her.” But I’m a huge Stevie Nicks fan who didn’t become a fan until the late 90s, so I guess some OSF (Original Stevie Fans) might call me a “poser” too or whatever. But good music and good songwriting reaches across generations and there’s nothing wrong with that; that’s part of point of music IMO.
I’m sure the OKFs on Twitter aren’t even really fans, just uppity music snobs. Yea, the song is about a women wishing she and her lover could trade places, but who cares? I’m glad she shut them up.
Kate Bush charted a few years ago when one of her other songs ‘This Women’s Work’ was featured on The Handmaids Tail during the Fenway Park scene (shudders) as a Bostonian that scene hit me emotionally at the time.
This really is the feel good story of the summer and I’m so happy that she’s happy. New exposure, new fans and new money! Someone said in the last post she was pulling in 300k a week from the song and probably more as it features so prominently on the part 2 trailer. Good. for. her.
And while it’s great for her it’s also great for the Duffer brothers. It’s a huge flex showing how popular and influential the show is.
@normades for me it is the feel-good story of the pandemic! I remember all the hope I had at the end of 2020 that somehow 2021 would be better and then of course we all know how that turned out. My experience has been that it’s just one awful event followed by another with a few occasional good news things here and there.
The fact that this wonderful thing could happen to such an incredibly gifted and kind artist at this point in her life feels to me like the first robin that you see in springtime… Hopefully the signs of better things to come for us all.
Right!!?? All things point to awful but I love when good things happen to awesome women
Kate Bush is an artist. I have loved her from the beginning, and I am so happy that other people have finally discovered her.
I agree 100%! I tried to indoctrinate my two daughters to ‘the world of Kate Bush’ a few months ago. They were like ‘Ho hum’ and now they’re singing Running Up That Hill constantly. I think it’s fantastic!!! And they might actually realize I was COOL when I was their age?!? LOL
I love Kate Bush and she’s a groundbreaking artist. But I’m also a dusty old GenX goth and I’ll never stop talking about Faith & the Muse’s cover of Running Up That Hill. *chills* …dem drums tho https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_KY-9S6Mj0
Kate Bush is a goddess and I love this for her.
Agreed. I always felt Kate was underappreciated. She is brilliant, humble, and classy.
Hounds of love still gives me chills. And dreams of sheep. And this woman’s work. And suspended in Gaffa. She was the OG. Bjork, Lorde, and a lot of other artists should pay homage. I LOVE HER
It’s a pity that the Stranger Things timeline won’t probably allow to use Bush’s single “Experiment IV” which was released late 1986. It tells a story of a researchers who are ordered by the military to develop a sound that can kill. Might be too on the nose. Kate Bush always gets great actors in her videos, this time Dawn French, Hugh Laurie, and Peter Vaughn. And Nigel Kennedy plays violin. Here’s the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTUcoR8_pyE&ab_channel=KateBushMusic
yes! Babooshka ad Wuthering Heights!
I’m a child of the 80’s Running up That Hill and Cloudbusting have been on my itunes for ages now. So happy to see a new generation appreciate her the way us Gen Xrs do. See we are cool we like cool things!!!