Stranger Things Music Supervisor Reveals Why Kate Bush Allowed Them to Revive Her 1985 Hit ‘Running Up That Hill’
Stranger Things music supervisor Nora Felder revealed how the series was able to land Kate Bush’s 1985 hit “Running Up That Hill,” which is now topping the charts thanks to the show.
Warning: Spoilers ahead.
In a new interview with Variety, Felder shared that Bush green lit the song’s use herself. Good thinking on Bush’s part, as thanks to the series, the song has topped both Spotify’s US Daily chart and the iTunes real-time sales chart.
The song was first introduced in the series through character Max Mayfield, played by Sadie Sink, as she largely uses it as an auditory aide following her brother’s traumatic death in the previous season.
Max is seen cutting her friends out of her life while repeatedly blasting Bush’s song on her cassette player. The song eventually becomes a huge plot device, as it ultimately saves her life from the villain Vecna.
“As Max runs from Vecna’s isolating grip, or from evil, as an absence of love, she ultimately runs toward connection and the spiritual outpouring of love powerfully manifested by her dear friends who have heroically fought to understand what she needs and rescue her from a solitarily hell of utter separation and eternal isolation,” Felder told Variety of the scene.
“In some ways, this scene can be understood as alluding more broadly to the inner struggles with private demons that many teens wrestle with during troubled times, especially when feeling alone and estranged from others.”
Felder also explained that she chose the song because it “immediately struck me with its deep chords of the possible connection to Max’s emotional struggles and took on more significance as Bush’s song marinated in my conscious awareness.”
Felder also shared how she got approval from Bush, who is luckily a Stranger Things fan.
“I sat with my clearance coordinator, and laid out all the scripted scenes for song uses that we knew of at that point. Knowing the challenges, we proceeded to create elaborate scene descriptions that provided as much context as possible so that Kate and her camp would have a full understanding of the uses,” she said. “When we finished, we were on edge, but excited and hopeful.”
Wende Crowley, Sony Music Publishing’s SVP of creative marketing, film and TV, ultimately received the request from Felder and her team.
“Kate Bush is selective when it comes to licensing her music and because of that,” Crowley said. “We made sure to get script pages and footage for her to review so she could see exactly how the song would be used.”
Watch the now-iconic scene above, via YouTube.
