Kate Bush, Stranger Things, and a hit song four decades in the making
b'Kate Bush\\u2019s \\u201cRunning Up That Hill\\u201d enters the latest season of\\xa0Stranger Things\\xa0during a brooding high-school hallway scene right out of the John Hughes playbook, and it has since bounded up the charts, hitting No. 4 on the\\xa0Billboard\\xa0Hot 100 and performing better now than when it peaked at No. 30 upon release.\\xa0Stranger Things, whose latest season has logged more viewer minutes for Netflix than any other English-language release to date, has\\xa0leaned heavily on \\u201980s nostalgia\\xa0since its premiere in 2016: Its iconic theme song is reminiscent of John Carpenter B-movies, and, in an email, used-instrument resale site Reverb.com tells us the show has boosted interest in analog synthesizers.\\n\\n\\u201cRunning Up That Hill,\\u201d then, is a natural fit for the show, and it plays a pivotal, spoiler-ridden plot point in the show, requiring us to hear the hook multiple times throughout the season \\u2014 a perfect earworm. But its success is owed to more than just repetition. It waffles between major and minor, and the show\\u2019s composers, Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein, told\\xa0Switched on Pop\\xa0that both it and the rest of the\\xa0Stranger Things\\xa0score have \\u201cmoments of darkness and lightness in it, constantly trading places.\\u201d Plus, they\\u2019re composed from the same set of instruments: classic synthesizers and drum machines like the LinnDrum. The song is part and parcel with the soundtrack itself: \\u201cThere\\u2019s these little melodies that we always refer to as \\u2018And then the Kate Bush part comes in,\\u2019\\u201d Dixon says.\\n\\nListen to Switched On Pop to hear how Kate Bush\\u2019s \\u201cRunning Up That Hill\\u201d is an exquisite song placement and hear how it blends seamlessly with the Stranger Things soundtrack.\\n\\nMORE\\nCheck out Reverb Machine\\u2019s sounds of Kate Bush\\nReverb.com made a tutorial on the synth sounds of Stranger Things\\nThe story of the Kate Bush renaissance from The Ringer\\n\\nSongs Discussed\\n\\nKyle Dixon & Michael Stein - Stranger Things\\n\\nKate Bush - Running Up That Hill\\n\\nDead Or Alive - You Spin Me Round\\n\\nTalking Heads - Psycho Killer\\n\\nMusical Youth - Pass the Dutchie\\xa0\\n\\nCarly Rae Jepsen - Cut To The Feeling\\n\\nThe Weeknd - Blinding Lights\\xa0\\n\\nPrince - When Doves Cry\\n\\nPhil Collins - Sussudio\\n\\nTangerine Dream - Sorcerer Theme Song\\n\\nJohn Carpenter - Night\\n\\nS U R V I V E - A.H.B.\\n\\nS U R V I V E - High Rise\\xa0\\n\\nKyle Dixon & Michael Stein - Eggo in the Snow\\n\\nKyle Dixon & Michael Stein - She Wants Me to Find Her\\n\\nKyle Dixon & Michael Stein - Starcourt\\n\\nKyle Dixon & Michael Stein - Eight Fifteen\\n\\nKyle Dixon & Michael Stein - Boys and Girls\\n\\nKyle Dixon & Michael Stein - The Ceiling is Beautiful\\n\\nKate Bush - Waking the Witch\\n\\nKate Bush - Hammer Horror\\n\\n\\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices'