Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’ makes streaming history
Over the past year, music fans have been rediscovering Kate Bush’s song ‘Running Up That Hill’ thanks to its prominent use in the series Stranger Things. After a surge in popularity, Bush’s iconic track has also made history on streaming services as well.
Earlier this week, the song officially reached one billion streams on Spotify, marking the first time a song from the 1980s by a female artist has passed that milestone. Hill expressed a heartfelt thank-you to her fans, saying, “Thank you so much for sending this song on such an impossibly astonishing journey. I’m blown away”.
Bush would also go on to praise the sheer volume of people who have shown appreciation for the track, continuing, “I have an image of a river that suddenly floods and becomes many, many tributaries – a billion streams – on their way to the sea. Each one of these streams is one of you”.
Thanks to the push from Stranger Things, the song also re-entered the charts in both the UK and Australia, even reaching number three on the US charts. This ended up breaking a chart record for the oldest female artist to reach number one in the UK and the longest gap between number one singles.
In the context of Stranger Things, ‘Running Up That Hill’ serves as the comforting song for the series character Max after the death of her brother Billy. As she tries to escape the clutches of the villainous Vecna, Max runs away from her internal struggles with Kate Bush bringing her back down to Earth.
In addition to the chart success, the video for the song has also seen a surge on YouTube, garnering 200 million more views thanks to the series. Bush also loved the fact that some listeners had mistaken her for a new artist when hearing the song for the first time.
The allure of Stranger Things has also given more exposure to the Metallica classic ‘Master of Puppets’, which was used in the final episode as the soundtrack for the metalhead character, Eddie Munson. To date, Bush hasn’t released another studio album since 2011’s 50 Words for Snow.
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