Switched on Pop - Kate Bush, Stranger Things, and a hit song four decades in the making

Episode Date: June 14, 2022

Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” enters the latest season of Stranger Things during 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 Billboard Hot 100 and performing better now than when it peaked at No. 30 upon release. Stranger Things, whose latest season has logged more viewer minutes for Netflix than any other English-language release to date, has leaned heavily on ’80s nostalgia since 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. “Running Up That Hill,” 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 — a perfect earworm. But its success is owed to more than just repetition. It waffles between major and minor, and the show’s composers, Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein, told Switched on Pop that both it and the rest of the Stranger Things score have “moments of darkness and lightness in it, constantly trading places.” Plus, they’re 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: “There’s these little melodies that we always refer to as ‘And then the Kate Bush part comes in,’” Dixon says. Listen to Switched On Pop to hear how Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” is an exquisite song placement and hear how it blends seamlessly with the Stranger Things soundtrack. MORE Check out Reverb Machine’s sounds of Kate Bush Reverb.com made a tutorial on the synth sounds of Stranger Things The story of the Kate Bush renaissance from The Ringer Songs Discussed Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein - Stranger Things Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill Dead Or Alive - You Spin Me Round Talking Heads - Psycho Killer Musical Youth - Pass the Dutchie  Carly Rae Jepsen - Cut To The Feeling The Weeknd - Blinding Lights  Prince - When Doves Cry Phil Collins - Sussudio Tangerine Dream - Sorcerer Theme Song John Carpenter - Night S U R V I V E - A.H.B. S U R V I V E - High Rise  Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein - Eggo in the Snow Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein - She Wants Me to Find Her Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein - Starcourt Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein - Eight Fifteen Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein - Boys and Girls Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein - The Ceiling is Beautiful Kate Bush - Waking the Witch Kate Bush - Hammer Horror Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It's free for iOS users. Welcome to Switched on Pop. I'm songwriter Charlie Harding. And I'm musicologist Nate Sloan. Nate, when I play this on the piano, what do you hear? I hear a C major seven chord. Okay, and if I play it a little more arpeggiated? I don't know, maybe the background of an ad for anti-depression medication or something. How about if it's fully orchestrated?

Okay, now I've got it. That's the theme song for the Netflix show, Stranger Things, which I have seen exactly one and a half episodes of. But I remember the theme. It's very memorable. It is very memorable. This theme has arguably changed music. I actually emailed the people from Reverb.com.

They're one of the biggest online marketplaces for Instagram. instruments. And they said that keyboards and synthesizers have outpaced the growth of guitars by 50% this year. And that Stranger Things might have a little bit to do with it. In fact, they have a video of how to make Stranger Things sounds that has been viewed 1.5 million times. People like this theme song. Wow. So this is having the same effect that the Hunger Games did on archery. I hadn't thought of it that way. Yeah. After the Hunger Games, came out, kids across the world went and bought a bow and arrow. After Stranger Things came out, kids around the world went out and bought a synthesizer.

I don't know if you're pulling my leg. Which part? The archery. It is verifiable, snopes it, it checks out. I'm feeling very confident about this analogy. I can at least say that the latter part is correct because it seems everybody wants to recreate this sound. Here's just a few examples from YouTube. So, season four of this Netflix show, Stranger Things,

has dropped recently. We're currently, actually, mid-season, because we're still waiting for the final two episodes, which will air in July. Oh, wow. Okay. And this time, the show has not only upended, the synthesizer market,

it has upended popular music. Okay, break that down for me. It's actually start by going to a listener for their take. Hey, Charlie and Nate. This is Prunile from Malma in Sweden. Like many others, I've had my love for Kate Bush reignited recently by hearing running up that hill

on Stranger Things. And I just love those gloomy synth moods and beautifully strange vocal touches that she has. I'm really hoping that you can help me understand what it is that makes this song so evocative and how it can have such a broad appeal still now almost 40 years after its release. Well, that's cool. First of all, maybe the first listener voicemail we've had from Sweden, we'd have to verify that, but that's fun. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any others.

And so you're telling me, in addition to repopularizing the synthesizer, this new season of Stranger Things, has also reignited people's knowledge and affection of Kate Bush's song Running Up a Hill. That's exactly right. The Kate Bush song, Running Up That Hill, is part of a pivotal plot point in this new season of Stranger Things. And it has reignited people's love for it. For many people, they're hearing it for the first time. The song is doing so well that it's actually charting today better than it did when it was originally released in 1985. It's currently at number two in the UK. It had gone to number three originally. Right now it's in the top 10 on the Hot 100 in the United States.

It only went to 30 back in the day. And so this song has crossed over from Netflix to Gen Z discovering it on TikTok. It's now playing on radio again. It's rising up the charts. It's always fascinating when songs. crash back onto the charts after like decades-long absences. So maybe we can listen a little closer and try and understand what people are hearing in this Kate Bush track. Okay, let's start from the top where we hear these almost haunting synth pad sounds.

And then a propulsive drum groove enters and an iconic synth lead. I mean, we're not five seconds into this song and I'm already hooked. Yeah. Let's break down some of these elements. So haunting pads. I think that was a good description, Charlie. But then these like propulsive driving drums, why do they sound so awesome for lack of a better word?

Well, they're really familiar because they're made from the Lindrum, which is one of the first sample-based drum machines. We associate it with acts like prints. It has a particular sound that when we hear it, we're taken right to the 80s, especially because of that snare drum. Like if you isolate the snare drum on the lind drum, it's dry, kind of basic.

Now, if you were to put some reverb on it, it sounds like this. But if you want to make it super 80s, you've got to use that gated snare sound, that Phil Collins-y kind of drum, artificial reverb. The reverb ends too quickly. Yeah, I didn't like that. No, that is the sound. Really?

Oh, yeah. Okay, wait, give it to me again. Okay, so hearing it in context, I like it because it feels a little unnatural in a very compelling way. Yeah, like everything from the 80s. Yeah, interesting. Okay, so those are the drums, but what about the sound that I can only describe as, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, that's about it. That's exactly how they made it.

Oh, really? No. That's the sound of the fair light. CMI. It was one of the first digital samplers. So it wasn't Kate Bush at the mic going, kind of. It's a really strange artificial sound. You know, this fairly primitive technology in the 80s was at the time extremely expensive. This device sold anywhere from $20,000 to $70,000. And Kate Bush owned one. She had been exposed to it by the musician Peter Gabriel, who she'd collaborated with. And the album she made previously to Hounds of Love, which running up that Hill is from, costs so much money that her record label is getting pretty upset.

And so she actually built a home studio based around this Fairlight CMI where she could experiment endlessly and make weird sounds. So I imagine Kate Bush sitting in her home studio experimenting with these funny samples. And I actually have a digital recreation of the synthesizer. So I tried to see if I could do what she did. I think she used this really cheesy cello sample that then if you kind of put it into that melody and if you process it and pitch bend it and make it really kind of goofy with some delay and reverb

Whoa! That was really close, Charles. I think I did an okay job. There's probably some other layers on this thing. I said close, not perfect, so I'll take what I can get. Okay, so recap, we've got that synthpad sound. We've got the propulsive Lindrum sound. We've got this iconic digital lead sound that is cello-esque. I don't think that these things alone are sufficient to make this the song that is rising back up the charts.

You know, there were other big songs that were placed on stranger things that haven't done the same thing. Great songs that are alive, you spinning around. Talking head, Psycho Killer. And my favorite musical placement that hasn't gone back up the charts, musical youths past the duchy. These were all great songs in their time, still great songs, all played on Stranger Things, but it was the Kate Bush song that broke out.

And I think our job is to figure out what made it stand out. Why is it perfectly integrated into the show in a way that is made to capture our attention? Cool. Warning. Minor spoilers ahead. Are they scary? Terrifying. Oh, God. Okay. Let me gird myself. Are you girded?

I'm girded. Well girded. Okay, let's start with the obvious reasons of why this song is a success. I think first and foremost, nostalgia for the 1980s in film, television, and music is at its peak. Stranger Things has capitalized on this 80s cultural nostalgia since the very beginning in the same way that pop stars have. from Carly Ray Jepson, of course, the weekend. Not only are we in a period of Aedes and the Selja, priming us to be ready for Kate Bush's return, but placing it in Stranger Things is important

because Stranger Things Season 4 has broken streaming records. It was Netflix's most-watched English TV show going to number one in 91 countries in front of seasons 1, 2, and 3, which are the next three most watched things on Netflix. Yes. Wow, that's remarkable. Okay.

So if you're getting placed on this show, you've got a lot of people who are you going to hear it. Again, there were other good songs that were also placed. So why this one? I think it has to do with how it was integrated into the show. Okay. Right. Now, first of all, this season takes place in 1986. The song came out in 1985.

So good timing for the actual plot of the show. Indeed. And it's used diagetically the first time we hear it. Whoa. Okay. Modern Culture and Media over here. What, right, diageatically, what does that mean? It means that the music is actually happening within the world of the TV show.

It's not just soundtracking background music, but it's being experienced by the people in the show. So if you have a scene like in Stranger Things where the character Max is walking down the hallway with her Walkman over her ears, and you're hearing Kate Bush's running up that hill, it's happening for that character and it's happening for us, it's happening diageatically. Diagellically. And it's happening in this way where it's like, it's this locker room scene

that's like a John Hughes-style film, again, very 80s reference nostalgia. The drumbeat gives the character Max this sort of strut in her step. And the lyrics play into this character's narrative. In season three, Max tragically lost her stepbrother, Billy, who's been killed by a monster, and she's sort of contemplating, like, I would like to be able to trade places with you. The song literally says, if I could only make a deal with God and get him to swap our places.

So the lyrics are matching what's happening in Max's life. It also helps that the character Max is played by the actor Sadie Sink, who most recently had been seen in Taylor Swift's epic all too well short film, which was viewed over 67 million times on YouTube. Okay, now you're speaking my language. We got that driving drum groove, the lyrics which matched the character, who is having a moment in culture, and it's actually part of the story. This is a little wonky here.

Again, small spoiler, but there is a monster in season four. Yeah, you already dropped that. It's too late for that spoiler, but go ahead. This monster has one weakness. If you're listening to your favorite music, he is unable to successfully haunt you. Wow. So if I'm listening to Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley, I will be protected from this monster. You're not about to Rick roll the entire show.

It's not my favorite song, but it is a pretty catchy number. It could be good. I feel like it would be a good monster wording incantation. So it has this integral role in the narrative of the show. Which means that we hear the hook of the song over and over again, right? So we are definitely set up to get that hook stuck in our ears to the point where we're like, I need to go hear that again one more time. But more importantly, I think that this song fits seamlessly into this iconic score of stranger things,

which we're going to hear right after the break. Euforia of Calvin Klein, the new collection elixir, three new elixires perfumintest, Tens Solar, Magnetic, Vol. Pulsed in the banner, do you know, and discover your fragrance euphoria. Convially, You know,

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a month in Shopify at WordPress For me, when I hear this theme song,

I think Stranger Things and when I hear this drum groove, I think Kate Bush's

song, which fits really well into Stranger Things. That's because this show, which has

found many people falling in love with old 80s analog synthesizers again. shares a lot of the same musical language as Kate Bush.

And I figured if anyone knew how those things connected, probably these two guys. Hi, I'm Kyle Dixon. Hi, I'm Michael Stein. We're members of the band Survive. And together we score Stranger Things. Oh, hello. Hello, composers. Turns out Michael and Kyle got the Stranger Things gig in a very fun way.

The Duffer Brothers who made Stranger Things had a demo trailer that used their band survive as background music. So their music's already pretty haunting. Yep. And definitely a good pick to fit the Stranger Things vibe. So they score that theme, which has become so iconic. It's simple, but very memorable. So I ask them what makes it work? Musically, oh, it's because there's like all these hidden notes that we snuck in there, you know.

It's really, really complicated, advanced musical theory, microtonal stuff, you know, all kinds of, Fancy tricks. I get the sense they're being sarcastic. Yeah, they're maybe nagging themselves for the simplicity of the melody, but Michael explains that it's actually much more sophisticated than it sounds. Oh, if it was just the arpeggio that people know it for, I don't think it would be as popularized. The song is way more than that simple little arpeggio melody.

Actually has over 80 tracks in it, where something's always moving and swelling and setting the mood in just the right way. It's also in a major scale, but I don't know what key it really is. It's a minor. It's a minor. I'm pretty minor. Or C major, whichever way.

I think musically, it represents a lot of elements of the show where it's kind of dark. It's kind of ominous. Yet it's still neutral and still gets you excited enough without really leaning to any real direction. Kind of like that Kate Bush song, which is in a minor key, but uses lots of major chords, the Stranger Things theme has moments of both darkness and lightness in it. It is kind of constantly trading places. I asked them what influences they drew on to make that soundscape. We definitely had influences that come from a lot of the same places like Tandrine Dream,

like John Carpenter. We've definitely, in some of our band's work, have directly referenced, I feel like very obviously Kate Bush. Yeah. There's sometimes like little melodies that will play. There's like these just little melodies that we use and it's like we always refer to him and it's like that's the you know and then the

Kate Bush part comes in. Also the like pitchy brass. The like always kind of remaking that sound. If we can sneak that in anything we will. It's a great sound. Good melody. That's a good That's a really good song.

I mean, I love hearing some of the influences there from Kate Bush to these other 80s pioneers. The sound world is so rich, those deep bass synthesizers. Regardless of which of these songs you're listening to, it really puts you in a very specific place in time. And I think that's why all of the songs in this constellation are so effective. Yeah, it's a period piece. This whole thing is just 1980s in a blender. And if you've watched the show, you realize that the soundtrack is very much in Sympatico with Kate Bush. So I thought what we could do is take a survey of some of the original soundtracks from Stranger Things.

And you're going to hear a lot of those Kate Bush sounds. Take, for example, that pad that we heard at the opening of running up that hill. Yeah. There's no place to start. There's just countless pad like this throughout Stranger Things. Here's Ego and the Snow, or the piece she wants me to find her. Yep. What was our next instrument?

The propulsive lind drums. Michael and Kyle told me that they love using lindrum sounds and that we hear their process samples from that drum machine throughout Stranger Things. I think I hear it on the song StarCort. Lots of reverb. That leaves us with... What was that other sound that I can't remember the name of it?

Eo! That's the one. That's the Fairlight. Reverb, delayed, affected cello, sample. I'll be very impressed if you find this one in the Stranger Things score. So they don't have a Fairlight CMI.

They have dozens, dozens of synthesizers in their studio. They do have lots of those very squealy lead sounds that feel like those Kate Bush melodies that they were talking about. Here's a piece they scored called 815.

Or the piece, the ceiling is beautiful. Different timbre, but same kind of vibe. Same world, for sure. We'll give it to you, check. I'm hearing it. But the one that really caught my ear is one we actually haven't listened to yet, and that is the creepy, horrific sounds that are actually on running up that hill

that feel like they could have been in a horror sci-fi soundtrack. You hear that really eerie, sort of like buzzy, high... That thing? It's actually a monster? No. Oh, okay. It's actually a Russian folk instrument. called a balalaika. Oh, yeah. Like a stringed, like a guitar, kind of, a stringed plectrum instrument.

Three strings, triangle body, sounds like this. It's just kind of in there as a texture. It's super eerie, you know? Yeah. It's being used in a way that makes it sound almost unrecognizable, so it's like a little unsettling. Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. And if you're looking for horror sounds on the Stranger Thing soundtrack, I mean, you don't have to look far. Here's one called digging. Like that could be a hammer and a bee buzzing. That's scary. I don't like that. You don't know what it is.

It's out there. And this is not a one-time thing for Kate Bush. She isn't to the world of horror sounds. She has a song called Waking the Witch on the same album. Wake up. Whoa. I mean, basically that song has been haunted by some demon, right? Wow, that is very cinematic.

It's not the most terrifying. Oh, no. I can't handle anymore. My poor heart. I think that her 1978 song, Hammer Horror, has got to take the cake.

An article from the Ringer quotes NPR music critic Anne Powers is saying that this song, Hammer Horror, is named for the British studio behind classic horror movies like Dracula and The Curse of Frankenstein. I don't know about you,

but those sounds are so terrifying that, yeah. I think the witch one was scarier, but point taken. I don't know, Nate. Maybe I've taken you too far afield from running up that hill because even that song has some super creepy elements in it. Check out what happens at the end. There are demonic voices everywhere.

Wow, is that Kate Bush's voice pitched down to sound like her evil doppelganger or something? She's the only credited vocalist, so yeah, I think we should assume that that is her voice, but pitched down and manipulated to be totally and utterly terrifying. Let's pause to commend not only the arsenal of spoofing, that Kate Bush has mustard over the course of this episode. Yeah. But just what an incredibly innovative, visionary, far-reaching artist she is. Yeah.

I mean, you listen to these 1985 songs and they sound so, I mean, they sound of their era like we've been talking about. Sure. But they also sound so contemporary in so many ways. It's like she captures the sound of the 80s, but also seems to forecast so many things, vocal processing and manipulation that are like kind of coming around. around the bend. So what an astonishing artist, honestly. Yeah, that's exactly right. I had a longer conversation with Michael and Kyle that we're going to run as a bonus episode. And in it, they told

me how this soundtrack, which might make you think of the 1980s, is actually very contemporary. It's using contemporary film score ideas, but using instruments of that era. They said that had they scored it like a 1980s horror score, it would have been much cheesier. It wouldn't have the kind of intense jump scares that we expect today. And kind of like you said, Kate Bush's music also sounds quite contemporary. It fits in with the rest of the 80s sounding stuff that we're hearing on the radio. And I think that's why they are so perfectly integrated. When people wonder, why is this song working out so well, why is this legacy song going up the charts?

It's connected with the biggest TV show and streaming at this moment. It's interwoven into the narrative, played multiple times so that we hear the hook over and over and over again. And it's in perfect conversation with a soundtrack that many viewers have absolutely fallen in love with or been horrified by. I love that. The song of the moment is from 1985 and it's Kate Bush's running up the hill, peaking at number two on the UK charts. There's some justice there. That's all I got. And that's all I need, Charles.

Switched on Pop is edited by Jolie Myers, engineered by Brandon McFarland, illustrations by Iris Gottlieb, community management by Abby Barr, Our executive producers, Manishak Karwa and Hanna Rosen, who are a member of the Vox Media Podcast Network in the production of Vulture. And I want to say a special thanks to the website Revereb Machine, which makes synthesizer presets. They share the MIDI data for the drum groove from running up that hill. You can find Reverb Machine in our show notes.

You can find more episodes of Switchedon Pop anywhere you get podcasts and our website, switchdumpop.com. Tell us what are your favorite musical cues in Stranger Things and or your favorite Kate Bush track. on Twitter and Instagram at Switched-on Pop. You'll also find out all those places. We'll be posting a bonus episode, as I said, a longer conversation with Michael and Kyle

from Survive, who scored Stranger Things. If you want to get deep into the soundtrack, we get very nerdy. We'll be back next Tuesday with a brand new episode, continuing our explorations of the intersection of music and television because I sat down with Robert Glasper,

who scored the HBO C. series winning time about the 1980s Lakers Dynasty. He's also an incredible jazz pianist. We talked about basketball, jazz scoring. It's a really fun conversation. Yeah, and if you've been listening closely, you might think that, wait a minute, you skipped a chartbreakers episode. Don't worry.

It's still going to happen later this summer. But until then, we'll catch you on Tuesday. Thanks for listening.