News : ‘Stranger Things’ creators on Kate Bush viral moment: “You can’t really manufacture it”

The creators of Stranger Things, Matt and Ross Duffer, have looked back on the Netflix show’s popularity, in particular the Kate Bush viral moment from season four.

In the most recent season Kate Bush’s 1985 classic ‘Running Up That Hill’ plays a significant role in Max’s (Sadie Sink) story line. The character becomes trapped in a dark dimension by the powerful enemy Vecna. Her friends try to rescue her by playing the song, her favourite, as it helps Max resist the villain’s influence.

The popularity of the moment, and the show itself, led to the song becoming popular on social media, with a new generation discovering Bush’s work. The song went to one billion streams in the summer of 2023, with Bush herself thanking fans “for sending this song on such an impossibly astonishing journey. I’m blown away”.

“You can’t really manufacture it,” Matt Duffer told Variety when looking back on its popularity. “If you try to manufacture it, you’re almost guaranteed for it to not hit” he said. “The Kate Bush thing, I thought that episode was cool, and I love Kate Bush. But no, I wasn’t expecting it to resonate with Gen Z in a particular way. But that is one of the fun things about putting it out”.

He puts it down to the difference between what resonates with viewers and themselves, saying: “I know the things we’re excited about, but usually, from the Kate Bush aspect of it, those come out of left field. I’m sure that will happen again.

“That’s part of the cool thing: You put it out into the world, and it does things that you expect and then does things that you don’t expect”.

The fifth and final season of Stranger Things has recently finished filming. Star Millie Bobby Brown shared an emotional video of her reading a farewell letter to the cast and crew, while co-star Finn Wolfhard has said he will “miss all of my friends and our characters terribly”.