Kate Bush loves how Stranger Things used her music

The fourth season of Stranger Things is a bona fide mega-hit on Netflix. The show is packed with young actors making their names off it, buth the breakout star of the fourth season may be 63-year-old British singer Kate Bush, whose 1985 song “Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)” features prominently in a scene where Max (Sadie Sink) faces down the sinister Vecna.

“Running Up That Hill” was a hit when it came out, but Stranger Things has propelled it to new heights. “[Stranger Things] is such a great series, I thought that the track would get some attention,” Bush said during an interview with Woman’s Hour on BBC Radio 4, her first in years. “But I just never imagined that it would be anything like this. It’s so exciting. But it’s quite shocking really, isn’t it? I mean, the whole world’s gone mad!”

"What’s really wonderful is that this is a whole new audience. In a lot of cases, they’ve never heard of me. And I love that! The thought of all these really young people hearing the song for the first time and discovering it, I think it’s very special."

Kate Bush has been a fan of Stranger Things since the first season

Bush says she rarely listens to her old music, so it’s been fun for her to hear it used in a new context. “I think they’ve put it in a really special place. I mean, the Duffer Brothers created the series and, actually, we watched it from the first season onwards, so I was already familiar with the series. And I thought what a lovely way for the song to be used in such a positive way – you know, as a kind of talisman, almost, for Max. And yeah, I think it’s very touching, actually.”

"They’ve really put it in a very special place, and I think music is very special. It’s different from all other art forms, isn’t it, in a way. All art forms sit in their own space, but music has a way of touching people."

It’s cool to hear that Bush has been a fan of Stranger Things since the beginning; no wonder she signed off on the Duffer brothers using it in the fourth season. “It’s lovely because in a similar way to Harry Potter, where in those early films they were just little kids, and then as the film has progressed, it becomes heavier and darker. And those little kids turn into really talented, young adult actors. And you have a different connection with something that’s moved through years really of watching them grow.”

Kate Bush’s music was almost used in Thor: Love and Thunder

When it rains, it pours. As if featuring in one of the hottest shows of our time wasn’t enough, Bush’s music was very nearly going to appear in Thor: Love and Thunder, as Christian Bale (Gorr the God Butcher) told Total Film.

“[Director Taika Waititi] and I wanted to do a whole dance, which we didn’t get to do, but we had all this sort of Kate Bush stuff that we worked at,” Bale said. “I think he just realized he was never going to be allowed to put that in the final film.”

I guess Bush will just have to settle for a big career renaissance and not a staggeringly huge one.

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h/t Stylist