I was talking to my kids (14-year-old girl and 11-year-old boy) the other day about music and I for some reason mentioned Kate Bush. My daughter’s jaw dropped and she said, “You know about Kate Bush? How did you become hip?” Well, I then mirrored her, with the jaw and almost the same sentence. Yes, I live under a rock, and didn’t know that the ethereal chanteuse’s 1985 hit “Running Up That Hill” is dominating today’s pop charts due to its prominent inclusion on the soundtrack of “Stranger Things.” My daughter had no idea this monster hit is nearly 40 years old.
Talk about the upside down.
Of course, if a pop star from the ‘80s were ever going to master time travel, it would be Bush. From 1978, when she topped the British pop charts at age 19 with the single “Wuthering Heights,” to 1989, when she released “The Sensual World,” Bush mated spacy synthesizer melodies and textures with an arresting, soprano voice to magical effect. Her urgent, almost operatic delivery and artistic music videos in which she boldly performed modern dance won the devotion of millions.
Yes, Kate has made other albums since then, after a long hiatus to raise a child. According to the critics, she still makes quality music, the winning hooks and hits are just missing. But why fret, when her ‘80s hits have a staying power rarely seen. “Babooshka” has also been played on top-40 stations.
When I found out about the “Running Up That Hill” phenomenon, I immediately thought of a novel I read a few years ago where the protagonist, a foolish English boy, gets himself into loads of trouble. He harbors an enduring passion for the music of Kate Bush, which struck me, a casual fan, as comically over-the-top. I was the foolish boy.
Trying to grasp how Kate resonates with Gen Z, I tuned into the “Switched on Pop” podcast, in which musicologist Nate Sloan and songwriter Charlie Harding dissect what makes today’s hits hits. Sure enough, in episode 272, Sloan and Harding expertly break it down, discussing ‘80s nostalgia, the spooky soundtrack of “Stranger Things” and diagetic songs (the people in the show are listening to the same song we the viewers are). But really, they talk a lot about Kate Bush’s genius and craft.
With her arresting beauty, Kate Bush maybe could have slapped together a couple of hits. Pretty young thing with pretty songs. It’s what shallow men like me (and many critics in the ‘80s) expected from her. But Bush is something far stranger. A little like Wynona Ryder, who always eschewed the pretty lead role for the quirky one. Again, I acknowledge the corrosive judgments and stunted imaginations of men like me about this.
But Bush was and is a true sorcerer, transcending all of that to deliver surreal stories based on literary fiction, while wringing new sounds out of exotic synthesizers. She could have shimmied in scant clothes, but instead commanded the camera with art-house shorts, as a shape shifter. In “Cloudbusting,” also from 1985’s “Hounds of Love” album, she appears in the video as a boy. Donald Sutherland appears as her (his?) inventor father.
I always knew Bush was great, with her unique delivery and songs that were high art and dance bangers at the same time. But I hadn’t grasped the depth of her vision, the all-encompassing concepts she had in the studio and while weaving her illusive, allusive lyrics. Now I know. Now multiple generations know.
Running Up that Hill – Meg Myers, First Aid Kit, Kate Bush
