FEATURE:
Stranger Things Have Happened…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush and dancer Michael Hervieu in the video for Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush
Kate Bush’s 2022: Is It the Time That She Finally Conquers America?
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AT the time of writing this (2nd June)…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush performing Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) in 1985/PHOTO CREDIT:
ZIK Images
Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) is at the top of the iTunes chart. We could very well be looking at Kate's highest ever U.S. chart placing in the Billboard 100, beating her previous best with the same song in 1985. If Bush achieves a singles chart position in the U.K. top twenty later today, she will be the first female artist to have had top twenty U.K. hit singles in six consecutive decades: the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s and 2020s. This is all down to Stranger Things – the U.S. series on Netflix – featuring her famous Hounds of Love song. It is no surprise that the track is likely to break records and see Bush get a top twenty in the U.K. She has always been loved and supported in her home country. Whilst Bush’s music has been shown and featured on U.S. shows and films, it has not necessarily translated into a renaissance of popularity there. Bush has never been too fussed about ‘cracking America’. Hounds of Love is the album that most Americans associate with her; the one that did well in the charts, even though critical reviews were mixed. There has been a tsunami of focus and love for Kate Bush and her ‘appearance’ on Stranger Things. The song has been used prominently on one of the most popular shows on Netflix. Now sixty-three, Bush is not going to worry too much about commercial success in the U.S. Many young listeners are discovering Kate Bush in America for the first time. A nation that has never really boosted and embraced her as other nations have, the fact that she has thrice been nominated for entry into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (the latest time was this year) and denied shows that there is still this barrier and lack of understanding.
Many U.S. artists have covered her songs – in fact, Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) will get its fair share of new covers now! – and mentioned Bush as influential. Radio stations play her songs, though I suspect they are a reserved few from Hounds of Love. In fact, U.K. stations are rigid regarding which Bush tracks they play. My big hope here is that chart success means stations play deep cuts and do not endless fall back on the ‘hits’. It is great Stranger Things has helped highlight the wonders of Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God), but this is a song already heavily featured on playlists. I do wish that stations would broaden their focus and stop defining Bush as someone whose only accessible and worthwhile work is on her 1985 album! More importantly right now is the fact Generation Z is latching onto her music. I don’t think that chart success will stop in the U.S.. Other tracks from her will get new light and popularity. Other filmmakers will approach Bush to use her music. Given the fact she has been supportive and involved with Stranger Things and Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) means she might be more open to having her music used this way. I am not sure whether Bush’s opinions on American success have changed but, almost forty-five years since she recorded her 1978 debut, The Kick Inside, she has conquered America!
Not only could a high chart placing here mean that other albums and songs from her are heard and given more airplay there. I also think she will be reassessed by the media. Even when it comes to huge albums like Hounds of Love, The Sensual World, The Dreaming and Aerial, there is still a modicum of bitterness, doubt or cynicism. The chart positions have been either low or lower than in the U.K. Many feel that, as a Kate Bush-esque artist like Tori Amos is making music, then why embrace her? That perception has started to shift recently, but this new wave of success and highlighting could be significant. Of course, when Stranger Things’ fourth season has ended, there will be this dying down of talk about Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God). What happens next month and the months going forward? A new generation and fanbase will ensure that Kate Bush’s televisual explosion is not the end of things. Without new material coming forth, it is hard to say how this 2022 resurgence and chart success will translate. Of course, if there is an album coming this year, I reckon American critics and audiences are going to snap it up like they wouldn’t have done before. It is an exciting time for Bush’s music! My biggest prediction is that there will be cover versions, tributes to her, more artists in American being inspired by her and, therefore, they will make music that has elements of her sound. We might even get new books about her and a magazine article or three about the ‘Stranger Things phenomenon’. Maybe she will not go to the U.S. to do any interviews, but I would not bet against press and radio interviews coming soon. I have been rewatching interviews Bush did in America in 1985 and realising that she was getting respect and being taken seriously – quite right considering the genius of Hounds of Love. As I keep saying, if she does get chart glory and a new generation of fans in the U.S., then it is going to be…
LONG overdue.