Stranger Things & Prince
After watching series 4 of Stranger Things and its needle drop implementation of “Running Up That Hill” and “Master Of Puppets”, I wandered into our PPUK group chat channel and said my piece about the estate and that they should be chasing this kind of thing up. Prince’s legacy musically is both unique and precious so obviously any decision to license his music should only be made with the most serious consideration. I kinda felt after the aforementioned examples though that this was a potentially perfect scenario
As a fan as well, my motivation for thinking the estate should do this is because i love his material so much that i want other people to (think we can all speak to that). To have a soft launch introduction as part of a different whole – in this case a series that lives in the 80s when is purpleness was, well, his peak purpleness! For the estate, this is just a good business sense in the end.
The embedding of “Running Up That Hill” as character Max’s mental anchoring to reality was amazing. It spoke to the power of an individual's attachment to music and the power therein. That speaks to us all right – not many casual fans would bother reading this so “we know!” That tune deserves to be immortalized as much as possible. Weirdly there are beats (energy not drums!) of Kate Bush that put her closer to Prince in terms of energy when he is at his most unique than a very small group of other artists I can think of. For Kate Bush, it's great to feel that any demographic of a new audience picks up on her this way and of course now Prince has that too!
Metallica less so need that, being more the genre progenitor camp and always relevant in heavy music. That said in my opinion the album “Master Of Puppets”, especially relevant to when it came out, was a complete masterpiece also. Eddie Munsen and that song is beyond entwined now thanks to the inclusion.
So, flipping back to where I started off with this, there was a chasm of opportunity here with a rather voluminous collection of possibilities! I suppose if we are bias counting as well – Prince got two tracks – he wins. Logically it had to be something from the 80’s in line with the show itself and despite some fan base exhaustion with the Purple Rain era (not me i might add), this was the well they went to. It was the right one.
If a song was ever right for this application, for snagging a good earworm for a possible future fan it’s “When Doves Cry”. It's slightly off. Not conventionally arranged. Fits the montage of it all. I loved Doves before I got properly into Prince and i think bass line or not its’ about as catchy and instantly gratifying as it gets. Additionally, as it’s a more electronic track, it sonically self-dates somewhat for a more cohesive parity with the show.
Then Purple Rain lands like a freight train. “I never meant to cause you any sorrow, i never meant to cause you any pain”. If you had told me beforehand that Purple Rain was going to be used i don’t think i would have thought it would quite work but was happy to be proven completely wrong. The ambiguous lyrics fit the moment (really the main moment of the whole 5 seasons) and capture something specific about the characters involved and that moment in time. Initially i found the slowing down of the instrumental guitar motif of the tracks a little disconcerting – but will admit – its suited the whole. I watched it all through a couple of times before getting to this bit of my musing and it really does have the impact. It’s an interesting thought as well as the older generations of Prince fans gently fade into time this work will to a smaller degree be remembered by people who watched this moment and have followed this series of which there are many younger ones.
It will forever take me out of Stranger Things on re-watches as the two tunes are a far bigger part of my life than the series could ever be. It was like crossing the streams and didn’t feel quite right but i do so hope that the generation who watched Stranger Things that were not lucky enough to have been growing up in the 80s find something from another time they can hang onto, love and cherish.
As you would imagine, the Spotify streams have increased Prince’s legacy music, which is the point of the whole thing. I'm almost jealous of those who start their Prince journey here and the roads they have to travel. Little do beginners know what awaits outside of the Purple Rain era sound and how much they will have to go at.
What would Prince have thought of this? Impossible to say as judging by the purported lack of a will, I'm not sure if he really considered the “after” that much – in terms of the world he left behind regarding his music. As an IP to be attached to generally, this does feel right. How would he look at such a nostalgic lens with it being based in the 80’s from a personal perspective? He never looked back, right? That said the pop culture stamp that was him from that decade being saluted in this way i like to think that he wouldn't mind too much – it’s the ultimate compliment.
The bottom line is he is too important as a creator of music to fade into silence. Too unique, music so diverse and all those hits. It's not that strange a thing really.
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