“Stranger Things” music supervisor Nora Felder emerged victorious at Sunday’s Creative Arts Emmys, winning Outstanding Music Supervision for the season 4 episode “Dear Billy,” the one that turned a Kate Bush song from almost 40 years in a success again. In her acceptance speech, Felder especially thanked Bush (and Metallica, whose music also appeared in Season 4).
The episode highlights Bush’s 1985 song “Running Up That Hill (Make a Deal with God)”, which empowers the character Max (Sadie Sink) to fight evil. After the series’ fourth season premiered on Netflix in May, the track began popping up around the world, fueled in large part by conversations on social media. It reached #1 on iTunes and by July, the “Running Up That Hill” video had reached 100 million views on YouTube. (As of this writing, it’s now up to 127 million.)
Felder chose the track because he felt the lyrics perfectly captured Max’s experience. as she said Variety, “In the face of Max’s painful isolation and alienation from others, a ‘deal with God’ could heartbreakingly reflect Max’s implicit belief that only an unlikely miracle of understanding and show of support could help her scale the hills of humanity. life before her. In Max’s situation, the need for a ‘deal with God’ can perhaps be understood metaphorically as a desperate cry for love, to manifest the extraordinary understanding and support Max needed while he felt so painfully alone.”
Securing the song was a huge coup for Felder, who had previously been nominated three times for her work on “Stranger Things.” Bush is famous for protecting his music and rarely grants permission for its use in movies and television.
But it turned out that the musician has been a fan of “Stranger Things” from the beginning, so when Felder’s request came to her, she approved. The decision ended up breathing new life into the song, the first single from her 1985 album “Hounds of Love.” In an interview with bbc one in June, Bush said: “I thought the track would turn heads. But I never imagined it would be something like this. It is so exciting. But it’s pretty shocking, right? I mean, the whole world has gone crazy.
“I think what’s really wonderful is that this is a whole new audience. In many cases, they have never heard of me. And I love that. The idea of all these young people hearing the song for the first time and discovering it is, well, I think it’s very special.
“I thought, what a beautiful way to use the song in such a positive way,” he added. You know, almost like a kind of talisman for Max. And yeah, I think it’s very moving, actually.”
