The ‘Stranger Things’ Season 4 Soundtrack Is an ‘80s Nostalgia Trip
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Music has always been a huge part of Stranger Things, and we're not even talking about the incredible synth-driven original score by composers Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein. While Dixon & Stein's music largely helps to create the mood and aesthetic that so defines the nostalgic horror vibe of Stranger Things, it's the expertly-chosen needle drops that really give the show its moments. Who can forget Will and Jonathan bonding over "Should I Stay or Should I Go" by The Clash back in Season 1? How about Eleven and Max bonding in the mall while Madonna's "Material Girl" played in Season 3? There are few things that can help create a mental association as well as a well-placed musical cue, and Stranger Things music supervisor Nora Felder is great at creating just that.
Season 4 of Stranger Things has no shortage of those, but there's one familiar motif that comes up again and again, and may just be stuck in your head for a couple weeks: the music of Kate Bush. Stranger Things does quite a nice job of establishing "Running Up That Hill" as Max's favorite song; Max, we know, is a character in a precarious place. She's relatively new to Hawkins, she's coming from a broken home, and now she's just lost her stepbrother, Billy. And while Billy was an asshole, he was the closest thing she had to a close family member.
So Max escapes in her music, and her music, most of the time, is Kate Bush. Stranger Things uses monsters as metaphors for real issues in Season 4, from depression to anxiety. And we won't spoil too much, but the show makes a not-too-subtle but completely true point: music can save your life. We all have those songs that can save us from the darkest of moments; the songs that can change a mood from the very first note. And Stranger Things knows that too.
But that's just one aspect of things. Stranger Things 4 picks its soundtrack well, as usual, and in turn gives viewers a whole new mixtape of '80s classics to obsess over this summer.
Stream the full soundtrack here.
Episode 1
“California Dreamin’” - The Beach Boys
“Object of My Desire” - Starpoint
“Running Up That Hill” - Kate Bush
“I Was a Teenage Werewolf” - The Cramps
“Chica Mejanita” - Mae Arnette
“Play With Me” - Extreme
“Detroit Rock City” - KISS
“The Red Army is the Strongest” - The Red Army Choir
“Got Your Number” - The Lloyd Langton Group
“Fever” - The Cramps
Episode 2
“You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)” - Dead or Alive
“Rock Me Amadeus (The Gold Mix)” - Falco
“Tarzan Boy” - Baltimora
“Wipe Out” - K-Tel Version
“Psycho Killer” - Talking Heads
“Monologue de Ibn-Haki-Scene 5” - The National Bolshoi Orchestra
“Diamonds and Emeralds” - The Interior Castle
“Burning Up” - Donnell Pitman
“Tons of Wet - Surf Time” - Noma
Episode 3
“Guardian Angel” - Fergus MacRoy
“In Transit to Bermuda” - Dorian Zero
Episode 4
“Pass the Dutchie” - Musical Youth
“Dream a Little Dream of Me” - Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong
“Running Up That Hill” - Kate Bush
“March of the Defenders of Moscow” - The Red Army Choir
“Legless” - Hipbone Slim
“Hard Feelings” - Al Kerby
Episode 5
“Travelin’ Man” - Ricky Nelson
“Running up That Hill” - Kate Bush
“Nina, o sia la Pazza per Amore” - Cecilia Bartoli
“David Searches” - Arthur B. Rubinstein (Wargames Soundtrack)
“Time’s Up” - Arthur B. Rubinstein (Wargames Soundtrack)
Episode 6
“Pass the Dutchie” - Musical Youth
“Violin Concerto in D Major Op 35 III Finale: Allegro Assai Vivace” - Erich Wolfgang Korngold
“Snow Maiden, Op. 12-Chorus of the Courtiers - Act 1 - Russian State Orchestra “Cavatine et Rondo d’Antonida”
“Cutthroat” - S U R V I V E
Episode 7
“Dream A Little Dream Of Me” - Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong
“Running Up That Hill” - Kate Bush
“Prophecies” - Philip Glass
“Akhnaten Act 1, Scene 3: The Window of Appearances” - Philip Glass
“Akhnaten, Act II, Scene 2, Akhnaten and Nefertiti” - Philip Glass
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