Why have Gen Z got Kate Bush to No. 1?
Synths fade into the soundscape. Drums thunder into an anxious heartbeat. Suddenly: an unmistakable whining hook. Hearing ‘Running up that Hill’s echoing delay for the first time at 15, I was bewitched. After being sucked into a 40 year-long discography, I was indoctrinated into the church of Kate Bush. And as of this month, it would appear that the rest of generation Z has had a similar experience . Since 17th June 2022, Bush’s 1985 track has reached Number 1 in the UK charts.
44 years since Bush’s previous (and until last week, only) Number 1, Bush stands as the artist with the longest gap between Number 1s. Only entering 1985 charts at Number 3, the track has also officially taken the position as the track that has taken the longest to reach Number 1 (36 years). What’s more, having originally reached Number 1 age 19 with ‘Wuthering Heights’ in 1978, Bush is now officially both the youngest and the oldest woman to hit Number one. Forgive me for smothering you with stats, but I couldn’t pick just one.
After being similarly subjected with them, Bush herself seemed a little dazed. During an interview with Women’s Hour presenter Emma Barnett this Tuesday, she said ‘It’s so exciting. But it’s quite shocking really, isn’t it? I mean, the whole world’s gone mad’.
While extreme, the public’s interest in the song was not wholly unexpected. The track was featured in the latest series of Netflix’s sci-fi original, Stranger Things. Bush, who had been watching since season 1, said to Barnett ‘I mean it’s such a great series, I thought that the track would get some attention, but I just never imagined that it would be anything like this. The thought of all these really young people hearing the song for the first time and discovering it is, well, I think it’s very special’.
She’s not wrong – TikTok has been flooded with young fans using the song on videos, and Stranger Things cast member Sadie Sink admitted ‘I did not know Kate Bush beforehand’ before becoming ‘increasingly more obsessed, and then I was listening to her all the time’.
Look – I don’t want to be that person, but the urge to tweet about listening to her first is strong. There’s something about hearing a drum and base Kate Bush remix come on at the club that, I must admit, fills me with a little possessive rage.
Putting it as Barnett did, ‘there’s lots of people who have held you dear to their hearts for a long time, who are probably feeling quite protective’. After parents’ initial jolt of indignation upon being asked by their teenagers if they had heard of Kate Bush, it seems more are gleefully bonding over their mutual love.
So – why is this cross generational appreciation possible? Why did one sci-fi cameo spiral into an international month-long Kate Bush appreciation party? Why are Gen Z hooked?
The genius herself might have hit the nail on the head when talking to Barnett about how Stranger Things used her track; ‘I thought, what a lovely way for the song to be used in such a positive way, as a kind of talisman’.
It’s that talismanic quality which is so characteristic of Bush’s work. Religiously intense, surprisingly narrative and often absurd – there’s an indescribable wizardry at play in everything she makes.
After being fed a taste of the Kate Bush magic, it’s no surprise that the youngest generation crawled down the rabbit hole. And from my perspective, hearing ‘Running up that hill’ on Radio 1 and in my local Pop-World can be no bad thing.
Words by Kate Bowie
