The Netflix series “Stranger Things” has revived the title “Running Up That Hill”, which has once again become the hit of the moment, nearly forty years after its release. Nora Felder talks about her role as musical coordinator of this hit series.
Running Up That Hilltitre de Kate Bush of 1985, was the hit of the summer of 2022. The 30 May, after the broadcast of the first episodes of the season 4 of Stranger Things on Netflix, listens to this song had “increased by 8 700% in the world” on Spotify, according to data from the market-leading music platform. And the most curious have even gone as far as other old titles from the Englishwoman, since listening to her repertoire has “increased by 1 600%” on Spotify at the same time.
“It’s not just about sitting down with a song idea” : the American Nora Felder talks about her role as musical coordinator of the hit series.
“It’s amazing! We knew it would be special, because when we used the Should I Stay or Should I Go clashes in the season 1, there was a jump in plays, with renewed interest. But we did not imagine the magnitude for Kate Bush“, says Nora Felder to AFP.
The Emmy Award, a prestigious American award received this year for his work on Stranger Things, now allows her to speak in front of a larger audience during the conferences she leads. As she will do this week at the Parisian music festival MaMA (which had already invited her before she was in the spotlight). “People think you just have to come up with a great song and that’s it. !”, laughs about her activity the American, with this last expression dropped in French.
“In reality, we coordinate all the aspects around the music of a project, whether it’s the creative part – choosing music – but also the definition of budgets, the negotiation of rights, determining whether it is better to create a soundtrack and engage composer and musicians”details the one who also worked for the series Californication et Ray Donovan.
Grown up in Washington, the 50-year-old has a solid background in the music industry. She notably worked in New York, first as a programmer in a club, before being spotted and recruited by producer Phil Ramone for recordings by Paul Simon, Sinead O’Connor, Cyndi Lauper and Iggy Pop.
The one who has now set up her company in Los Angeles knew that Kate Bush was “very selective” for the use of his repertoire. “I took a lot of time to reach out to his reps, lay out what that meant for the story, the characters.” “When we got the green light, it was a huge relief, because this song ticks all the boxes for this part of the show.”
At the time of the discussions, the musical coordinator did not know that Kate Bush was a fan of the series. Running Up That Hill is a pop song, which was successful as soon as it was released almost 40 years ago year. This is not the case of Master of Puppets of Metallica, whose plays have swelled on the platforms following its use in Stranger Things. It’s a pure metal title, with a complex structure, far from the ballad Nothing Else Matters which had allowed Metallica to pass on the radios with great listening.
“This track sticks to the character of Eddie, which everyone loves : some refuse metal like one refuses to open a book because of its cover, but thanks to the character of Eddie, the spectators opened the book and liked this Metallica title”dissects Nora Felder.
In return, on the day of his Emmy nomination, the Californian group had flowers and a collector’s box delivered to him. Master of Puppetsalbum de 1986. “And they even follow me on their networks ! When I saw this, I thought to myself : ‘Oh, that’s great, it’s Metallica !’ I’m still a kid when it comes to music.”