Prince: The Effects of ‘Stranger Things’ on Streaming Songs

As already happened previously with other great classics of the Eighties, the last episode of “Stranger Things” is contributing to the rediscovering Prince’s iconic musicdemonstrating once again how capable the Netflix series is of offering timeless songs for a contemporary audience. “When doves cry” and “Purple rain” (here is our in-depth analysis), two of the most famous pieces in the late artist’s repertoire, were chosen as the soundtrack to key moments of the season finale, arousing an immediate impact on streaming ratings.

Since the episode was broadcast on New Year’s Eve, as reported by “Variety”, “Purple rain” recorded a 243% increase in global streams on Spotify and a 577% surge in streams from Generation Z, while “When doves cry” he saw grow its audience by 200% globallywith a 128% increase among younger users. Overall, Prince’s entire catalog saw a 190% growth in streamswith an 88% increase among Gen Z listeners, confirming how the evocative power of 80s music can still conquer new generations today.

The two songs have been inserted with great narrative care: while the heroes of the series place the explosives to destroy the Upside Down and the X dimension once and for all, the B-side of Prince’s 1984 album “Purple Rain” accompanies the sequence, starting from “When doves cry” and culminating in the title track. It is precisely “Purple Rain” that acts as the background to a key scene, making the musical choice central to the emotional impact of the episode.

It should not be forgotten that these songs have rarely been used in television productions outside of the soundtrack of the film “Purple rain”. “We were told that was really a long shot, so we just kept our fingers crossed“, Matt Duffer told Netflix Tudum after the premiere of the finale. Co-creator Ross Duffer added: “We have never discussed the choice of a song for as long as we did at that moment. And this is precisely the most exciting aspect: it had never been used before. Prince’s estate generally does not allow those songs to be licensed outside of the ‘Purple Rain’ movie.”

Thanks to Stranger Things, Prince’s music – as previously happened with, among others, “Running up that hill” by Kate Bush and “Master of puppets” by Metallica – returns to capture the attention of the general public, confirming the indissoluble bond between 1980s pop culture and the new generations of listeners (here is the list of songs from the finale and here is the official playlist).