1. “Running Up That Hill” de Kate Bush avec Stranger Things
You must have heard this song somewhere after the release of Season 4 of Stranger Things in the summer of 2022. It was everywhere (and it was borderline unbearable): on the radio, at the supermarket, in the evening, in the toilets of restaurants… It must be said that the scene where Max escapes Vecna thanks to this sound made it possible to double the listening to the song on music streaming platforms. According to CBS, Kate Bush would have even received nearly 2.3 million dollars thanks to the new streams after the release of the episode in question. That’s a lot of kebabs.
2. Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” thanks to Stranger Things
Again thanks to season 4 of Stranger Things (which also boosted listens to Dead or Alive’s “You spin me round”, to tell you the truth), the song “Master of Puppets” saw its listens increase by 325% after the broadcast of the episode where Eddie takes over the music on the guitar. A rise so incredible that the members of the Metallica group split a tweet to thank Stranger Things for having chosen this title. Not as successful as “Running up that Hill”, we’re not going to lie to each other, but phew all the same.
3. “Goo Goo Muck” by The Cramps featuring Wednesday
Netflix’s most recent Wednesday Addams series also propelled the Cramps’ track “Goo Goo Muck” to the top of the charts. The song indeed arrived 26th/100 in the Spotify ranking of the most viral titles of the moment in the world. It’s all because of the scene where Wednesday dances with Tyler (which also revived goth fashion, now you know). But it must be said, the TikTok trend which consists of imitating Wednesday’s dance has also participated in re-popularizing this song (let’s give credit to Caesar, which belongs to TikTok).
4. Lady Gaga’s “Bloody Mary” Thanks to Wednesday
Speaking of TikTok, this same trend of dance imitation imagined by Jenna Ortega has earned another song a belated hit: Lady Gaga‘s Bloody Mary. In accelerated version, but all the same. Eleven years after its release, the music has ranked #1 on Shazam in six countries, and #2 trending globally. It’s Gaga who is rather happy, I’m not hiding it from you.
5. “Bella Ciao” thanks to La Casa de Papel
I’m not going to draw you a picture to show you how popular the Italian revolt song Bella Ciao was after the release of the first season of La Casa de Papel. Master Gims, Vitaa, Dadju and their friends made a cover of it, which largely proves its return to trend. No need to say more.
6. “Don’t Stop Believin” by Journey thanks to The Sopranos and Glee
This is nothing new, Glee has helped restore a lot of forgotten music (at the same time, for a series on a choir, it seems quite logical). But the one that really hit the mark following the broadcast of an episode was “Don’t Stop Believin by Journey”, so much so that the music became one of the anthems of the series, re-sung at the occasion of the 100th episode. But what you need to know is that this title had already experienced a second youth with The Sopranos. Used in the series finale, the song had received so many new plays that the band had re-motivated themselves to find a new singer.
7. “Meaning” by Cascadeur thanks to Lupin
In addition to having boosted tourism on the cliffs of Étretat and the sale of Arsène Lupin books, the series with Omar Sy gave a big boost to Cascadeur’s song “Meaning” by using it in the finale of the series. Episode 4, when Assane discovers Fabienne’s lifeless body. Today, the title has more than 2.5 million plays on Spotify thanks to this spotlight. A small death is always a pleasure for the stream.
8. “Tomorrow Never Knows” des Beatles avec “Mad Men”
Yes, the Beatles didn’t really need a new hit, but listening, it never hurts to bring songs like “Tomorrow Never Knows” back to life. This is what happened with the final scene of an episode of season 5 of Mad Men where Don Draper listens to the song on his record player on the advice of his wife. We don’t really understand where the interest was for this series to choose music with a $250,000 license fee, all that so that it would ultimately be the group that benefits from the new listenings. But hey, I didn’t do marketing so I’ll leave that to the pros.
9. Badfinger’s “Baby Blue” from Breaking Bad
No wonder a series as incr as Breaking Bad re-hit forgotten singles. And that was the case with Baby Blue from the Welsh band Badfinger. By using it as the music for the final episode where Walter White dies of his injury in his lab, the series allowed the music to place on the US Billboard chart as soon as the episode was released and to stay there for three months. And for the first time, the title even climbed the English charts. Thank you Walter White.
10. “We didn’t Start the Fire” de Billy Joel grâce à The Boys
Before The Boys, listening to Billie Joel wasn’t exactly cool. It was even a bit of a shame. And yet, the series managed to give a good polish to the music of the singer by using the song “We didn’t start the Fire” in the episode where Stella launches car karaoke with Hughie, to the great despair of La Cream. Overall, Billy Joel saw several of his songs highlighted in the series, which earned him lots of new streams, but above all a new image of a hype guy, and that is priceless.
11. “No, I don’t regret anything” by Edith Piaf thanks to Emily in Paris
Nothing shocking, you tell me. With the broadcast of this series full of clichés about Paris and the French, Americans have inevitably A-DO-RE to hear typical old music in the soundtrack. And that’s how Edith Piaf found herself number 1 in the Billboard ranking of the 10 most listened to songs in the USA in October 2020 with “No, I don’t regret anything” after the broadcast of an episode of Emily in Paris . Pff, so basic these serious Americans.
12. “Fever” by Peggy Lee thanks to the Queen’s Game
It only takes one scene to break the scores. And the one where we see Beth Harmon dancing in her living room in the series Le Jeu de la Dame allowed Peggy Lee’s song “Fever” to reach third place in the American Billboard 10 ranking, listing the most listened to titles in the United States, in October 2020.
Me, my favorite music from the series is HELLO WOOOORLD, THIS IS MEEEE-EEE! LIFE SHOULD BEEEE-EEE, FUN FOR EVERYOOOOONE.
Sources : The Dispatch, CNews, Elle, Europe 1.