When Stranger Things showed how music pulls you from depression and fear: Metallica solo to Kate Bush

With Stranger Things 5 is just around the corner, it seemed like a good time to rewatch the previous season that released almost three years ago.

The details were a tad foggy. But apart from the Russian rescue where Winona Ryder’s Joyce decides to save David Harbour’s Hopper who survived the Season 3’s fiery explosion by just…jumping out of the way,  Season 4 was filled with some brutal, brilliant moments, which were mostly to do with Sadie Sink’s Max and the wonderfully jumble of Eddie Munsen.

We’ll miss you, sweet Eddie. *Grabs tissue*

And one such moment, was the resurgence of Kate Bush’s Running up that Hill, practically became the show’s heartbeat. It plays out in a scene that is almost cinematic, and truly deserved to be watched in the film theatre. In the scene, Vecna, the heinous and deformed entity of the Upside Down, zeroes in on Max, owing to her guilt surrounding her brother. He is about to kill her in the most grotesque manner, till her desperate friends play her favourite song: Running up that hill.

As Vecna threatens to end her for good: The song softly plays, and a terrified Max sees a portal of hope as the monstrosity of red swirls around her. She remembers the only happy moments in her life, when she felt loved. She hears Lucas, her ex and devoted well-wisher telling her that he didn’t want a goodbye letter from her: He needed her to talk to him. The memories swarm, as she remembers her times with the squad, with Eleven (Millie Bobby-Brown). She feels a surge of strength, stabs Vecna and rushes to the portal, as the song echoes in the background to reunite with her loved ones.

It’s a searingly bittersweet scene, layered with meaning. Beyond the message of friendship pulling you out of the grip of despair—because that’s exactly what Vecna feeds on—it stands as a reminder of something powerful and universal: music can save you.

It brings the storm. It brings the calm, and you somehow take what it gives you, because it just soothes a frazzled soul in that moment. There is no particular ‘kind’ of music that really saves a person, even if people argue for gentle instrumentals. Sometimes, even a wistful one like Running up that Hill, filled with a kind of hope and desperation, does so too, and that’s what happens to Max.

The scene is still oddly comforting to watch. How often, does music help us remember what depression makes us forget. There is no single genre that heals. Sometimes it’s not gentle instrumentals, but something aching and urgent—like Running Up That Hill. And later, it’s Eddie shredding Metallica’s Master of Puppets as demonic bats circle him, the sky glowing red and electric.

Considering Stranger Things is set in the 80s and leans deeply into nostalgia, one of the show’s strongest moments has been its knack of using songs just at the right time: Be it California Dreaming, or reminding people of the power of Kate Bush.