Stranger Things and The Boys share more in common than just the supernatural

Louise Talbot
Jul 20, 2022, updated Jul 20, 2022

Two of the top streaming hits of the year have gone back to 1980s pop music icons for inspiration. Photo: TND

High-stakes plot lines. Explosive death scenes. The supernatural.

Netflix’s Stranger Things and Amazon Prime’s The Boys deliver these elements in spades for fans of two of the biggest streaming hits going around right now.

But it’s the 1980s music, the TV shows’ posters, and another viral TikTok trend that have fans and social media users in a spin.

Following the resurgence of Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill, thanks to a pivotal scene in season four of Stranger Things, another pop legend of the era has re-emerged.

Deborah Harry, lead singer of ’80s-rock band Blondie, has found a new, younger fanbase after a version of her 1981 rap classic Rapture was sung by The Boys villain Soldier Boy.

Expect it to explode on radio stations everywhere, just as Bush’s 1985 hit has done in recent weeks.

“Holy sh-t!! Epic,” Blondie wrote on the official Blondie Twitter account.

Tweet from @BlondieOfficial

Blondie’s Rapture and going ‘out to the parking lot’

TikTokers couldn’t wait to get their hands on Harry’s audio and Soldier Boy’s deep-voice cover and turn it into something new.

Not only has Blondie’s original rap about being sent to heaven and the man from Mars got traction with The Boys’ over-riding parody of the Marvel universe, but fans speculate it could also be a chart topper.

Already, there have been more than 550 million views of the viral TikTok trend, in which creators make funny memes by lip syncing parts of the original song before lip syncing parts of Soldier Boy’s cover.

The two versions are accompanied by captions that seek to make funny comparisons between two different types of people.

While miming the original, the creators use a filter that gives them big eyes to make them look sweet like Debbie Harry. Then they switch versions, and the filter changes to give them a square jaw like Soldier Boy’s.

It’s another TikTok trend going viral – and it might just be a new source of revenue and royalties for Harry and her band.

@olympiaanley

realistically I just didn’t know what else to do #uni #university #degree

♬ sonido original – Cisco Viet

Kate Bush’s hit finds new audience

Blondie’s renaissance comes after the massive success of Stranger Things helped launch Kate Bush back into the charts with Running Up That Hill.

In a 1992 interview with Classic Albums, singer-songwriter Bush, now 63, said the song was originally called Deal With God but regrettably had to change the title, Insider reported.

“We were told that if we kept this title then it wouldn’t be played in any of the religious countries,” she said.

“And generally, we might keep it blocked purely because it had ‘god’ in the title. Now, I couldn’t believe this. This seemed completely ridiculous to me and the title was such a big part of the song’s identity.

“I just spent two, three years making an album and we weren’t gonna get this record played on the radio if I was stubborn so I felt I had to be grown up about this.

“But it’s always something that I regretted doing and normally regret any compromises that I make.”

Fast forward to 2022, and as fans binge on Stranger Things Season 4 Volume 2, the song climbed to No.1 in the UK on June 23.

Bush “snatched the title for oldest female artist to reach No.1 on the UK’s Official Singles Chart from another music icon (Cher, previously, with Believe)”, reported Guinness World Records.

And the momentum continued, with Brisbane Pub Choir’s version making headlines on July 14. Bush sent a message saying how much she loved it.

Tweet from @kylelambert

‘Holy hell’ – the posters are great

And as a postscript, British illustrator Kyle Lambert has created the key art for both series, which stream on different platforms.

It’s yet another connection between the shows on top of their supernatural elements.

“For real!? You made these?” wrote one Twitter fan.

“They are freaking awesome! The top left one is literally a ginormous banner on one of the biggest shopping centres in Bucharest which I can’t stop staring at every day on my way to work!”

Topics: Netflix