With the first season dropping in July 2016 onto an audience unsuspecting of the cultural monolith they were about to watch, the zeitgest-setting 80s nostalgia of Stranger Things has been going almost as long as the decade itself. Love it or hate it, its upcoming fifth and final season is a genuine end to an era, and as you'd expect from any self-respecting period throwback, there’s been room for plenty of show-stealing musical moments. As it builds to its last hurrah starting this week, these are some of the most bitchin’ needle-drops in Stranger Things so far. Spoilers abound, of course.
Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit (Season 1, Episode 1: The Vanishing of Will Byers)
An ever-popular indicator that things are about to get a little unhinged and a little epic, Jefferson Airplane’s 1967 acid rock freak-out masterpiece provides one of Stranger Things’ earliest memorable music stings. As the escaped, still very buzz-cut and very tiny Eleven seems to find some shelter in the presence of kindly diner proprietor Benny, Grace Slick’s careening vocal accompanies the disruption of that as the agents of season 1 big bad, Dr. Brenner, swiftly and brutally execute Benny, announcing just how dangerous these shady government baddies were going to be.
The Bangles - A Hazy Shade of Winter (Season 1, Episode 2: The Weirdo on Maple Street)
One of the early tragedies of Stranger Things is the loss of fan favourite character Barb to the Demogorgon, and there’s a double layering of ironic sadness to the usage of The Bangles’ upbeat version of Simon & Garfunkel’s melancholic ode to seasonal change, as it plays right after Jonathan observes Nancy and Steve hooking up and misses Barb being yanked away by an interdimensional monster to where we later learn she died a terrifying and lonely death. Brutal.
Peter Gabriel - Heroes (Season 1, Episode 3: Holly, Jolly)
The discovery of a body in the lake at first believed to be the vanished Will Byers casts such a strong spell of loss over the show that they even milk another needle-drop of Joy Division’s Atmosphere out of it at the start of the following episode AND New Order’s Elegia at his funeral in episode five. As Peter Gabriel’s orchestral version of David Bowie’s Heroes ends out episode three with that loss sinking in, though, it’s what really burns into the memory, reminding you how emotional the first season of Stranger Things could be. The track later returns in the finale of season three as the Byers move out of Hawkins, providing a throughline for their story.
Moby - When It’s Cold I’d Like to Die (Season 1, Episode 8: The Upside Down)
Possibly the most encouraging bawl-your-eyes-out moment of the show comes in the first season finale when Will whose disappearance kicked off the entire show is finally found alive (obviously), and it’s the ambient sounds and sublime vocalisations of Moby that soundtrack it. Doubling as a redemptive moment for Hopper as he saves a child to forgive himself for the one he could not, but another of mourning for Mike as Eleven is now believed gone, its usage is so moving it doesn’t even matter it’s not an 80s cut.
Scorpions - Rock You Like a Hurricane (Season 2, Episode 1: MADMAX)
Season 2 brings new characters and new jams to introduce them with, and it doesn’t get much more on-the-nose than the arrival of new kid Max and her overbearing, bullying, racist, generally bit-of-a-shithead brother Billy, whose bad boy looks nonetheless draw the eye of every girl in school while German hard rock legends Scorpions promise that he is indeed going to rock them like a hurricane. Through Billy’s presence alone, we later get Mötley Crüe’s Shout at the Devil, Ratt’s Round and Round, and Metallica’s The Four Horsemen throughout season 2. Not our last Metallica outing, of course.
Jim Croce - You Don’t Mess Around With Jim (Season 2, Episode 3: The Pollywog)
The folk rock track responsible for that GIF of David Harbour dad-dancing you’ve probably seen more times than you remember. Dietetically played by Jim Hopper to get in the zone, it is essentially Hopper’s own chosen anthem, emphasised further by its return in season 3 as he gaudily sings in celebration at overhearing Mike and Eleven’s relationship stumbling.
Bon Jovi - Runaway (Season 2, Episode 7: The Lost Sister)
Speaking of on-the-nose, there must’ve been something in the water for season 2, because the episode where Eleven runs away and catches a bus to Chicago to find similarly psychically-gifted people starts with the unmistakeable keys of Bon Jovi’s Runaway. The Lost Sister is one of Stranger Things’ most divisive episodes as Eleven ditches the main cast to meet a whole new gang who felt destined for a spin-off that never got picked up, but at least we heard some sweet glam rock.
The Clash - Should I Stay or Should I Go (Season 2, Episode 8: The Mind Flayer)
Probably the first instance of an already classic song becoming synonymous with Stranger Things, Should I Stay or Should I Go made its debut in episode two of season 1 as a moment of brotherly bonding between Will and Jonathan Byers, but its return in season 2 as Jonathan tries to reconnect with Will’s consciousness using the power of the music within his memory cemented its legend. For all its sci-fi pulp, it’s a usage that speaks to music’s ability to pull you back to a time and place that’s meaningful for all of us.
The Police - Every Breath You Take (Season 2, Episode 9: The Gate)
Reminding you that all of this interdimensional horror is indeed a coming of age show for teenagers, season 2 ends on that most sacred of 80s rituals: a school dance, with nostalgic cheese abound. As all our characters get swept off into their dance pairings, it’s a lonely Mike locking eyes with Eleven that ushers in The Police’s signature hit and sends it out with a wholesome romantic smile, until the song’s more sinister side feeds into the hint at the Mind Flayer’s impending return.
Madonna - Material Girl (Season 3, Episode 2: The Mall Rats)
A highlight of the mall-centric season 3 was the growing friendship between Eleven and Max, and it’s captured most memorably in the shopping and clothes try-on montage from episode 2, soundtracked by what else but Madonna’s consumerist classic Material Girl. Once again, Stranger Things not one for subtlety in its musical choices, but what would the scene be without it? A banger’s a banger.
Don McLean - American Pie (Season 3, Episode 3: The Case of the Missing Lifeguard)
Possibly the show’s nastiest usage of musical irony here as Billy continues being a menace into season 3, now possessed by the creatures of the Upside-Down, and further spreads his infection around the town. Having already gotten to his lifeguard co-worker Heather, here the two incapacitate and brutalise Heather’s parents under the guise of a family dinner, and Don McLean’s fond farewell to the classic era of Americana backs this perversion of an all-American ritual.
Limahl - The NeverEnding Story (Season 3, Episode 8: The Battle of Starcourt)
This might be cheating as it’s not the original track so much as Dustin and long distance girlfriend Suzie singing it, but this was season 3’s viral moment that began to show just how powerful Stranger Things was becoming in bringer older songs renewed traction. Spotify streams for the original theme of the 1984 children’s fantasy staple soared by 825% in summer of 2019, and YouTube views of the original music video by 800%. Chances are, if someone under 30 today knows this song, it’s not from a deep-seated love of luckdragons but from this unashamedly corny moment.
Kiss - Detroit Rock City (Season 4, Episode 1: The Hellfire Club)
Season 4 would prove to be the season where Stranger Things’ cultural domination with its needle-drops would go into overdrive, and seeing as the iconic merch for the show’s Hellfire Club would also become unmistakeable around the same time, we might as well start this series off with Kiss’ absolute jam from 1976’s Destroyer album. Playing atop their Dungeons & Dragons sessions might as well make it the Hellfire Club theme tune, particularly fitting in associating their game with rock music as both would fall under attack by conservative fear groups.
Talking Heads - Psycho Killer (Season 4, Episode 2: Vecna’s Curse)
On the surface, this would seem to be one of Stranger Things’ patented does-what-it-says-on the tin song choices, which yeah, okay, it is a bit, but it’s the double-meaning that makes this work. Playing as basketball captain Jason drums up a witch hunt for metalhead Eddie Munson over the disappearance of classmate Chrissy, the Talking Heads track acts as the subversion of the Satanic Panic fears season 4 plays with, fitting Jason’s oorah rhetoric whilst planting questions as to where the danger really comes from.
Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill (Season 4, Episode 4: Dear Billy)
The big one. Stranger Things’ virality and deft usage of repeating motifs for powerful pay-off moments had been evident before, but no-one was prepared for the impact on the music industry 2022’s Running Up That Hill fever would wield. Appearing first in the season premiere as Max’s emotional comfort song grieving her brother Billy, in episode 4 it’s deployed for her full potential hero moment, and the world went gaga.
Thirty-seven years after its release, it reached number one in eight countries including the UK, breaking Kate Bush all manner of records, and hitting the billion Spotify stream milestone in 2023. It’s both a globally historic case study of the potency of resurgent streaming culture, and a romantic re-emphasis of the deeper emotional significance of music that the streaming era needs to remember.
Journey - Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) Remix (Season 4, Episode 8: Papa)
This is a straight up “tune in next time” moment from Stranger Things, even using a chopped up and slowed down remix of Journey’s 1983 slice of pop rock genius to squeeze all the epic they can out of it, but with its lyrics emphasising the connections between the lead characters as they head into the biggest fight of their lives, in generating hype for season 4’s final episode this works a treat.
Metallica - Master of Puppets (Season 4, Episode 9: The Piggyback)
As far as hero moments go, they don’t get more bombastic than everybody’s season 4 favourite Eddie Munson sacrificing himself via rooftop Upside-Down Metallica concert. For metalheads, this is the show’s most glorious peak, Eddie calling swarms of demonic bats whilst tearing out one of the most ripping ever riffs.
As well as providing an insane send-off for a character who offered a rare bit of positive representation for metalheads in mainstream entertainment, it brought Metallica their own Kate Bush moment, entering the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time at no.40, thirty-six years after its release.
Deep Purple - Child In Time (Season 5 trailer)
Okay, this one isn’t actually in the show yet and for all we know might not well be, but as there is history with Journey’s Separate Ways remix appearing in the season 4 trailer before its eventual in-show usage, we thought we’d count it. We’re yet to see how it’ll be deployed, but if Deep Purple’s 1970 monster with Ian Gillan vocal acrobatics galore does find its way from the season 5 trailer into an appropriately monumental episode, who’s to say the British proto-metal pioneers won’t have their own Kate Bush or Metallica revival? Stranger things have happened...
Stranger Things 5 begins Wednesday November 26 on Netflix
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