FEATURE:
It Doesn't Hurt Me…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1980/PHOTO CREDIT: Patrick Lichfield
Kate Bush and 2022: Has the Whole World Finally Embraced Her?
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BEFORE the year is done…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1985, around the release of Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)/PHOTO CREDIT: Dave Hogan via Getty Images
I am going to write a Kate Bush feature that looks back at 2022. This year, for various reasons, has been successful and unique for Bush. I am also going to write a few anniversary features about Wuthering Heights ahead of its forty-fifth in January. I am reading Tom Doyle’s Running Up That Hill: 50 Visions of Kate Bush, and there are some ideas and angles that have led to inspiration. What I want to do now is to address a question that I have asked before. Something that is always being asked is whether Kate Bush is relevant. After all, her first (and until this year) U.K. number one was in 1978. Her debut single, Wuthering Heights. She had number one albums, and she really hit a creative and commercial peak in 1985 with Hounds of Love. After 1993, she retreated from music and the limelight and came back in 2005. Since then, there have been a couple of studio albums and a residency (2014’s Before the Dawn). If you look back on all Kate Bush has achieved, then there is no doubt that she should be talked about as one of the all-time greats! In terms of her influence, that is undeniable. The artists who cite her as an influence is enormous! Legends and long-running artists such as Big Boi and Björk are big fans and admirers. New and rising artists are discovering Kate Bush or, having been fans for years, are talking about her and introducing her to younger listeners.
IN THIS PHOTO: Björk in 2022
I think many people get confused as to what makes an artist and whether they are ‘relevant’. If they are not being discussed and represented through TikTok videos or have millions of Instagram followers, are they relevant and worthy!? People seem to have a modern-day sense of validation and worth confused with actual relevance and importance. Bush has never been on social media and is not an artist who has ever felt the need to engage this way. Yes, most of her greatest success occurred years ago. In a pre-Internet age, much of her brilliance and glory days are confined to videos, albums, and archived interviews. Her latest studio album, 50 Words for Snow, was eleven years ago almost! Can one consider an artist like Kate Bush relevant and important at a time when music is flooded with artists and musical options? Of course! When I was writing about the new success of Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) and the fact it reached so many new people after featuring heavily in Stranger Things, it reawakened something. Rather than there being this Kate Bush fad and brief buzz – where she topped the charts around the world and was trending on Twitter often -, it just showed that she is an artist who commands respect across generations, genres, age groups and nations. Even if this one song got a lot of focus, so many other tracks from her back catalogue were being investigated. Her streaming numbers rose, and videos on YouTube have seen a spike in interest!
As we end 2022, one can look back and say that Bush has finally been accepted by countries and people that have previously been a little reserved. The U.S. market is one that sort of discovered and fell for Kate Bush only after Hounds of Love. Her albums and singles have never fared too well there. She has been nominated for the prestigious Rock & Roll Hall of Fame three times and never been included. I get the feeling she will be named for a fourth time next year and will actually be included! It has taken this huge resurgence and tsunami of fresh love to open American eyes to the brilliance of Kate Bush! Thanks to Matt and Ross Duffer (who created Stranger Things), it is ironic that an artist seen as strange and unusual by many critics and people in the U.S. has been seen as accessible and goddess-like by a show called Stranger Things! A whole legion of artists covered Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) with varying degrees of success (from merely good right to the simply embarrassing; nobody could match the original). In any case, so many cool and young artists were covering Kate Bush without irony or the need to piggyback on her success. Not only did they help bring her music to those who might not be aware of her, but there was genuine affection and respect for the sixty-four-year-old legend. Is Kate Bush relevant? Whatever metric you use, she most certainly is! Influential and being talked about daily on social media, her music is still being widely played. Even though radio stations stick to the hits, her music is very much in people’s lives.
I can appreciate how she might not sound contemporary now, even if songs like Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) are fresh and hit hard thirty-seven after release. It annoys me when people say Bush has sort of retired or is not a relevant artist. If you compare her to the likes of Taylor Swift, sure, she is not a huge social media name or celebrity. She is not touring the world and planning new music (as far as we know!). Relevance is defined as someone or something that is “appropriate to the current time, period, or circumstances; of contemporary interest”. Like all iconic acts, their music is passed through the generations and picked up by new fans and artists. The fact we are discussing Kate Bush and she is still very much in the world means that she is someone as influential and relevant as anyone else. She provided a rare interview earlier in the year to Woman’s Hour. Any time there is Kate Bush news or we hear about her success, a genuine wave of affection comes through. Tom Doyle’s new book not only illuminate the fact Bush is very much a current concern and someone whose power and music will never die. He opened my eyes to the fact that she seems to be more popular now than ever. There are more people on the planet that the 1970s and 1980s. Social media is a powerful tool that can spread music more widely than radio or T.V. Even though there has not been new music for eleven years, one cannot say Kate Bush is bygone or a legacy artist with no contemporary stock. Far from it! As long as new fans and artists mention her name and have her music and genius in their minds and on their lips, Kate Bush will always be relevant. The precise nature of relevance is subjective. Whether you measure it by streaming numbers, how many new songs she releases, or whether older music and her overall legacy is impacting people today, that is up to you! I am in no doubt that Bush affects music today and her production, songwriting, personality, and kindness has fed through the years and has influenced popular culture. That is going to be the case for years.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1981/PHOTO CREDIT: Anton Corbijn
The question I have asked for this feature is whether Kate Bush is relevant and whether, finally, the whole world has accepted her. That seems quite severe! As I said, I think the U.S. is one of the last huge nations where critics have not been fully on board. Of course, not every nation embraces Kate Bush the same way as we do in the U.K. America has a new appreciation and awareness of Bush. Most other nations – those in the developed world at least – have always loved Kate Bush, so I think 2022 is the year when hold out nations, reserved corners and some dubious commentators are realising that Kate Bus is important. They might not like all of her music, but they cannot deny how much of a force she is. Why she means so much to so many people! Even if Bush’s odder and less accessible music will never be embraced or understood by America or other nations, Bush as an artist and icon has been brought ever-closer to the collective bosom. I think new music would cement my theory that Bush is a hugely relevant artist and has been accepted worldwide. There are no announcements or plans. I listened to a recent interview Tom Doyle have to Chris Hawkins on BBC Radio 6 Music where the question was asked as to whether Bush will release more music. Doyle theorised that Del Palmer – Bush’s engineer, former boyfriend, and long-time member of her band/team – is usually quite active on Facebook but has been quieter recently. Does that mean he has been in the studio with Bush?! Who knows! What I do know is the fact we are talking about this and still interested in her movements only goes to show how important Kate Bush is today. Her influence will last forever. Has every nation, nook and cranny of this globe fallen for Kate Bush?! Maybe not quite yet but, thanks to a very packed and successful year, she is closer to world domination and universal success. 2023 could be the year when Kate Bush’s unique and timeless music…
FINALLY makes it happen.