FEATURE:
In It for the Long Game
PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari
Encouraging Young and New Kate Bush Fans to Listen to Her Albums and Share Their Thoughts
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IT has been a wonderful past couple of years…
PHOTO CREDIT: ZIK Images/United Archives via Getty Images
for one particular Kate Bush song. That is the mighty Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God). I am not going to discuss it again, suffice to say it has surpassed a billion streams on Spotify and two hundred million YouTube views! As the most popular Kate Bush song at the moment, there is a great gulf in terms of streams between this track and the rest of her catalogue. I have written around this before, but I do hope that there is more exploration of her catalogue. When one song dominates and gets all of the attention, it can be the easy go-to. When it comes to Hounds of Love – the song Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) is from -, go and explore the rest of the album. Kate Bush has a new legion of young fans. They might stick with one song - but there are those digging deeper. Spotify figures will adjust as more people expand their horizons. I think that there is that pleasure hearing a whole album. Bush might call it a ‘journey’, but you get the whole picture and story with an album. A single or one track will give a distorted and incomplete vision. The truth and depth of an album comes from listening fully. When you do hear the albums, you get to experience the deeper cuts. It gives you a much more passionate and purer connection with Bush. I think many people discovering her music fresh are eager to know more about her. Rather than cynically checking out Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) because it is trending and cool, this is their gateway song. A route into Kate Bush’s world. The greatest pleasure is using that as the starting point and moving around her albums!
TikTok and social media has been useful when it comes to Bush reaching new fans. You do not see many videos or posts where people discuss and review the albums. Listening to, say, The Sensual World and write about it. Even if there is this army of Kate Bush fans, a lot of this love comes from streams, YouTube views, and social media posts – usually about Bush herself and not the albums. If Bush is to sustain as a wonderful and broad artist and reach new generations in the future, we need to start sharing our thoughts and recommendations about her albums. There is some of that, but you can stream them. It is a phenomenal listening experience, and in the course of doing this, you learn so much more about this incredible artist. I am always pleased and proud of Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God), though there needs to be this commitment and goal to get the rest of her catalogue boosted and shared. So many treasures with relatively few streams. Last year, when Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) led to her highest chart position in the U.S., it was a moment when she was truly embraced there. A nation that have never really shown as much love for her as us in the U.K., it was a long-overdue acceptance. The problem might be, as Jeremy Helligar wrote, an issue associating Bush only with one track. Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God), I feel, has always been known in the U.S. Better-known that Wuthering Heights (from her 1978 debut album, The Kick Inside), does the new wave of attention for the Hounds of Love song risk Bush being a one-hit wonder in the U.S.?
PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images
One of the downsides of a single song having this incredible runaway success and separate life is that it can often create this bad habit. People not only associating Bush with Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God). We all want more for her! As much as I love this classic, I objectively don’t think it is even Bush’s best song. There are so many treats and eye-opening tracks that people might not yet have heard. The U.S. love Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God), partly because it was on Stranger Things, and there is also that accessibility. Now is a perfect time for the country to do something they did not do years ago: support and listen to Bush’s weirder and more experimental tracks. Even her album tracks, rather than a few obvious singles. Social media posts are a good way of turning people onto Kate Bush, but going into more detail about albums and some lesser-heard tracks ensures her legacy is more rounded and wide-ranging. It also means that she is not merely this new one-hit wonder who will fade once the buzz around Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) fades. We need to let future generations know who Kate Bush is. Rather than this artist that is tied to one song, there is such a startling and incredible collection of work. As social media is so powerful, it is easier and more impactful now talking about Kate Bush. I would encourage both new and older fans to listen through Bush’s albums and ensure that her full and eclectic brilliance is shared and discovered. That ensures that we will be discussing this wonderful artist…
FOR many more generations.