David Bowie‘s ‘Heroes’ has enjoyed a huge spike in streams after soundtracking the closing moments of the Stranger Things finale.
The late icon’s 1977 classic single – from his 12th album of the same name – played out over the credits sequence in the last-ever episode of Netflix‘s hit sci-fi show, which was released on New Year’s Day (January 1).
Now, according to new Luminate data, ‘Heroes’ saw a surge of almost 500 per cent on streaming services following the conclusion of the fifth and final season of Stranger Things (via Rolling Stone).
These figures were acquired yesterday (Monday January 5) – four days after the long-running series released its last chapter.
It is reported that ‘Heroes’ had previously been racking up around 94,000 digital streams per day over the last five months.
However, in the wake of the New Year, the track registered 342,000 online plays on January 1, 456,000 on January 2, and 470,000 on January 3. This marked an approximate 3.6-to-5 times increase over its daily average in the days since the Stranger Things finale.
The show’s co-creator Ross Duffer recently revealed that ‘Heroes’ had been selected after it was suggested by Joe Keery, who plays Steve Harrington in the series and also releases music as Djo.
“Once Joe said that, we immediately knew that was the right song to end the show on because it is, in some ways, an anthem for Stranger Things,” Duffer said. “To use the original Bowie version just felt right and fitting for the conclusion.”
A 2010 orchestral cover of ‘Heroes’ by Peter Gabriel had featured in earlier seasons.
Stranger Things‘ final episode debuted to 59.6million views, which marked a new record for an English-language title on Netflix.
The finale also featured the classic Prince songs ‘Purple Rain’ and ‘When Doves Cry’. Streams of these tunes more than doubled on Spotify following the episode. Previously, Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)’ saw a similar rise in popularity thanks to the show.
In other news, some Stranger Things fans are convinced that a surprise new final episode of the series might be on its way, and have been speculating over the ‘conformity gate’ theory.
Meanwhile, the 10th anniversary of David Bowie’s death is set to be marked by an event at the British Library in London next week, with Jehnny Beth and Tony Visconti among the special guests.
English (US) · 