The Popularity of Running Up That Hill

I’m sure everybody has heard the music “Running Up that Hill” by famous singer Kate Bush on the hit series on Netflix, Stranger Things. It played on every episode this past season and with that you see the music being played on radio stations, social streams, and videos but why such a popularity of the music that was played back in the 1980’s?

Music is a pattern of beats, melodies, and rhythms and as we continue to listen to the same music over and over again, we start to recognize the relationships from the elements of the music. According to Gary Ewer,

When listening to a song, most people cannot say what key they’re hearing. Most could never identify any specific note of the melody. But not being able to identify the notes of a melody has absolutely nothing to do with whether they “understand” it, or whether they can enjoy it.

Whenever you’re at a grocery store or in an elevator and you have that “oh!” moment when you recognize the music without the vocals, you perceive the relationship of the musical pattern. Of course, there are apps that will help find the song for you like Shazam and Soundhound.

Of course, there are marketing purposes that have proven successful for brand strategies such as MacDonald’s and Toys’R’Us where they use music in their commercials to help people identify themselves and become loyal consumers.

Now, here is an exercise in pattern recognition, check out these versions: