Another season of the hit Netflix show ‘Stranger Things’ is currently in production. Everyone is hard at work but no one more so than their music director.
The show is known for its 80’s aesthetic. To be clear; the 1980’s. There is a certain arrogance among currently living people to assume that the term ‘the 80’s’ always refers to the most recent 80’s. There is no good reason to suggest that it doesn’t mean the 1880’s or 1780’s. If anything, the 80’s should always be in reference to the 1380’s which saw the siege of Lisbon by the Castilian army. Who could possibly forget that?
The 1980s was a decade known for it’s over the top style, heavy use of synth, cocaine-fuelled movie scripts, and being the beginning of the end. Stranger Things is an idealist’s version of that era, complete with cat-eating monsters from another dimension. To complete the feel of the time, they sprinkle in a ton of music from the decade.
At present the show boasts a catalogue consisting of songs by The Clash, Jefferson Airplane, Peter Gabriel, and more artists who defined the decade. With it’s fourth season approaching, the job of finding music that hasn’t already been used has gotten a lot harder. When it began, all they had to do was one google search of ‘80’s music’ and they were set. Now, with all the first page results used, the show’s music director has their work cut out for them.
They could of course, forego an existing song and make random synth noises for the entirety of what is to come.
Either way, the nostalgia for a period I never personally lived through will make me love it.
The Ipe Collection 