Why longtime Kate Bush fans may envy new ‘Stranger Things’ listeners.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have our first pop superstar of the summer – Kate Bush. Definitely not something even her most ardent fans saw coming. It likely wasn’t in her crystal ball, either.

The ascension of the veteran British song stylist to the ranks of the American Top 10 for the first time in a career that spans nearly five decades is a breakthrough as refreshing and it is entirely unexpected. The catapulting hit high gear last week when the 1985 Bush single “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” shot to No. 8 on the Billboard 100.

The result of a high-profile concert tour? A hit album? A massive marketing campaign? No, no and no. Bush has only toured twice in her career (a European jaunt in 1979 and a run of 22 shows at London’s Eventim Apollo in 2014), has not released a studio recording in nearly a decade and has largely shunned interviews and publicity throughout her career.

So what did it take for “Running Up That Hill” to run up global charts? A TV show – specifically, the Netflix horror/drama series “Stranger Things.” The song played under a pivotal scene in the opening episode of the show’s fourth season. It then promptly blew up.

Of course, it’s not like the series simply slid the song in. As with any instance of a copyrighted work used in film, television or any commercial project, the music had to be licensed. To that end, Bush, apparently a fan of “Stranger Things,” gave her consent. But the rest of the out-of-nowhere resurgence of “Running Up That Hill,” the lead-off tune to Bush’s 1985 album “Hounds of Love,” is one of the great pop hat tricks of recent years.

‘Running Up That Hill’ a new old hit

Credit it to the digital age where the sales of singles are dictated by downloads (allowing hits to hit with sometimes startling immediacy). Credit it to the enduring popularity of “Stranger Things,” which itself is a curiosity as there has been a nearly three-year gap between the show’s third and the fourth seasons, the latter of which debuted on Netflix in May.

Credit it, maybe, to the fact the song wasn’t entirely an unknown entity to start with.

“Running Up That Hill” actually reached No. 30 in this country upon its original release in 1985, so older audiences, along with Bush’s cult-sized fanbase, were at least aware of it. Globally, Bush was a critical favorite championed for the arty and prog-directed leanings of her recordings, as well as her own hands-on involvement in the music she made. She produced or co-produced all of her albums, save for the 1978 debut “The Kick Inside,” a record cut when Bush was 19 (Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour co-produced with prog mainstay Andrew Powell.)

While initial United States reception to “Running Up That Hill” served as the biggest impression Bush made on American audiences up to that point, it paled next to the noise she was making back home. Each of her nine studio albums, along with three concert and anthology records, reached the Top 10 in the United Kingdom.

But what amazes most about such an unexpected career renaissance is the stretch of time between the 1985 introduction of “Running Up That Hill” and the 2022 jump-start provided by “Stranger Things” – a period that spans a full generation and then some. That translates into the true definition of a pop legacy – an instance where the audience responsible for a piece of music’s current popularity wasn’t even born when the work was composed, recorded and introduced.

Those of my advanced age may feel a hint of pride over a favored artist whose creative individuality has so often eclipsed her commercial profile finally receiving serious attention. Younger audiences, the ones solely but almost inadvertently responsible for Bush’s current breakthrough, don’t care about history, nor should they have to. It’s a safe guess those fans never heard of “Running Up That Hill” – much less of Bush, in general – prior to “Stranger Things.” That’s what makes the song’s current status as a summer hit so wonderful.

Put the song under a microscope and there is a lot to like. It’s a strong, empowering work by an immensely creative and independently minded female artist. Unlike most pop music of the mid ’80s, little of it sounds dated. The usual arsenal of period drum machines and synths are tempered in an arrangement that makes the song suitably cinematic. But it’s ultimately Bush’s vocal command that fuels “Running Up That Hill.” The lyrics are rich, conversational and confessional. Then again, if you’re singing about dealing with God, how could it be anything else?

What ‘Stranger Things’ will mean

Will any of this trigger a long-lasting re-examination of Bush’s music? Unlikely. Audiences that flock quickly to an artist tend to fly away just as readily. Will it be enough to prod the reclusive Ms. Bush into live performance again? Even more doubtful. At 63 and with only two tours in 40-plus years to her credit, it’s a safe guess she is more than content to watch her current summer stardom play out, however fleeting it may be, from the comfort of home.

But the thrill and, yes, envy of watching a young audience accept the work of an artist admired by elders like me for so long with no more prompting than a viewing of a TV show is considerable. More importantly, it’s a success that exploded entirely outside all known business practices and strategies of the music industry. The sudden eruption of popularity was entirely fan-generated, albeit with some prodding from “Stranger Things.”

“A part of me is a little jealous of a whole new generation getting to hear her for the first time,” remarked a friend last week after news broke of Bush’s Top 10 seating.

Yes, but the jealousy can run both ways. I find myself in an alternate camp as the Bush renaissance unfurls because “Stranger Things,” for all its massive popularity, has eluded me up to now. That’s not a critical assessment. I just haven’t made the time to join the binge watchers that have championed the show since its premiere in 2016. But I sense that is about to change.

In short, instead of being one of the many this summer who came to Kate Bush through “Stranger Things,” I’m one of the few who came to “Stranger Things” through Kate Bush.

Discovery isn’t a one-way street, you know.