The curtain has finally fallen on Stranger Things, and in true fashion, the series didn’t just leave Hawkins behind, it sent shockwaves through the streaming economy.
As Netflix dropped the final episode on New Year’s Day, the show once again proved its unmatched ability to turn soundtrack moments into cultural flashpoints.
Legacy artists were among the biggest winners, the finale leaned heavily on Prince and The Revolution’s ‘Purple Rain’ era, triggering massive streaming spikes across the board.
‘When Doves Cry’ surged to nearly 1.8 million U.S. streams over four days, a 254% increase, while the title track ‘Purple Rain’ exploded with 4.3 million streams, marking a staggering 648% jump.
That resurgence has put ‘Purple Rain’ firmly back in the conversation for a Billboard Hot 100 return, something the song hasn’t managed since the weeks following Prince’s death in 2016, not bad for a track released more than four decades ago.
David Bowie also benefitted from a powerful late series placement, ‘Heroes’, which played over the finale’s end credits, climbed 198%, rising from under 600,000 streams to more than 1.7 million, Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Landslide’ followed closely behind, lifting 61% to just shy of four million streams.
Elsewhere, Stranger Things doubled down on its long standing love of left of center classics, Pixies’ ‘Here Comes Your Man’ jumped 161%, Cowboy Junkies’ ‘Sweet Jane’ rose 107%, and Iron Maiden’s ‘The Trooper’ clocked a 110% boost, underlining the show’s ability to cut across genres without losing impact.
Joe Keery aka Djo
The most dramatic post finale surge didn’t belong to a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, it belonged to Joe Keery, better known to fans as Djo, Keery’s solo catalog climbed 114% to 18.7 million streams, while digital sales spiked 364%.
The bulk of that momentum came from ‘End of Beginning’, which re entered the Hot 100 at No. 16, climbing rapidly and threatening a first ever top 10 placement, years after its initial release, the song has found a second life powered by the show that helped make Keery a household name.
After five seasons of turning nostalgia into chart fire, Stranger Things bows out with a final reminder, few TV series have ever bent music culture this hard, or this consistently.
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