Kate Bush Running Up That Hill Music Video Was Banned In America For Being ‘Too Weird’
Topics: Netflix, Stranger Things
Simon Catling
Featured Image Credit: Netflix/EMI
Topics: Netflix, Stranger Things
The iconic Kate Bush was propelled back into the topic of discussion this week thanks to her legendary hit 'Running Up That Hill' featuring prominently in the new series of Stranger Things.
However, the track hasn't been without its controversy, with the video for it even being banned from MTV at one point.
The first volume of season four of Stranger Things premiered on 27 May, and sees the British pop legend's 1985 hit 'Running Up That Hill' feature heavily throughout the show, in turn helping the reclusive star get to number one on the iTunes chart.
It's first heard in the first episode, on Max Mayfield’s (Sadie Sink) Walkman, and continues to be a pivotal song for the character as the drama unfolds.
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The success of the track has been such that not only has the song topped the iTunes chart, but it’s also overtaken 'Wuthering Heights' on Spotify to become Bush's most popular track on the service.
However, what people perhaps don't know about the track is that its abstract and controversial video was deemed suitable by MTV in the 1980s; the channel decided not to run it, instead opting for a lip-synced performance of it from the Terry Wogan show of all places instead.
While the video is certainly artfully done, it wasn't particularly outrageous. Featuring Bush performing an interpretive dance with dancer Michael Hervieu, the pair perform a repeated gesture suggestive of drawing a bow and arrow, with these scenes intercut with surreal sequences of Bush and Hervieu searching through crowds of masked strangers.
As the song comes to a close, Bush's partner withdraws from her and the two are swept away in opposite directions by a slew of anonymous figures wearing masks made from pictures of Bush and Hervieu's faces.
The site Eighties Kids claims that MTV executives were worried it was 'too esoteric' and didn't want to risk playing the video to an audience who might not understand it – which seems pretty rich when you consider some of the nonsense music vides that were floating around in the 80s.
Anyway, with Gen Z now aware of Kate Bush, they're started circulating various clips of the retiring artist, which have typically gone viral. What seems to be fascinating them most though, is how Bush pours her tea.
The clip shows her pouring boiling water into her teapot before pouring the tea into the cups on her kitchen sink. However, she pours until they overflow and also puts in the milk first!
The footage has since gone viral after being posted by Twitter user @enayessa, who wrote: "Any new kate bush fans must see this VERY IMPORTANT video of her pouring tea," before adding: "The mind that wrote all the love makes tea like this... makes you think."
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