Kate Bush and her continued relevance
By Lou Medley, October 29 2025—
A common struggle an artist faces is striking the balance between captivating their audience, while maintaining the resemblance of what they need to express. It is a struggle that both students and established professionals face. We place bets on our own work, assuming that it will be our magnum opus, but it is hard to predict which pieces will truly connect with the outside world.
Kate Bush released her debut album The Kick Inside in 1978, when she was 19 years old, and counteracted these overlying struggles with a persona that is expressive and even confusing. The first thing that stands out to a listener is her unique voice, a high-pitched and almost otherworldly sound that can be appealing or bizarre, depending on the taste of the listener. But the true value that these qualities hold in Kate Bush’s work is its timelessness. By creating something so unordinary, she has been able to cement herself in multiple ages of music and connect with audiences of varying generations.
Kate Bush’s top streamed song, “Running Up That Hill,” took 37 years to become the number one song, setting a record for the longest time between number one songs in the UK. With her first number one in the UK being “Wuthering Heights.” Both of these songs have something in common — they transport the listener to another era.
“Running Up That Hills”’ rise in popularity 37 years later was a result of its appearance on Stranger Things, a show known for its 80’s nostalgia. The song was suggested by Winona Ryder, the actress who played Joyce in Stranger Things, and also had a prominent acting career within the 80’s itself. “Wuthering Heights” is named after the 1847 novel of the same title by Emily Brontë. It had a similar resurgence in protest to the creation of the new and controversial Wuthering Heights adaptation, which was deemed inaccurate to the original plot of the novel by fans; especially in comparison to the emotion in Kate Bush’s song.
What many people fail to realize is that every artist is embodying a character in every song they release. Whether that is a popstar singing about their ex-lover or a jazz musician without any lyrics in their composition at all. They are often tapping into a certain piece of their life, or even someone else entirely while basing the emotions on their own empathy and experiences. They then recollect this story to the audience, in an attempt towards connection.
“Babooshka” and “Army Dreamers” excel in their storytelling by simultaneously excelling in their lyricism, the natural tragedy in Kate Bush’s voice, and other sound cues that tell the story nonverbally. The former tells the story of a woman creating an alternate persona to test her husband’s fidelity, while the latter tells the story of a young soldier as an overarching criticism of war and its casualties. Kate Bush can connect with the desire or the hopelessness or the longing of the character she is embodying in her work.
Kate Bush’s work is the background music you need when you are doing something mundane and want to connect with a time beyond your reach, whether that is 1978 or 1770’s Yorkshire. When “Running Up That Hill” reached one billion streams in 2022, Kate Bush responded.
“I have an image of a river that suddenly floods and becomes many, many tributaries — a billion streams — on their way to the sea. Each one of these streams is one of you. Thank you so much for sending this song on such an impossibly astonishing journey. I’m blown away,” said Bush.