Posted in: Netflix, Stranger Things, TV | Tagged: stranger things 5

Stranger Things 5: Prince Songs See Streaming Surge After Finale

The Duffers on how they secured the rights from Prince's estate to feature "Purple Rain" and "When Doves Cry" in the Stranger Things 5 finale.

It's hard to argue in part, why Matt and Ross Duffer fire on all cylinders, aside from the well-written storytelling and characters, is how much they lean on the biggest cultural phenomena of the 1980s, not to mention great taste in music, in Netflix's Stranger Things. With the series finale (Stranger Things 5: "The Rightside Up") releasing on New Year's Eve, they had one more musical ace up their sleave after sparking renewed interest in Kate Bush's Running Up the Hill and Metallica's Master of Puppets the previous season in tapping the estate of the Purple One himself, Prince for two of his biggest hits from his 1984 album "Purple Rain" featuring the lead single When Doves Cry that saw a 200 percent boost in global streams, as well as a 128 percent increase in Gen Z streams. By contrast, the third single and power ballad, Purple Rain, saw a 243 percent increase in Spotify global streams and a 577 percent surge in global Gen-Z streams, according to Variety. The following contains spoilers for the finale.

Stranger Things 5 Tapping of Prince's "When Doves Cry" and "Purple Rain" Sees Surge on Spotify

The first song took place when the Hawkins heroes were escaping the Upside Down and set the explosives at the Upside-Down version of Hawkins Lab, where Murray (Brett Gelman) took out a copy of Prince's Purple Rain and set it on the record player as they drove off in two separate vehicles and by the time the needle reached the center, the charge was set off, detonating and laying waste the building. The second song was played shortly afterward as the military catches up to the gang during El's (Millie Bobby Brown) final goodbye to her friends at the border of the Upside-Down and real world before she was "swept away" in the explosion, but really wasn't due to Kali's (Linnea Berthelsen) illusory powers.

Not only did "When Does Cry" and "Purple Rain" see a benefit, but the late singer-songwriter, who passed in 2016, saw his entire catalogue climb 190 percent, with an 88 percent uptick in Gen Z streams on Spotify. Neither song has been used for a TV series before Stranger Things since the Prince album was released. "We were told that it was a real long shot, so we just crossed our fingers," Matt Duffer told Netflix before the finale. Ross added that he and Matt "never talked about a song choice as much as we did for that moment. What is also very exciting about it is it just has not been used. [Prince's] estate does not generally allow that song to be licensed outside of the 'Purple Rain' movie."

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!