Kate Bush

XP Somebody should do a "Cold Heart" remix replacing Dua Lipa with Bush's "Rocket Man".

xxxxp I want to say that was my instinct too when I was a kid. I never thought hearing a hit song on the radio meant there was much more to hear, it was always just that song. The only time I felt compelled to check out a whole album was if there were multiple hits on there that I already knew and heard on the radio. This only changed because I became more curious about music in general and actively explored anything beyond the charts and top 40 radio.

I like Elton now, but I sure as hell didn't when I was growing up. Back then he was the guy who sang "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" It was a shock when I came across footage of his '70s concerts years later - bald and much more flamboyant, that guy had atuff that I still enjoy.

Queen seemed like the stuff of sports jocks - I was sick of "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions" before I really knew who they were.

I mentioned Queen and Elton because the biopics hugely raised their profiles with my undergrads, who would've been in high school between 2017-2020. The biopics gave their parents an excuse to whip out the greatest hits for long car rides.

I can't get my kids to watch "Bohemian Rhapsody." I wish I could.

xp Oh yeah, I figured. I'm still shocked Queen's biopic did so well - regardless of quality, it's pretty rare for a rock biopic to do that well, much less blockbuster numbers and Oscar noms galore. (I didn't like it - saw half of it on a plane, never bothered to finish it after we landed.)

A Hard Day's Night was actually the thing that really got me into music beyond the hits on the radio - it got me into the Beatles, and from there the Beatles got me into everything else. Even though I didn't like Queen's biopic, it wouldn't surprise me if it had the same effect on a teenage fan today.

(well, as jimbeaux will attest, not all kids or even a lot of kids, but at least a few!)

xxxxxpost

Key member of Sky on the first couple of albums was Francis Monkman, ex-Curved Air, so they had genuine prog pedigree (of a sort). Tristan Fry was a terrible rock drummer though, should've stuck to the orchestra pit.

As perhaps stated in this thread earlier, most people are absolutely incurious about going beyond surface level enjoyment of the music they enjoy.

We are not those people.

table that post reads like an opening monologue to a badass private detective themed music mystery show.

("running up that hill" plays over credits)

My older one, 17, likes the 1975, but I suspect listens to them less (or admits to it less) because I like them.

I wonder if there are people out there who like "Stairway to Heaven" but have never heard any other Zep. It is, of course, all so foreign to me. I mean, everyone streams, it's all there, pretty much every piece of pop or rock or rap or whatever ever recorded, and then some. Why wouldn't someone want to seek and pursue music they enjoy outside of what is served to them by a TV show or movie or commercial or algorithm? I think maybe choice paralysis is at work. My wife, for example, I've noticed has gravitated to stuff like "robot, play music from the '80s/'90s" commands or whatever, and inevitably a half of the playlist sucks. I always ask her, you have access to all the music ever made, so much good stuff, why waste time listening to what is essentially a MOR radio channel that rotates the same 100 songs or whatever?

She doesn't really have a good answer, but I concede that 80 years of pop music is a lot of sift through, even when you know what you are sifting for. It takes effort. Like, say you like the Kate Bush song and you want to hear more like that. Where do you begin? (I am asking rhetorically.) Similar stuff, like Peter Gabriel, which may not scratch the itch, despite some similarities? Obvious stuff like Tori Amos or something, which really isn't quite the same thing? I've already in those two hypotheticals put more effort into it than I imagine most do.

Which is another way of saying, yeah, we're all a bunch of weirdos.

I wonder if there are people out there who like "Stairway to Heaven" but have never heard any other Zep

I would imagine these people have been around since 1971, though these days it seems as likely that someone might know only "D'yer Maker" or "Rock n Roll". I definitely came across the former type of person when I was younger and "Stairway" was still a big slow dance song.

xp Checking out the album that contains the song (as I think you mentioned earlier) seems pretty straightforward to me.

Kate Bush is also a particularly tough artist to "RIYL," fwiw. Now, if what they hear and love is, like, a Rancid song...

re Zep, my teen/20 kids know "Immigrant Song" from - Kung Fu Panda? School of Rock? something Jack Black adjacent - and no other Zep, nor the name Led Zeppelin. Fairly Queen literate due to meme usage and BoRhap.

Pretty sure Immigrant Song was in School of Rock. Also in Thor: Ragnarok

I can't get my kids to watch "Bohemian Rhapsody." I wish I could.

brb, reporting jimbeaux to CPS

Immigrant Song was also in Shrek

And Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

The fact that it's now number 4 in the US is honestly delightful. Here's to number one maybe?

Honest question, what does that even mean? Is it getting radio play? What stations are playing it, top 40? Or is it only based on streams/sales? I have no idea how this works.

Josh, read the Slate and Billboard articles. It's quite clear.

Anybody think that this success might enable or compel her to... actually play a show in North America?

xpost were they posted in this thread? must have missed them.

https://slate.com/culture/2022/06/stranger-things-4-kate-bush-running-hill-billboard.html

OK, I read that Slate article, and it indicates that as of the moment as this song may be, it's not quite enough to compel radio play: "and a radio audience of 392,000, too small to make the Radio Songs chart but sizable for a 37-year-old hit." FWIW, the/a Billboard piece claims "2.4 million radio audience impressions," whatever that means. So that means it *is* getting radio play, somewhere, right? I was just wondering what sorts of stations. The Billboard piece ends with "KROQ Los Angeles led all Alternative Airplay panelists in the June 6-12 tracking week with 52 plays for “Hill,” up from seven the prior seven days; WNYL New York followed with 25 plays, up from three." KROQ for sure makes sense; both stations had surely been playing the song for years. The only place I've ever heard it locally is on XRT, which has been playing it since it came out, too. But is it getting played on chart-driven radio anywhere, or is that where it is not powerful enough to make a dent?

…and for those wondering about the impact on album sales/streams:
Hounds Of Love is the number 12 album in the US this week, the highest position for Bush ever. her previous peak was #28 for The Red Shoes (HoL originally reached #30)

My older one, 17, likes the 1975, but I suspect listens to them less (or admits to it less) because I like them.

I wonder if there are people out there who like "Stairway to Heaven" but have never heard any other Zep. It is, of course, all so foreign to me. I mean, everyone streams, it's all there, pretty much every piece of pop or rock or rap or whatever ever recorded, and then some. Why wouldn't someone want to seek and pursue music they enjoy outside of what is served to them by a TV show or movie or commercial or algorithm? I think maybe choice paralysis is at work. My wife, for example, I've noticed has gravitated to stuff like "robot, play music from the '80s/'90s" commands or whatever, and inevitably a half of the playlist sucks. I always ask her, you have access to all the music ever made, so much good stuff, why waste time listening to what is essentially a MOR radio channel that rotates the same 100 songs or whatever?

She doesn't really have a good answer, but I concede that 80 years of pop music is a lot of sift through, even when you know what you are sifting for. It takes effort. Like, say you like the Kate Bush song and you want to hear more like that. Where do you begin? (I am asking rhetorically.) Similar stuff, like Peter Gabriel, which may not scratch the itch, despite some similarities? Obvious stuff like Tori Amos or something, which really isn't quite the same thing? I've already in those two hypotheticals put more effort into it than I imagine most do.

Which is another way of saying, yeah, we're all a bunch of weirdos.

Kate Bush is also a particularly tough artist to "RIYL," fwiw

She inspired a whole generation of female singer-songwriters, Tori Amos and Fiona Apple foremost.

I take your point, though I think RIYL doesn't always (or even generally?) work via the "inspiration" route. Maybe I'm wrong tho

(obv, it depends which aspects of the original artist's work the listener is responding to)

Yeah, inspired is a little weak. Her influence is very strong.

mmmm yes

RIYL Kate Bush: more Kate Bush

she does seem fairly sui generis; it's like trying to RIYL David Bowie or something

Anyone recall a Kate Bush clone from a different language who had a video of herself ice skating or dancing?

http://www.nomorebloodfromaclone.com/2017/04/following-in-footsteps-kate-bush.html
http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=67577

That Happy Rhodes song has really similar vocals but the one I was thinking of was totally trying to copy the whole thing

The best Kate Bush song that isn’t Kate Bush is probably “Stay” by Shakespeare’s Sister if not Tori Amos’s “Past The Mission.”

It wasn’t until I saw him talking on some Kate Bush doc that I took notice of her influence on Brett Anderson of Suede, specifically their ballads and such

something line “the living dead” or “the next life”, idk I’m probably reaching

Not at all. Brett indeed fully copped to the connection back in 93/94 interviews, almost singularly among dudes at that time.

I always thought this Bat for Lashes song was super Bush-y:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEyWX6yspOM

Also, at least to my ears this song I heard today from these MOR dorks Bob Moses sounded like they had definitely been listening to "Running:"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OutlyuZFOWM

The last FKA Twigs album was very Bush-y. Dawn Richard has made some pretty explicit nods too.

Would a Bush head possibly enjoy Slapp Happy / Dagmar K.?

Informative mix re: Kate Bush -> Happy Rhodes -> etc. continuum (apologies to non-streamers): https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6ejysudtZL4OjEz8GMCmef?si=780af14b7ac84e0d

Kate speaks again!

Kate has posted yet again on her official site as the chart excitement just continues to mount. She sounds very excited. Us too, Kate! pic.twitter.com/vOyFHYidWl

— katebushnews.com (@katebushnews) June 15, 2022

Would a Bush head possibly enjoy Slapp Happy / Dagmar K.?

I always thought this track from Hopes and Fears by Art Bears was the closest thing to her that I'd ever heard. It's just a coincidence, though, because "Wuthering Heights" was issued while they were in the middle of recording the album, and the song was written beforehand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsPXDtB9oyo

iirc young Kate professed a love for Robert Wyatt, claiming "Rock Bottom" as one of her desert island discs

Joanna Newsom was the Henry Cow fan

Am I reading it right? She’s #1 at the global billboard charts.

Also apparently the UK charts have weird rules against older songs getting penalized to avoid old songs climbing back (or for the first time) and RUTH had twice the plays they were allowing and was actually #1 quite some days ago.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-61797012.amp

yes, she is #1 on the billboard's global chart (which, it should be said, doesn't include airplay, b/c they don't monitor airplay globally)

in the us, the currents-based formats leading the way on adding it are adult contemporary and alternative (tho, tbh, both formats lean heavily on non-current music these days anyway). but it seems quite a few mainstream pop stations are starting to give it a try too -- and perhaps the classic hits stations, which are barely any different from adult contemporary anyhow, will start to add it in now. overall it is primarily a streaming/sales hit.

(the fairly faithful meg myers cover went to #1 at the alternative format a couple years back, so it's no surprise they are jumping on the original now)