Throwback Express
Stranger Things has completely reformatted how this generation remembers the ‘80s. There are no neon headbands, no metallic leotards, heavy lace, or drawn-on moles on anyone. You don’t see the glorified, MTV version of the decade — just a plain Jane cast donning drab clothing in more shades of depressing autumn imaginable, living in an otherwise unexciting Indiana town. And then there’s Winona Ryder, icon of throwback culture, patron saint of broken love, cigarette smoking and the pixie cut, screaming lines like “And you think I won’t know my own son’s breathing?” like she, indeed, knows. It makes you think: How did we get here? How are the ‘80s so far back in time and yet still so vivid, so fresh we can almost smell the Aqua Net?
The songs are not helping. In the first episode alone, the show drops enough tracks to send one into a soundtrip down memory lane. The moment Jefferson Airplane’s White Rabbit started playing, I knew this was a show I’d like to keep watching. When Toto’s Africa followed, oddly accompanying a make-out scene, I realized it’s a show that doesn’t take itself too seriously, however grim or gory it gets (it doesn’t get that gory). Shortly after the first season’s release, Netflix created a playlist on Spotify of songs from the show. It has everything from The Clash to Corey Hart, classics from the ‘70s and ‘80s, — songs Ryder’s Joyce Byers must hear on the radio. Stranger Things is proud of its kooky soundtrack, as it should be. It’s inspired a whole lot of viewers to brush up on the decade’s musical offerings (it’s not all Tiffany and Debbie Gibson) and maybe wonder what songs could — should — make it to season two. Here’s a wishlist/playlist. I would love to see how the Duffer brothers would use them, if they ever do.
