David Bowie's "Heroes" is the next song to experience a streaming surge due to the Stranger Things series

JAKARTA - The classic song by the late David Bowie, "Heroes", is back to dominate the digital charts after becoming the emotional closing music in the final episode of the popular Netflix series, Stranger Things.

The recently released fifth season viewing triggered a nostalgia explosion that made the number of plays of the song soar by almost 500 percent on various digital music services.

The latest data from Luminate, which was collected until Monday, January 5, shows that Bowie's work from the 1977 album recorded a massive increase.

Before the final episode aired, Heroes averaged only around 94,000 digital streams per day over the past five months. However, that figure jumped drastically to 342,000 plays on launch day, and continued to creep up to hit 470,000 plays on January 3.

What happened confirms the power of Stranger Things in reviving classic songs in the modern era, similar to what happened to Kate Bush's song "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)" a few seasons ago.

In addition to Bowie, iconic works from Prince such as "Purple Rain" and "When Doves Cry", which also appear in the final episode, have also seen a two-fold increase in plays on the Spotify platform.

This achievement is in line with the new record broken by the series directed by the Duffer Brothers, which managed to attract 59.6 million viewers on the first day of its premiere.

The selection of the song "Heroes" started from the suggestion of Joe Keery, the actor who plays the character of Steve Harrington who is also active in music with the stage name Djo.

Ross Duffer, one of the creators of the series, revealed that once Joe made the suggestion, the production team immediately realized that the song was the most appropriate ending for the long journey of the Hawkins gang.

"After Joe said that, we immediately knew that it was the right song to end the show. Because in some ways, it's the national anthem for Stranger Things," said Duffer, quoted by NME, Wednesday, January 7.

"Using the original version of Bowie feels right and fitting for the conclusion," he added.

This step is also a tribute to David Bowie, considering the orchestral re-release version of Peter Gabriel was used in the early seasons of the series.

Of course, the success of this song on the global charts is a real proof of how the right music curation in a visual display can turn a classic work of art into a contemporary trend that is global again.