The Sounds of Stranger Things
For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been going through each season’s original scores to see where I can draw parallels between tracks sounding alike, sampling from each other, and what scenes in particular they correspond with. I want to see if certain tracks may foreshadow plot points and narratives that will take place in the content we have yet to see. There are a lot of connections I’ve been able to gather between the seasons’ respective scores.
And while we’re on the topic of music: I would like to note that I really believe in the A-Side/B-Side theory. The theory that we have only seen the B-Side, the mostly unreliable narrative, of season five, and we are therefore still missing at least half the season. In 5x08 when they put on Prince’s Purple Rain, they play the B-side of that record. When Doves Cry is the first track on the B-side and Purple Rain is the last track on the B-side, implying the whole B-side of the record plays before the bomb goes off. The night of Finn's SNL show, for the first time in over a decade, the SNL cast played a new warm up song - Let's Go Crazy by Prince. The first song on the A-side of Purple Rain. We have yet to see the A-side, the reliable narrative, of season five but could we infer that it’s coming as hinted at by this particular SNL warm up song?
Anyway, back to the Stranger Things score analysis. I honestly had so much fun with this! And now look, I have no degree in music or experience in digital music production, but I am an audiophile and like to think I have amazing sound recognition. (I’d like to thank my dad who has a 600+ record collection and was always, always spinning records during my upbringing).
Season One: honestly nothing much to report, I mostly just used this as a reference. Foundational tracks we will revisit as we go through the later seasons.
Season Two: the undisputed goat score of the series and it’s not even close. Again, not a whole lot to touch on besides just using this season’s score as a reference. Quite a few foundational tracks here too!
The sleeper hit-rification of Season Three aka the goat season for theory crafting, hints towards Vecna and how I seriously overlooked Billy and Madwise.
Season Four – the spring break season of romance tracks & Lord Vecna has entered the chat.
Season Five – childhood friends to lovers = Confirmed aka the piece de resistance that is “We’re Friends, Good Friends”; the Lord Vecna-fication of it all, the crazy Planck’s Constant Theory, and a lot of “are you picking up what I’m putting downs”.
Tracks sevens and elevens of each season
Tracks hinting at birthdaygate / memory fuckery
And since we’re talking about music: WSQK official vinyl predictions – in a perfect world - if I were in the writer’s room - can you see the vision?
Like I said, not much to report. We will revisit tracks that are sampled in later seasons such as; Kids (s1, track 2); Friendship (s1, track 6); Starts to Rain (s1, vol. 2, track 21).
You Can Talk To Me (s1, track 34) – can’t help but point out this song plays as Karen is having a heart-to-heart with Mike about his feelings with “everything that’s been going on with Will” while El is literally hiding in his closet. The implications have really been there from the jump, but I digress.
Castle Byers (s1, track 9) has got to be my favourite track oat. It was my most played song of 2017 lol. It gets a pink – aka it goes hard.
Again, not too much to report besides just revisiting this season for future seasons’ tracks that sample from season two; The First Lie (s2, track 7); Eulogy (s2, track 3); Eight Fifteen (s2, track 6).
And, as if I didn’t need more reasons to appreciate season two anymore than I already do, this season’s score is the undisputed goat – therefore, all of the tracks get a pink aka they just go hard. I would literally listen to this score for funsies, it’s really a vibe.
The sleeper hit. Okay upon revisiting this season’s score, I realized just how much lore can be explored from this season. The theory crafting goes crazy!
I fear I’ve slept on season three far too much and seriously overlooked Madwise and Billy’s character as a whole. I can’t believe I just brushed off the fact that Will and Billy literally have the same name and it took me until listening to the track William (s3, track 14) to realize the parallels, oh my god.
I believe Billy is at the intersection of Will and Henry. Max and Will are very similar in the same way that Will and Billy are two sides of the same coin. What I mean by that is Billy and Will were both brought up with abusive fathers and bullied (Billy by his father) and although Max wasn’t abused by a parent, she got mistreated and abused by Billy. While Billy lets it corrupt him, becoming abusive and violent like his father, Will and Max insist on breaking the cycles of violence and holding onto their love and light, trying to remain pure despite it all.
Which also makes it even more insulting that Max ends up like a rageaholic and breaking things in the epilogue, when she refuted time and time again that she was not like her brother, she would not become like her brother. In their formative years, Will and Max both had the devotion and love from the same friend group when they needed the support the most. Will and Max shared the same supporting group of loved ones, that Billy and Henry likely didn’t have in their upbringings.
And although, in the end, Billy was able to be brought back from the dark-side by his purest memory, I believe he was very much at the tipping point of becoming just like Henry, becoming another Vecna. And Billy was brought back with a memory and a corresponding track about the “wave being seven feet” no less – Seven Feet (s3, track 26). Although, what we see of Billy, he is a real pos, this track and this scene was really a beautiful moment, proving that, no matter how far gone they seem, how corrupted they seem, there is always a chance they can still be saved. So, in terms of how close to the tipping point of total corruption goes, it would look like this: Will/Max -> Billy -> Henry/Vecna.
I feel like…this could really be foreshadowing…a certain character…also named William…needing to be saved from the dark-side…in a certain season five…with a memory involving a seven…(“seven feet” / “it was a seven.”)
and…possibly…another character who seems very much…fully corrupted and evil as far as we know…possibly…being redeemed…and turning on its master…just like Billy… (I’ll never forget that leaked official merch t-shirt that had the description: "Vecna faces off against the Mind-Flayer in one epic design depicting the final battle". I shant forget what I saw!)
I also can’t help but crack theorize that the meat flayer pieces were told to look for “William” and just happened to stumble upon Billy who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, and the meat flayer pieces were like, “ah yes, William, we have been looking for you”. lmao. I should also add here that I really don’t think the mind-flayer/meat-flayer from season three is the shadow monster, they are just not on the same level, not the same entity.
Okay, but interestingly enough, as if the parallels of Will and Billy weren’t obvious already, this sequence of tracks is very telling:
William (s3, track 14) -> Destroying the Castle (s3, track 15) -> He’s Here (and “He’s here” is interesting because the Mind Flayer is a feminine entity, right? Mindy Flare? Kali’s powers being more akin to the Mind Flayer? So, I believe Will is subconsciously aware – even though his memories of Vecna are supposedly gone - his trauma in season one and his connection to the hive mind comes from Vecna).
In episode 3x03 the tracks actually go as follows: Not Kids Anymore (s3, track 35) – the rain fight -> Destroying the Castle (s3, track 15) – Will destroys Castle Byers -> paralleling William (s3, track 14) – Billy gets corrupted by the meat flayer and starts building his army -> He’s Here (s3, 38) – Will sensing that the big bads are back. “I want you to build” is what the flayed say to Billy. Who else is called a builder in season five? Will.
Will breaking down and destroying Castle Byers has so much significance as it is directly paralleling Billy getting corrupted. Then “He’s here” – could this be signalling that Vecna senses that Will is beginning to crack? Much to think about. The hinting at Vecna is certainly there as one of the next tracks: Portal Drill (s3, track 19) is very Lord Vecna coded, and I don’t know a better way to explain the Lord Vecna songs besides they just sound “Vecna-y”, okay?
(Edit to add: I now believe Billy is queer, and deeply repressed. And that’s exactly why he becomes a host for the Mind Flayer in s3. It’s all in my latest analysis.)
Destroying the Castle (s3, track 15) and Mirkwood (s3, track 18) and Blueprints (s3, track 33) all go hard by the way, they all get pinks!
Tammy (s3, track 17) is an enlightening track and it sounds very El coded. Tammy sounds like it samples from Eight Fifteen (s2, track 6) – the track that plays when we find out El is still alive and living in Hop’s cabin – and First Kiss (s1, track 7). I want to stress that I don’t claim that El is Mike’s Tammy. Their relationship also goes beyond a “hallway crush”. I believe they have a lot of genuine love for each other, but Mike’s heart does not belong to her. I think if anything El should be Mike’s Steve. As in, they should have more of a Stobin dynamic, just with more history and a deeper connection.
The First I love You (s3, track 8) samples from The First Lie (s2, track 7). I’ll remind you that “love” is the only non-capitalized word, hm, what could that imply I wonder. It is the track that plays when Robin comes out of the closet to Steve and when El kisses Mike in front of Will’s closet. The implications speak for themselves. One scene of a character coming out of the closet – another scene with closet imagery – and both scenes either confirming explicitly (Robin) or implying sub-textually (Mike) unexpected revelations of feelings. The First I love You is also one of only three tracks with the word “love” in its title, and the only one with the word “love” not capitalized, the other two are in seasons four and five.
The Week is Long (s3, track 27) – Listen, I’m not one to play records backwards or slow songs down to find hidden meaning in them, I’m not doing all that. But…I feel like if any track could have a secret message in it, it could be this one? Upon listening carefully to the scores for this analysis, it just sounds like there is something more to this track, I can’t explain it.
The Silver Cat Feeds (s3, track 12) doesn’t really go with The Week is Long, they don’t really work together, but The Silver Cat Feeds does end up sounding like/sampling from Starts to Rain (s1, vol. 2, track 21). I don’t know if that implies anything, it’s just something I noticed!
Season three, although I hate to say it, probably remains my least favourite season, which is why I fear I overlooked it as much as I did, but if you’re not familiar already with the Tharizdun theory by heir.to.Icarus on TikTok, please take a look. This theory is brilliant and makes even deeper sense of our characters’ development and storylines in this season from a very cool DnD lore perspective. I love this theory so much, I can’t stress it enough. I can’t help but to think Cold As Ice (soundtrack) and It’s Just Ice (s3, track 22) support this theory even more.
Another theory that bases its crafting in season three is the Planck’s Constant theory which we will revisit in season five’s section - Planck’s Constant (s3, track 24).
All right first thing I notice right away is Teens (s4, track 3) obviously bases its foundation in Kids (s1, track 2) but Teens has ticking and Vecna chimes in the background – Vecna’s influencing even our original score tracks! Teens mixes with the main theme a little bit too.
In the closet (at Rink O Mania) (s4, track 6) is actually an insane, unhinged title, like they really threw subtlety out the window for that one. “We’re friends, we’re friends”, yeah okay. In the closet actually gets really quite dark, tragic, twisted and like another Lord Vecna track. It even sounds like a busy phone line beeping in the background of this track too. “You called maybe a couple of times” - “Maybe you should have reached out more, I don’t know” – “Joyce has this new telemarketing job, she’s always on the phone. Mike won’t stop whining about it.” Their miscommunication will be the death of me. Mike would only be calling for Will. Mike and El had to write letters or use Cerebro as to keep her whereabouts private.
Other Lord Vecna songs – A Realm Unspoiled by Mankind (s4, disc 2, track 12); there are some things worse than ghosts…(s5, track 42); and oddly enough: [delicate, intense music playing…] (s5, disc 2, track 29) lol. Bylers clocking that, with closed captions on, canon couples and Mike and Will scenes would often have [delicate, emotional music playing…] or [tender, delicate music playing…] so this one is just funny (rude) to me that it’s actually a dark Lord Vecna track.
We are NOT Heroes (s4, track 15), just what an odd name for a track. Maybe hinting that Heroes in the end credits (s5) does not mean our heroes won in the end, as Vecna said, “you have already lost” at the end of season four. You Have Already Lost (s4, disc 2, track 37) also happens to be the very last track of season four’s score, hm. And then to have Spellbound (soundtrack) playing in the end credits of season four. I wonder if they are trying to tell us something…
You’re the Heart (s4, track 20) plays during the Mike to El love profession. As soon as the track starts to build is exactly when El changes her focus onto Max, giving her the strength to fight. “There is so much more to life than stupid boys” – “Not Hopper, not Mike, you.” Cannot stress enough how much I love Elmax. You’re the Heart is also not particularly romantic in the least bit, it’s actually quite sad at first but becomes an empowering track by the end.
Letter to Willy (s4, track 24) is also an interesting title. It plays when, you guessed it, Max reads her letter to Billy. Also plays when Mike and Will are sitting on the junkyard car talking about opening up about feelings. I can’t help but think the track’s title is also trying to remind us to look back at Will/Billy parallels…and perhaps hint at lettergate (listen, a girl can dream, okay).
Brenner’s Little Pet (s4, track 27) – the title is crazy work. I wonder if they are trying to tell us we shouldn’t be rooting for a certain couple… “What is she your little pet?” – “Yeah, am I your pet?”
On the Bus (s2, track 4) - plays when Mike and Will are having a heart-to-heart and agreeing about being a team again, which just so happens to be the same track that plays when Lucas and Max have their first heart-to-heart scene in season two. Which leads me to:
Spring Break Season of Romance Tracks <3 (they also all get pinks because they are all very good + just a vibe to listen to)
Surf That Tasty Pie (s4, disc 2, track 6)
Hiiiiiiiii (s4, disc 2, track 2)
Still Dizzy (s4, disc 2, track 3)
Unambiguous True Love* (s4, track 9) – the second of three tracks with “love” in the title.
Being Different* (s4, disc 2, track 9)
*Trust we will be revisiting these tracks when I get into the piece de resistance that is We’re Friends, Good Friends (s5, track 6).
Eulogy (s2, track 3) plays when Jonathan and Nancy are about to die. Can’t help but to worry about their true fate, but I honestly think they’re safe. Now another duo, Dustin and Steve, I’m not so sure about.
You Die, I Die (s5, track 5) – it gets to a point where you repeat a certain line so many times that it becomes a manifestation. Dustin and Steve have now repeated this line to each other three times throughout the series going all the way back to season three. I hate to say it, but I sincerely fear that they are bones. Because may I present to you Stinkgate.
Stinkgate: After their successful mission of 1,2,3, Kill Vecna, as they are driving back to the MAC-Z gate, Robin makes a note that Steve stinks, she says she doesn’t know what it is, but he smells like shit from a butt apparently, so much so she has to air out the truck in the Upside Down. Then, in the final DnD scene, when our party leaves the basement and the younger kids take over, Derek says to Josh, who is in the seat Dustin was just in, “you stink, are you farting, you smell like rotten pizza.” And I can’t help but notice this has been hinted at since even season one which is insane but… at the end of the campaign, when Jonathan goes down to the basement to get Will, he makes a comment about how it stinks down there, and Lucas said that it’s Dustin, “he farted, Dustin farted!” I think they’ll die together tragically, possibly making a sacrifice, something something you need two keys to destroy the machine (callback to season three). I’m ready for some emotional damage after that mindless spectacle of 5x08.
Like I Could Fly (s5, track 4) – I know a Castle Byers sample when I hear one.
Will the Wizard (s5, track 13) – end of Sorcerer, Will’s powers – and Like a Sorcerer (s5, track 5) – field scene (track is romantic as fuck) – This and the context of 5x01 should tell us we should expect a tragic Mike vs. Dark-sided Will showdown. Will is still possessed and may even harm Mike but I don’t think Mike will go quietly, he will be brave and bring Will back from the dark-side but it will be a fight. Something’s gotta happen to Mike’s arm, right? Mike foreshadows this in 5x01 when he says, “This is Mike the Brave, he fights monsters, evil wizards, and sorcerers.”
And if that isn’t a hint enough, listen to: Real Life Honest To God Sorcerer (s5, track 27), this track is actually really dark and sinister sounding. I think we are in for a reveal that something actually really bad happens when Will taps into his “Vecna powers”.
Move Worlds (s5, track 13) – towards the end of this track it starts sounding like Planck’s Constant (s3, track 24), and the very next track in season five’s score is Zone G1 (s5, track 14) which directly samples from Planck’s Constant. I haven’t had the best success with hyperlinking TikToks, but in the event I can’t link, Whitney Wickham’s account has the best videos on it. I don’t claim to know anything about science (I really am not that girl), but I’ll try my best.
Planck's Constant Theory: Planck’s Constant is the point in quantum mechanics where everything is stable above Planck’s Constant. Once you dip below that, everything begins to decompose. The theory is that when Suzie gives Dustin Planck’s Constant over Cerebro after their Never-Ending Story duet, Vecna/MF were spying and this is the moment when they are able to break through and infiltrate their world and begin merging their two worlds, and possibly starting either a time-loop or two/multiple timelines.
The end of the track Move Worlds (s5, track 13) beginning to sound like Planck’s Constant (s3, track 24) is certainly suspicious and could support the theory that when Vecna hears Planck’s Constant, he is able to begin making plans to merge/move worlds. Move Worlds is a very strange, sinister, and unsettling track, indeed.
The Abyss (s5, track 18) goes hard.
We’re Friends, Good Friends – oh shit, here we go.
We’re Friends, Good Friends (s5, track 6 – which we have yet to hear in the show), the piece de resistance that you are…the number of times I had to listen to this track to get this analysis just right. This is the Byler track and it’s not up for debate. This is the most childhood friends to lovers track that could ever exist in this show’s universe. Let’s get into it:
The track samples from and lays most of its foundation in the track Friendship (s1, track 6) ->
Around 0:30 into the track, it begins playing flickering synths, the same, or very similar, flickering synths that are in The First Lie (s2, track 7, which is Jonathan and Nancy’s first kiss track). The flickering synths sound as close to what I imagine “electricity” could sound like in a song, electricity, as established in the show, is synonymous with romantic chemistry.
Then, as We’re Friends, Good Friends starts to build, it begins layering soft organ synths. It now has Friendship as its foundation, and flickering synths of “electricity” from The First Lie, and now soft romantic organ synths from Being Different (van scene, see 0:45 – 2:33) and Unambiguous True Love (Joyce and Hopper first kiss).
It is the friends to lovers track. And it is the Byler track because as @byelerheart said in one of their recent posts: Byler is not a ship, it is a story that has not finished. Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein really said, “all right, we need a friends to lovers track. What if we use Friendship as its foundation, and layer it with samples from two of our canon ships’ first kiss tracks, sample flickering synths that sound a whole lot like music’s equivalent of electricity aka romantic chemistry, layer that with soft organ synths from tracks called Being Different and Unambiguous True Love, symbolizing how sacred this love is and call it We’re Friends, Good Friends. Is that friends to lovers enough for you?”
I’m so intrigued by this next sequence of tracks (not that the scores are put in chronological order but the sequence is rather interesting!)
Afraid to Look For You (s5, disc 2, track 35) – this track is awesome.
A Love Supreme (s5, disc 2, track 36 - the third and final track with “love” in its title) – this track is sad and gets a little weird in parts. If we were to get a fakeout death, I think it would be to this one. I even get flickergate vibes from this, but that could just be because I can never get flickergate off my mind. (A Love Supreme is the name of the John Coltrane cassette album that conceals Jonathan’s ring.)
She Has Corrupted Your Mind (s5, disc 2, track 37) – I have no idea what this track or track title could mean but this track is also so cool.
You Are the Curse (s5, disc 2, track 44) – damn is this play about us?
And finally: I Need You to Believe in Me is the very final track of season five’s score which is certainly interesting! Maybe they are trying to tell us something…
Tracks hinting at birthdaygate / memory fuckery
A memory within a memory (s4, track 43)
Just A Memory (s5, disc 2, track 23)
Memory Go Round (s5, disc 2, track 26)
Never Forget (s5, track 46) – very emotional, euphoric and cathartic song.
Stuck in 1983 (s4, track 10)
November 6 1983 (s5, disc 2, track 20)
I Like Presents Too (s3, track 2) – this is a quote between Mike and El at the end of season three but I can’t help but think about birthdaygate.
I wouldn’t remember me either. (s4, track 2) – this is an Eddie quote from his scene with Chrissy, but again can’t help but think about birthdaygate when I read this track title.
These could really be meaningless but just thought I’d cover all the bases.
Season One: Eleven / First Kiss
Season Two: The First Lie (Jonathan and Nancy kiss) / A Familiar Shape (dark track but refers to Bob recognizing Lover’s Lake)
Season Three: The Ceiling is Beautiful (When Stobin are tripping balls at the mall just before they yack in the toilets)
Season Four: Does that make us friends? (Interesting, track plays when Nancy and Robin have a chat in the woods) / Follow Me Into Death (ouch, feel like this could be foreshadowing – fakeout death?)
Season Five: Preppers / Just Us and the Crickets (Jopper proposal reference, but if you follow the ESOTSM Montauk stuff…could have a deeper meaning).
Season One: The Upside Down (iconic track) / Speak of the Devil
Season Two: Chicago / The Spy (Kali being flayed?)
Season Three: Find the Source (The Source was the original title for 3x05 which was renamed The Flayed)
Season Four: Hawkins National Lab (El’s backstory – makes sense) / I Want You to Watch
Season Five: Even Comes with a View / He’s Still Human
It’s still very weird that there are ten tracks on the official vinyl, but only two of them have played in the show, considering they have to license all of these songs so without featuring them is strange. And one of them is heavily protected and nearly impossible to license (similar to Prince songs) – Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2.
So anyway, just thought I’d make some predictions of how these unheard songs could be used if we get more content. Because I’m really good at visualizing theoretical scenes to music (I do it when I’m out of valium).
Magnificent Seven and Bicycle Race – both kind of chaotic songs, very upbeat, and very anti-conformity. I picture them in action sequences. In particular, in scenes of Mike’s escape from Camazotz. I theorize that Mike will have to escape through memories, just like Holly, particularly memories with Will. I picture Mike revisiting the rain fight or even “it’s a seven”, getting on his bike and racing after Will, while everyone else in Camazotz starts noticing that Mike is trying to escape. So, as Mike is biking after Will to his next memory to the tune of Bicycle Race, the rest of the flayed people in Hawkins Camazotz are pursuing him to prevent him from escaping.
Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2 – Mike breaks out and with El or anybody else that exists outside of Camazotz, they help the other members of the party break out of Camazotz, or if Mike escapes = the whole illusion is effectively broken, Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2 will play as we see our protagonists break out of conformity and regroup for the final battle plans.
Here Comes the Rain Again – y’all already know. This will be the Byler soundtrack song.
And one last thing, I Think We’re Alone Now is Mike’s guilty pleasure song.
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