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'The Last of Us' continues TV trend of boosting '80s music, gives Depeche Mode 220% streaming surge

Depeche Mode 'Never Let Me Down Again' more than tripled its US streams overnight, after after the '80s track was sampled in the season premiere

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Television shows are bringing back tunes of the 80's and the younger audiences are loving it! First, 'Stranger Things' added Kate Bush's song in their soundtrack and people went ga-ga over it. Now, 'The Last of Us' has sampled Depeche Mode's 'Never Let Me Down Again' at the end of the first episode earlier this week and streamers saw the song achieve a 200% boost after the premiere. 

According to Billboard, Depeche Mode's 1987 song saw an overnight demand, tripling its play by over 220% after the show aired on HBO Max. This meant almost 60,000 more streams than normal. In the final moments of 'The Last of Us' season premiere, the song arrived like dark clouds on a summer morning. In the current TV show landscape, we already know that an '80s song means trouble is just around the corner. But, luckily, for  Depeche Mode, the song came out as the group's knight in shining armor, with a new generation of listeners hooked to their tunes. 

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The number of plays for ‘Never Let Me Down Again’ in the US went from 26,000 on the day of The Last Of Us’ premiere to 83,000 the next day (January 16). Spotify single-handedly saw a 377% increase in streams. As soon as the song's demand skyrocketed, Depeche Mode changed the original 'Never Let Me Down Again' to include an added subtitle, 'Heard during the HBO series: The Last of Us.' 

Before Depeche Mode, it was Kate Bush's 40-year-old song that rose to fame when Netflix's hit show 'Stranger Things' carefully placed the song in one of their anxiety-inducing episodes. It lead to the song reaching and remaining on top of the UK singles charts for three weeks in June 2022, and reportedly earned Bush an estimated $2.3million (£1.9million) in streaming revenue. 

There are many upcoming shows that are hiding these '80s gems waiting to be released as many of the showrunners and music editors grew up in that era. So wait and watch for the next '80s song to be 'blessed' by a TV show as Gen Z gets intrioduced to another Gen X hit.

The series is exclusively available on HBO Max. Watch, if you haven't already.