Why you’re possibly about to encounter a lot of David Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’ on your browser…

By creammagazine, September 7, 2023

Last year, Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill was featured in Stranger Things: Season 4, inadvertently spawning a global re-appreciation of the song, and seeing it garner over a billion streams on Spotify. It was a joyous entertainment ‘moment’ where television, the music industry and the net met and rejoiced for the first time in a long time. Netflix were content its show’s soundtrack was appealing to viewers; Apple and Spotify were happy getting commissions from each download; Kate enjoyed a little time in the limelight (even saying yes to interviews after a lengthy absence from the public eye); and Sony Music made a pretty penny in publishing royalties.

The event proved that even when music competition is aplenty online, a classic song can beat the odds and come out on top. For weeks, ‘Running Up That Hill’ sat atop of official music sales charts the world over.

I’m guessing a similar event is about to happen with David Bowie’s Space Oddity. Already an iconic recording in the annals of rock’n’roll, the song is sure to be trending online after it appeared in Apple TV’s sci-fi series Invasion. Segments of the song first featured in Season One: Episode 9 – an episode aptly titled ‘Full of Stars’ in which Japanese space technician Mitsuki (Shioli Kutsuna) makes aural contact with her astronaut girlfriend who is lost in space.

The second season of the series – which drops episodes weekly – sees the Bowie classic sneaking in and out of the soundtrack quite a few times, before being played to (almost) full length in Episode 2 when Mitsuki finally makes contact with the other side. The song fits in perfectly with Invasion‘s alien and space exploratory themes and, since it’s a 2019 ‘remix’ version that is played, there is something kind of fresh about hearing it in this particular sci-fi series.

Similarly to how Stranger Things brought the music of Kate Bush to a newer, broader audience, Bowie’s ethereal single about a spaceman trying to make contact with ground control is now, too, gaining broader appeal. Of course, viewers are likely to have heard the Bowie classic elsewhere since it has been around since 1969, just weeks before man was supposed to have landed on the moon.

The manner in which the song is introduced in Invasion is very similar to how Kate Bush’s Running was in Stranger Things – snippets at first, variations of the original next, and then the full song in all its buoyant glory. It almost has the same effect as when you see a film teaser, then trailer, then full scene and want to see the full movie. Here you’re just begging to hear the full song from its subtly spooky start to its waning ending.

Expect, then, to see and hear this Bowie favourite cropping up on your browser in the next few weeks, referenced in music magazine articles, and even appearing closer to the upper end of international music charts.

The series Invasion itself, while not as broadly viewed as Stranger Things so far, is nonetheless doing very well for Apple TV, currently sitting in the platform’s top five trending series.

One thing that’s fair to ask is: could streaming channels be the new MTV?

Antonino Tati