FEATURE:
A Shining Light
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush photographed in 1980/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush
How Kate Bush Is Inspiring Progressive and Amazing Women Pushing Pop Forward
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WE know that…
IN THIS PHOTO: ROSALÍA/PHOTO CREDIT: Alex G. Harper for Billboard
ROSALÍA is a fan of Kate Bush. She gave Bush a shoutout in 2018 at the Latin GRAMMY Awards. I know that ROSALÍA is inspired by other artists and it is not only Kate Bush who she looks up to. However, in 2018, she did give this salute to someone whose influence is burning bright to this day. Even though the speech was over seven years ago now, I do think you can bring it up to date:
“The 19th Latin GRAMMY Awards were a big night for Spanish rising star Rosalía. The singer, who is recognized for bringing Spain's flamenco music to the world stage, won her first-ever GRAMMY awards and used her acceptance speech for the Best Fusion/ Urban Interpretation category to thank the women who blazed a trail for her own career.
"This is incredible. It's a dream. Thank you so much for all the love, thanks all of you for the recognition, I am proud to lead my project and make always the music that represents me, despite the risk, and to be able to share it with the world and be here," she said." I want to thank women like Lauryn Hill ...Bjork, Kate Bush ... shout out to all the women in the industry that have taught me that I could do this because thanks to them I am here”.
This brings us to now and ROSALÍA’s new album, LUX. Without doubt one of the greatest albums of this decade, it will top many best-of-the-year lists. Not that ROSALÍA is typically ‘Pop’, though she is a popular artist and someone whose sound and direction has shifted vastly for LUX. Bringing in Opera and Classical, it is this huge, sweeping and hugely effecting album. It is hard to choose the best songs from the album, as it is all incredible and the work of a genius. I really love Reliquia and the single, Berghain.
To me, there is quite a lot of Kate Bush running through LUX. Also, you can hear Björk’s influence but, as Björk is hugely influenced by Kate Bush, I can circle back to Bush and her affect on ROSALÍA. Not to say that LUX is entirely a tribute to Kate Bush, yet I hear shades and aspects of her albums in this one. In terms of the vocal sound, which is quite operatic but also beautifully expansive, sweeping, tender and almost bird-like at times, I get hints of Bush’s early work like The Kick Inside and Lionheart. This is a period Kate Bush is not entirely fond of, as she does not feel those albums truly represent her. She got a lot of ridicule and press criticism around this period. That was in 1978. However, I can feel these albums work their way into LUX. The biggest Kate Bush connections I feel are to do with The Dreaming (1982) and Hounds of Love (1985). In terms of the scope and genius of LUX, my mind goes to Hounds of Love. The Dreaming is an album that more and more people are discovering. Some critics at the time felt it was too experimental and weird. Bush adopting different accents ands vocal mannerisms. Some of the songs being quite heavy, experimental and layered. Her vocals, at times, almost operatic and intense. It is not a ridiculous theory to suggest that this 1982 masterpiece has a bearing on LUX. Björk love that album too. I thought, when Berghain was released, that it was connected to The Dreaming. In the sense it was a wonderful female artist pushing Pop. Doing something genuinely different. Even though Bush did not do anything Opera or Classical as such, The Dreaming was a radical departure from what she did before. The same with ROSALÍA. However, unlike Bush in 1982, LUX has received nothing but glowing praise. There are some snobs who wonder if ROSALÍA should be bringing Opera into Pop. Elitism still very much alive today. It is not such a leap to feel the bones and blood of Kate Bush in this modern masterpiece. As much as I have said a Kate Bush/Björk collaboration would be immense, you feel a Kate Bush/ ROSALÍA one would be just as good! However, if Bush does grace us with another album, you feel any collaborations she undertakes will be with male artists (and I hope Peter Gabriel is one of them!).
This is not the only modern queen that you can feel is a fan of Kate Bush and recognises her influence. I am a fan of Charli xcx and her latest direction reminds me too of an album like The Dreaming. Maye earlier Kate Bush work than that. Think about the new track, House, with John Cale. I get impressions of Get Out of My House and Pull Out the Pin. I mean, the new songs she is releasing are for the soundtrack to Wuthering Heights. Impossible not to connect that to Kate Bush’s 1978 single of the same name. Charli xcx posted a TikTok video with Bush’s debut single playing. Since her earliest days, Charli xcx has said she is a fan of Kate Bush. Consider this 2013 Billboard article, where we get a quote from Charli xcx about Kate Bush and album of hers that is specially influential:
“Charli XCX: “The album ‘The Sensual World’ is one of the records that defines me. I think the album artwork is amazing — it’s one of my favorite album artworks ever. She’s smelling the rose, she’s got the rose in front of her face, and I think it’s so beautiful. I just love the production of that whole record, the way that her vocals sound. Everything about it is so dreamy. I think my favorite song on it is ‘Heads We’re Dancing'”.
I wouldn’t have pegged Charli xcx to be a fan of that 1989 album. However, I feel in the years since she mentioned that Bush classic, she has been listening to The Dreaming, Hounds of Love and The Kick Inside. The more spectral nature of Wuthering Heights and the intensity in various songs from The Dreaming. However, a new track like Chains of Love could have easily come from a Kate Bush album like The Sensual World. If there was a new podcast or documentary about Kate Bush where modern-day Pop legends and icons discussed Kate Bush, you would like to imagine, ROSALÍA and Charli xcx would contribute.
@charlixcx hope you enjoy! xx
♬ Wuthering Heights - Kate Bush
Another year-best album came from Florence + The Machine. Everybody Scream has elements of Charli xcx’s darker music. The same intensity and gothic horror you get from House. However, I feel Everybody Scream is more personal. However, given that Everybody Scream includes some witchiness and gothic influence, reviews have mentioned Kate Bush. The Observer noted this:
“Into this zeitgeist lands the sixth album by Florence + the Machine. Florence Welch is already something of a millennial Wiccan recruitment officer, and this record arrived on Halloween, brandishing spooky season themes and gleefully dialling up the witchiness of her work, often with tongue in cheek. There are tracks called Witch Dance and The Old Religion; two songs already released – Sympathy Magic and the title track – come with videos set on windswept moors, revelling in references to Brontë and Kate Bush. There are echoes of Welch’s last album, Dance Fever, in callbacks to ideas of possession and catharsis”.
One can see Kate Bush’s influence in the earliest Florence + The Machine work. However, you can still feel it shining today. Again, The Dreaming making its presence felt. A lot of Kate Bush’s earliest work. The i Paper did make a mention of Kate Bush in their review of Everybody Scream: “Welch, it is true, loves her hokum as much as anyone. Since arriving in 2009 with her Kate Bush-goes-indie debut Lungs, her music has pulsated with a theatrical and elemental power – with melodrama and sometimes even a hint of the pantomime”.
This Reddit post observed that the video for Florence + The Machine’s Everybody Scream puts one in mind of the Red Dress version of Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights. Whether taking from The Dreaming or indeed The Kick Inside, there are several albums from this year that have Kate Bush in the mix. Wider afield, there are modern artists like Japanese Breakfast that have been compared to Kate Bush. Quite a few in fact. It would be interesting to get an exhaustive list. However, as we are discussing progressive and year-best artists/albums, there are other artists one can mention. When Dua Lipa released Houidini in 2023 I was one of many who noticed the Kate Bush connections. The key in her mouth for a promotional image is very similar to the cover of The Dreaming. On that album, Bush recorded a song called Houidini. Even if it is harder to see Kate Bush’s sound in Dua Lipa, she is definitely influenced by Bush. “How can we explain the success of this 26-year-old who, just five years ago, was still working at a donut shop in Los Angeles, ready to give up on the music world? First, there are her songs: tales of unrequited lesbian heartbreak, queer anthems drenched in synthesizers and sweeping choruses sung in high notes worthy of Kate Bush, such as Good Luck, Babe!, her biggest hit to date, with more than 1.5 billion streams on Spotify”. These words were including in an article from the summer about a modern artist rewriting the Popp rulebook. This 2024-published Substack post states how Chappell Roan is a Kate Bush-like Pop threat. This extraordinarily inventive and original artist.
FKA twigs and MARINA also are influenced by Kate Bush and have released phenomenal albums this year. Despite not mentioning Kate Bush as an influence, you can feel that Sabrina Carpnter is inspired by her. The stagecraft and Carpenter’s sets. They out you in mind of Kate Bush at time. Also, some terrific albums of this year from artists as varied as Lady Gaga and CMAT, one feels, carry a bit of Kate Bush with them. Both of those artists are fans of Kate Bush. I have mentioned before how Taylor Swift, whilst not as rule-breaking and progressive as artists I have mentioned earlier, is undoubtably the biggest artist in the world. The cover for her new album, The Life of a Showgirl, puts one in mind of Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love back cover, where Bush pays homage to Ophelia. You can read more about Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love and some literary and poetic influences here. There is a song on The Life of a Showgirl called The Fate of Ophelia. Many have noticed how Taylor Swift’s Anti Hero – from 2022’s Midnights – has a striking resemblance to Kate Bush. No doubt this global megastar is indebted to Kate Bush. Some of the most influential, progressive and forward-thinking albums of this year reinventing and pushing Pop have been influenced by Kate Bush. Not only female artists. I hear Kate Bush’s impact on artists such as Perfume Genius and Jacob Alon. Maybe a lot of the Kate Bush resemblance and influence has come from events like Stranger Things putting Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) – from Hounds of Love – back on the charts in 2022. However, the fact albums like The Dreaming and The Kick Inside spring more to mind, you feel that artists have been digging deeper and not going for the most obvious (and celebrated) Kate Bush album. It is wonderful to hear! One wonders which albums and artists will carry Kate Bush’s torch next year. Bush herself might even release a new album soon. For anyone who wonders whether Kate Bush has any influence today and is relevant, you only need to listen to new work from ROSALÍA, Florence + The Machine and FKA twigs to know that it…
IS burning brightly.