Depeche Mode’s ‘Never Let Me Down Again’ Received a Streaming Boost Thanks to ‘The Last of Us’
We saw it happen with Kate Bush, Metallica, and The Cramps last year. Now, it’s happening with Depeche Mode: the ’80s music resurgence. Depeche Mode’s 1987 tune “Never Let Me Down Again” tripled in streams overnight following its appearance in the premiere episode of HBO‘s new hit series, The Last of Us, an adaptation of the 2013 video game by Naughty Dog. Here’s more on the song’s importance in the episode, its popularity, and Depeche Mode’s response to the streaming boost.
‘The Last of Us’ Episode 1 closed with Depeche Mode’s ‘Never Let Me Down Again’
The Last of Us follows a hardened survivor named Joel (Pedro Pascal), who must smuggle an important 14-year-old girl named Ellie (Bella Ramsey) across the U.S. 20 years into an apocalypse caused by a brain-eating mutated fungus. While waiting for nightfall at Joel’s place, Ellie finds The Billboard Book of Number One Hits that Joel uses to receive coded messages from his smuggling partners. A ’60s song on the radio means nothing new has come in, a ’70s song means new stock, and an ’80 song means there’s trouble.
Later, after Joel and Ellie’s escape from the Boston quarantine zone, the camera cuts back to Joel’s apartment. The radio flickers on and begins to play “Never Let Me Down Again,” signaling trouble on the horizon.
“A lot of 80s music is chipper and fun but with this, I was looking for an up-tempo 80s song that had a darkness to it lyrically,” The Last of Us co-creator Craig Mazin said on The Last of Us podcast. “What ‘Never Let Me Down Again’ is about is ‘I’m taking a ride with my best friend’ — he was singing about drugs, it was a song about addiction. Well, Ellie’s about to take a ride with her best friend, and Joel is a dangerous man. Joel’s about to take a ride with his best friend, he doesn’t know she’s his best friend yet. She’s a dangerous little girl.”
Depeche Mode got the Kate Bush treatment with a huge streaming boost after ‘The Last of Us’
The Last of Us Episode 1 premiered on Jan. 15 at 9 p.m. ET. By the next morning, Depeche Mode’s song had jumped from 26,000 streams in the U.S. to 83,000, Billboard reported. That’s an increase of 220.5%. Meanwhile, thousands of TikTok videos have used “Never Let Me Down Again” as the soundtrack for The Last of Us content.
If this sounds familiar, that’s because the same thing happened with Kate Bush’s “Runnin’ Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” last spring. The 1985 hit became a hit once again after it appeared in Stranger Things Season 4 Part 1. Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” received the Kate Bush treatment a few months later, thanks to Stranger Things Season 4 Part 2. More recently, “Goo Goo Muck” by The Cramps went viral after Jenna Ortega’s Wednesday Addams danced to the song in Wednesday.
How Depeche Mode responded to the streaming boost
Depeche Mode, which currently consists of members Dave Gahan and Martin Gore, has not directly commented on The Last of Us using their song. However, they did update the music video title for “Never Let Me Down Again” on YouTube to read, “Heard on Episode 1 of The Last of Us.” If the song’s resurgence in popularity is any indication, other artists appearing on HBO’s The Last of Us soundtrack might be in for a treat.
New episodes of The Last of Us drop on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max. Check out the full release schedule for more details.
