The Stranger Things Season 5 soundtrack continues the series’ long-standing relationship with pop history, using familiar songs to anchor memory, tension, and emotional turning points.
Across the season, music plays a structural role rather than functioning as background decoration, often marking shifts in perspective or signaling moments of escape, loss, or resolve.
That approach reaches its peak in Episode 8, where the final collapse of the Upside Down is underscored by two Prince tracks drawn from Purple Rain. The choice closes the series by returning to the same music-driven storytelling that defined earlier seasons, while pushing it into a more reflective register.
Below is a complete episode-by-episode breakdown of every song featured in Stranger Things Season 5, including the finale.
Episode 1 Soundtrack: “The Crawl”
Episode 1 opens with a tight mix of radio hits, character-driven choices, and one emotional callback. The songs are part of WSQ Radio’s morning lineup and help frame Hawkins as a town trying to act normal.
Tracks featured:
- Should I Stay or Should I Go – Stranger Things Cast
- Rockin’ Robin – Michael Jackson
- Pretty in Pink – The Psychedelic Furs
- Upside Down – Diana Ross
- May 25th – Matthew Cardinal
- Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) – Kate Bush
Episode 2 Soundtrack: “The Vanishing of Holly Wheeler”
Episode 2 shifts into higher stakes, and the Stranger Things Season 5 soundtrack reflects it. The mix leans on iconic songs used to build tension around Holly and the Wheeler home attack.
Tracks featured:
- Fernando – ABBA
- Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) – Kate Bush
- Notes on a Scandal – Philip Glass
- Someone in Your Garden – Philip Glass
- Mr. Sandman – The Chordettes
Episode 3 Soundtrack: “The Turnbow Trap”
Tracks featured:
- o Each His Own – Freddy Martin & His Orchestra
- Someone Has Died – Philip Glass
- I Think We’re Alone Now – Tiffany
- Oh Yeah – Yello
- The Nutcracker: Dance Scene – Tchaikovsky
- Car Boy – Julek Ploski
Episode 4 Soundtrack: “Sorcerer”
The last chapter of Part 1 blends dread, memory, and the big turn toward the finale. The songs here frame both the real world and the darker corners of Vecna’s mindscape.
Tracks featured:
- Higitus Figitus – Karl Swenson
- Premature Plans – Elmer Bernstein
- Betrayal – Elmer Bernstein
- Sh-Boom – The Chords
- Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) – Kate Bush
Episode 5 Soundtrack: “Shock Jock”
Tracks featured:
- Think of a Carpet (Masland Carpet) – Raymond Scott
- Heart and Soul – Floyd Cramer
- The Fight – Herschel Burke Gilbert
- The Snake (Film Version) – Angelo Badalamenti
Episode 6 Soundtrack: “Escape from Camazotz”
Tracks featured:
- Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) – Kate Bush
- Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) – Kate Bush (Lullaby Mix)
- Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) – Kate Bush (Orchestral Mix) Rob Simonsen/London City Orchestra
Episode 7 Soundtrack: “The Bridge”
Tracks featured:
- Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) – Kate Bush
- When It’s Cold I’d Like to Die – Moby
- Human Cannonball – Butthole Surfers
- Remembering – Thom Robson
Episode 8 Soundtrack: “The Rightside Up”
The Stranger Things Season 5 finale places music at the center of its final sequence. As the Upside Down destabilizes and the group makes their escape, the episode turns to Prince’s Purple Rain era to carry the emotional weight of the moment.
Two songs are used in sequence, each tied to a distinct phase of the escape and its aftermath.
Tracks featured:
- When Doves Cry – Prince
- Purple Rain – Prince
“When Doves Cry” plays as the group breaks free, pairing urgency with forward motion. The shift to “Purple Rain” follows as the tone darkens and the episode lingers on uncertainty, particularly around Eleven’s fate. The series offers no explicit explanation within the scene, allowing the music to hold the emotional space rather than resolving it through dialogue.
For the finale, the Duffer Brothers set their sights on Prince, knowing from the outset that securing the music would be difficult. Once they decided that a record would serve as the trigger for the final sequence, they searched for an album that could sustain both momentum and emotional weight from beginning to end. Purple Rain fit that structure exactly. Even so, they were warned the request was a long shot, given how rarely Prince’s music is licensed outside the original film. The team moved forward anyway, cutting the scenes with the songs in place and waiting for approval. After weeks of uncertainty, the estate agreed, allowing the finale to feature both tracks.
The episode also includes additional songs that appear throughout the closing stretch:
- Sh-Boom – The Chords
- Landslide – Fleetwood Mac
- Here Comes Your Man – Pixies
- The Trooper – Iron Maiden
- Sweet Jane – Cowboy Junkies
- At Last – Etta James
- Heroes – David Bowie
- Who Wants to Live Forever – Queen
Why Music Matters in the Stranger Things Finale
From its first season, Stranger Things has used music as a narrative signal rather than nostalgia for its own sake. Season 5 maintains that approach, especially in Episode 8, where licensed tracks replace exposition and allow ambiguity to stand.
The finale does not clarify Eleven’s fate through dialogue or on-screen confirmation. Instead, the soundtrack carries that unresolved tone forward, closing the series in the same register it began: memory, emotion, and uncertainty shaped through music.
The Stranger Things Season 5 soundtrack spans decades and genres, from ABBA and Kate Bush to Philip Glass and Prince. Episode 8 brings that musical language full circle, ending the series with songs that frame escape, loss, and ambiguity without spelling out answers.
Across the season, each track is tied to character and moment, reinforcing how deeply music remains woven into the show’s storytelling identity.
