Prince is back on the pop charts. So are Kate Bush and Fleetwood Mac. That can only mean one thing: Netflix's Stranger Things finale, which dropped Dec. 31, is shaking up the Billboard Hot 100.
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The holiday-music rush has been swept off the Billboard charts entirely, and the first surefire blockbuster of 2026 — Zach Bryan's With Heaven on Top, which dropped Friday — isn't yet eligible to appear on them. That leaves the charts stuck in a liminal space where the usual assortment of big dogs (Taylor Swift, Morgan Wallen, et al) hover at or near the top of the charts, seemingly by default.
But one pop-culture phenomenon does make its presence felt, especially on the Hot 100 singles chart: the finale of the Netflix TV series Stranger Things, which dropped Dec. 31 and contained many high-profile needle drops.
Three decades-old songs that appear in the finale pop up this week: Prince and the Revolution's "Purple Rain" at No. 27, Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide" at No. 41 and Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" (which the show had already boosted a few years ago) at No. 46. The rise of "Landslide," one of Fleetwood Mac's signature songs, is especially notable: Though a live version of the track charted briefly in the late '90s, the 1975 studio version — the one that appeared on Stranger Things — had never before cracked the Hot 100.
A newer song that didn't appear in the Stranger Things finale nevertheless receives an even greater boost from the show this week. Joe Keery, who played Steve Harrington across the show's five seasons, records music under the name Djo, and Djo's song "End of Beginning" — which peaked at No. 11 in 2024 — re-entered the Hot 100 last week. This week, it surges to No. 6, marking the best chart performance of Djo's career. (It's No. 1 on the streaming chart, with airplay numbers lagging far behind.) On the Billboard 200 albums chart, Djo is also ascendant: Decide leaps from No. 178 to No. 24, while The Crux re-enters the chart at No. 125.
Also back on the albums chart this week: the soundtrack to Purple Rain, which rides the Stranger Things wave to No. 41.
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Taylor Swift has been aggressive in her efforts to keep The Life of a Showgirl on top of the albums chart. Since its release in October, she's dug into a deep toolbox — vinyl variants, webstore exclusives, treating her fans like they're paypigs who are eternally willing to buy the same record over and over again — to fend off the likes of Morgan Wallen, Bing Crosby (during the holidays) and the soundtrack to KPop Demon Hunters. The result: a run of 12 nonconsecutive weeks at the top of the Billboard 200.
This week, The Life of a Showgirl experiences a momentary setback, as an even-older chart-topper — Morgan Wallen's I'm the Problem — reclaims the top spot for a 13th nonconsecutive week. Swift is rarely one to take this sort of insolence lying down, especially when her lucky number 13 is involved, but she'll likely have to wait out Zach Bryan, who dropped With Heaven on Top last Friday and would seem well-positioned to top the chart next week.
Elsewhere in the top 10, there isn't much to report. But it's worth continuing to monitor the rise of Olivia Dean, whose The Art of Loving has been on a sharp upward trajectory for months now. This week, it rises to a new peak at No. 3 — the same position it holds on both the sales and streaming charts. With seven songs on the Hot 100 and a wave of Grammys exposure looming, Dean is set up for a massive year.
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For the first time in her career, Taylor Swift has a song that's topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 10 or more weeks. And all it took was more ceaseless chart manipulation in the form of vinyl sales, an acoustic version, a Loud Luxury remix and a Chainsmokers remix that dropped last week! "The Fate of Ophelia" isn't exactly lagging in streaming or radio airplay — it's No. 2 in the former, No. 3 in the latter — but no stone is going unturned in keeping this thing at No. 1 on the Hot 100 for as long as possible.
This week, the alternative — up a spot to No. 2 — is Alex Warren's "Ordinary," which rises on the chart thanks in part to a 25th week at No. 1 on Billboard's Radio Songs listing. That's almost a full half-year as the most-played song in America, and yet another data point supporting the twin arguments that 1) there's a single person who programs most of the country's commercial radio stations; and 2) this person wandered off the job months ago and hasn't been seen since.
One final phenomenon worth noting: The Grammy-nominated, K-pop-influenced girl group KATSEYE now has two songs in the top 30, as the venerable "Gabriela" reaches a new peak (at No. 21) and "Internet Girl" debuts at No. 29. More momentum to keep an eye on as the Grammys approach and some of the Hot 100's oldest songs fade into oblivion.
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