1.
In this legendary scene from Stranger Things 4 (2022), Max escaped villain Vecna through the power of her favorite song: “Running Up That Hill” by Kate Bush. Due to the scene’s instant popularity and deep connection with its younger fans, the 1985 song skyrocketed to No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200 charts in mid-June.
In an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, Kate Bush described the impact her 1985 song “Running Up That Hill” has had on a younger generation in 2022. “[Stranger Things] is such a great series. I thought that the track would get some attention, but I just never imagined that it would be anything like this,” she said. “The thought of all these really young people hearing the song for the first time and discovering it is very special. I thought: ‘What a lovely way for the song to be used in such a positive way.’ I think it’s very touching.” And when Stranger Things 4 hit Netflix, Bush earned $2.3 million in royalties.
3.
When Fleetwood Mac went on their Tusk Tour from 1979–1980, there was a horrible incident on stage. According to member Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham threw his electric guitar at her during a show. “He threw a guitar at me, and I ducked — I’m that fast,” Nicks said. “But Christine [McVie’s] vantage point, she’d see it all. So, she took it to heart that night. Lindsey left the stage, I chased him down, but Christine beat me to him.”
4.
Mel B and Geri Halliwell (aka Scary Spice and Ginger Spice) used to hook up during their days in the Spice Girls. On Piers Morgan’s Life Stories, Mel B revealed, “It just happened and we just giggled at it and that was it. She is going to hate me for this because she is all posh in her country house and her husband, but it’s a fact.”
5.
In 1990, Madonna’s music video for “Justify My Love” was banned from airing on MTV because it celebrated bisexuality and voyeurism. After the video’s release, Madonna received backlash among music fans and the media, and did an interview on Nightline to set the record straight.
When questioned why she submitted the video to MTV knowing it had nudity, she responded, “When I did my ‘Vogue’ video, there’s a shot of me where I’m wearing a see-through dress, and you can clearly see my breasts. They told me that they wanted me to take that out, but I said I wouldn’t, and they played it anyway.”
Madonna went on to say she thought she could “bend the rules a little bit” with her “Justify My Love” music video, but she still received judgment from her interviewer on Nightline.
6.
Billie Eilish wrote her 2024 hit “LUNCH” (which is about a woman performing oral sex on another woman) before she had that sexual experience herself. In an interview with Rolling Stone, she said, “I wrote some of it before even doing anything with a girl, and then wrote the rest after. I’ve been in love with girls for my whole life, but I just didn’t understand — until, last year, I realized I wanted my face in a vagina.”
7.
The classic ’90s rock anthem “What’s Up?” by 4 Non Blondes (you know, from the viral 2025 TikTok trend) almost sounded completely different than the version you know and love. When 4 Non Blondes first went into the studio to record it, producer David Tickle had created an arrangement that sounded very different than front-woman Linda Perry’s original demo. In an episode of VH1’s Behind the Music, Perry recalled: “[I was] just gonna do what [I was told]. I shut up when I heard the marching drum, I shut up when David was trying to get me to rewrite the lyrics, I shut up when the solo showed up over the marching drum. I shut up through the whole fucking thing.”
Jimmy Iovine, their label’s founder, gave 4 Non Blondes his blessing to rerecord the song because “he liked the demo version better than David’s.” So, the band re-recorded “What’s Up?” in one day, making Perry feel relieved. “Everything went right back to the original way I wrote it, and then we mixed it that night and it got on [Bigger, Better, Faster, More!],” she said. “That’s the one that sold seven million records, that’s the one that was all over the radio, that’s the one that got successful — that version.”
8.
Missy Elliott was drunk when she filmed this scene for the “Work It” music video because director Dave Meyers accidentally refilled her glass with wine instead of water.
“We shot that take maybe seven times from different angles, so by the time that was over, [Missy] was trashed,” Dave Meyers recalled. “She was so smiley. Then, Janet Jackson came to bless us with her presence, and Missy was talking all kinds of gibberish to her — it was really a good time.”
9.
TLC had won two Grammys in 1996, and were the biggest-selling female group by that point (10 million albums sold worldwide), but they were actually bankrupt and barely received money for their major hits.
In 1996, the LA Times reported: “The trio has received less than 1% of the estimated $175 million in revenues that the group’s music has generated around the world. Analysts say that’s about 40 times less than the profit that has been divided among the management, production, and record companies that represent TLC.”
10.
Tina Turner was the one who taught Mick Jagger how to dance when she toured with the Rolling Stones in the ’60s. “The Rolling Stones requested that Ike [Turner] and Tina do the England tour with them. I didn’t really know Mick, but there was always this guy who stood in the wings,” Turner revealed. “He wasn’t dancing on stage [yet]. We were in the dressing rooms together, having a ball, and Mick says to me, ‘Teach me how to do The Popcorn.’ And I said to him, ‘So that’s what you were doing in the wings all this time, learning some of the dances we do?'”
11.
During one of Taylor Swift’s concerts in LA for her Eras Tour, she took a break to do something so, so heartwarming. In the middle of her song “22,” Swift went to the front of the stage and gave her iconic black hat to Kobe Bryant’s daughter, Bianka.
12.
Megan Thee Stallion’s song “Thot Shit” was inspired by the negative reactions she and Cardi B received from their 2020 hit “WAP.” In an interview with Stephen Colbert, Megan Thee Stallion said, “I know the Republicans have had a bad year, and they probably need to take their frustration out somewhere. But, I want to tell them ‘thank you for the streams,’ because without [them], I don’t know if we would’ve been here. I mean, them people crazy.”
So the following summer, the queen of Hot Girl Summer released “Thot Shit.” The music video dramatized Megan Thee Stallion’s take on the negative reactions from “WAP.” In the beginning of the video, she showed a senator leaving hateful comments on one of her videos. Then in the middle of the song, Stallion rapped, “Watchin’ me go through it, still tryna drag me / Actin’ like you winnin’, if you think about it, actually / Are they supportin’ you, or really just attackin’ me? I don’t give a fuck ’bout a blog tryna bash me / I’m the shit, per the Recording Academy.”
13.
Following her six-decade-long career and pioneering efforts that have shaped the music landscape today, Diana Ross has been shockingly overlooked at the Grammys.
Other notable women in music who’ve never received a competitive Grammy are Nina Simone, Joan Baez, Janis Joplin, Patti Smith, Debbie Harry, and Björk.
14.
“Oops (Oh My)” by Tweet is NOT about masturbation — it’s actually about being confident in your body and your mind.
The song’s co-writer, Missy Elliott, revealed the true meaning behind the song on Twitter in 2021. Elliott tweeted: “#FunFact this song was never ’bout masturbation — it was always about [Tweet] appreciating her dark skin (self-love) when she looked in the mirror. It was the listeners who thought it was about sex and just ran with it. We just let the consumers’ minds create what they wanted.”
15.
In Beyoncé’s song “Smoke Hour ★ Willie Nelson” from her 2024 album Cowboy Carter, she pays homage to Black artists who laid the foundation for country/rock music. If you pay attention, you’ll catch onto songs by revolutionary artists like Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Chuck Berry, and Roy Hamilton.
16.
Yoko Ono co-wrote “Imagine” for John Lennon’s 1971 album Imagine, but Lennon didn’t give her songwriting credit. Ono finally received songwriting credit for “Imagine” at NMPA’s Centennial Annual Meeting in 2017 once it was learned that Lennon pulled the majority of the lyrics from her 1964 poetry book Grapefruit.
In a BBC interview from 1980, Lennon was quoted as saying, “[‘Imagine’] should be credited as a Lennon-Ono song because a lot of it came from Yoko. But in those days, I was a bit more selfish, a bit more macho, and I sort of omitted to mention her contribution. But it was right out of Grapefruit, her book.”
17.
In 1989, the Grammys created a new category: “Best Rap Performance.” DJ Jazzy Jeff and Will Smith (then the Fresh Prince) won the award. The Grammys didn’t plan on televising the category, so to show their support, rappers like Salt-N-Pepa didn’t attend the ceremony (even though they were nominated in the same category for their song “Push It“).
“We boycotted the Grammys back in ’89,” Pepa told Billboard in 2020. “Other music was being televised — everybody was able to walk and accept their awards visually, and we took a stance for that.”
18.
Grace Jones was roommates with Jerry Hall in Paris in the early ’70s before they ventured off into their own successful careers as singers and models (they both had modeling contracts at the time). In Grace Jones’s 2015 memoir, I’ll Never Write My Memoirs, she wrote: “I developed long-lasting bonds with the girls I worked with, not least because I also lived with them and we explored new, strange territory together. I’ve remained friends with Jerry to this day, and we help each other and inspire each other.”
19.
Liza Minnelli was actually the first artist to sing “New York, New York” in 1977, before Frank Sinatra made it famous two years later. John Kander and Fred Ebb wrote the song for the 1977 film New York, New York starring Minnelli, but unfortunately, her version didn’t get the popularity it so rightly deserved. They even made a joke about it on Arrested Development, which Liza guest-starred on as Lucille 2.
20.
Aretha Franklin was the first woman inducted in 1987. Another fun fact about Franklin? Her classic hit, “Respect,” is actually a cover of a song by Otis Redding.
Franklin rewrote Redding’s lyrics because the song originally had a misogynistic tone. She spelled out “Respect,” singing it with gusto: “R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me.” Recording this song as a woman flipped the script and made the tone of the song empowering for women. Now, it’s one of the most famous female anthems of all time.
21.
In 2015, Brittany Howard (and Alabama Shakes) performed at Prince’s home, Paisley Park. They jammed together on Alabama Shakes’ song “Gimme All Your Love,” and after the night ended, Prince called Howard up. “He called me, and he had a super-deep voice,” Howard revealed. “[He said], ‘Did you have a good time tonight? Check your e-mail — we should work together.'”
22.
In 1971, Carole King and Joni Mitchell were each recording legendary albums at the same studio in Los Angeles. King was recording Tapestry, and Mitchell was recording Blue. Because they were in such close proximity to each other, they performed on each other’s albums.
The most iconic collaboration was on “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” from Carole King’s Tapestry. King sang lead vocals and played piano while Mitchell sang background vocals (along with James Taylor). As a teenager in the early ’60s, Joni Mitchell’s favorite song was “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” (a song King originally co-wrote for the Shirelles with her then-husband, Gerry Goffin). So, to sing background vocals on her favorite song nearly 10 years later with the original songwriter herself feels like a true full-circle moment.
23.
In the original Playbill for the 1964 musical Funny Girl, Barbra Streisand’s debut on Broadway, she made up a bunch of wild facts in her bio. She wrote things like: “[Barbra’s] favorite day of the week is Tuesday, since she devotes part of each Tuesday throughout the year to stringing crystal beads which are sold in a Vermont general store.” Barbra ended her bio in the wittiest way possible, saying: “For more personal information, write to her mother.”
24.
And Sabrina Carpenter drew inspiration from the 1992 film Death Becomes Her for her “Taste” music video. The video stars Jenna Ortega, and you see the two women fighting over a man in a very bizarre way, much like Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn did in the original film. (Sabrina and Jenna’s version is slightly bloodier, though.)
Carpenter also wrote her big hit, “Juno,” after watching…well, Juno (2007). During her NPR Tiny Desk concert, she claimed it was initially a “joke song,” but it came to fruition for her album Short n’ Sweet.
