Today marks the 10th anniversary of the launch of Netflix’s Stranger Things, and it feels incredible to think of how much life has changed.
For myself and the rest of Gen Z, the Eighties-set sci-fi show took us on a journey from teenagehood to adulthood, our own experiences often mirroring the stories of runaway test subject El (Millie Bobby Brown), her love interest Mike (Finn Wolfhard), and the rest of the town of Hawkins. As the cast grew up, so did its audience, making the series feel less like escapism and more like our very own coming-of-age story.
The show offered a window into the teenage years of our parents, and created a nostalgia for the simpler days of the past – free from social media and doomscrolling.
Maybe it was the autumn leaves, the unbreakable friendships, or El’s Eggo waffles (for the uninitiated: an Eighties staple and the character’s favourite food in the show). Whatever it was, something about the series rooted itself into the psyche of Gen Z. So much so that we are still dressing up as El for Halloween a decade later.
Even now, I can recall being sat on the sofa and asking my parents all kinds of questions, finally understanding more about the world they grew up in.
The show’s creators Matt and Ross Duffer brought us everything great from the era: shopping malls, roller discos, old-school Schwinn and Huffy bikes, cassette tapes, Walkmans, and neon workout leotards. As well as three key reasons the show latched onto us…
It was the perfect escape from tech
At a time when social media and algorithms were firmly establishing themselves in our day to day lives, this was the perfect escape from tech that already felt exhausting. Stranger Things let viewers return to the simplicity of genuine friendships and living in the moment, rather than chasing likes or subconsciously comparing ourselves to others.
These days, going out all day to explore nature or biking with friends has been replaced with screens, and Stranger Things’ glorification of pre-tech existence offered a much needed alternative to endless scrolling.
It made us all Eighties pop culture enthusiasts
Stranger Things’ cultural footprint was huge. Dungeons and Dragons, regularly played by the characters throughout the series, was no longer a game for nerds. It became popular for everyone. The fashion of the Eighties also made a massive comeback, and with 90 per cent of the cast’s wardrobe being vintage pieces, costume designer Kimberly Adams reinforced that authenticity was key for a generation looking to curate their own Stranger Things-inspired fashions. The legacy remains clear even now, with the global secondhand apparel market growing twice as fast as the overall fashion market. It is predicted to reach $393bn by 2030.
For Gen Z-ers eager to escape the plague of low-rise jeans, the timing was perfect. Massive collaborations with brands like H&M, Levi’s and Primark also made this retro style accessible to everyone. Although the over-consumption of fast fashion suggests Gen Z is more into the 1980s aesthetic rather than the actual ideology.
Beyond fashion, Stranger Things also helped us rediscover some golden classics from the musical archives. The soundtrack is the ultimate Eighties playlist, bringing back masterpieces like Madonna’s “Material Girl”, Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill”, Metallica’s “Master of Puppets”, and The Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go”. The show helped introduce a host of new musical genres to a generation who were only just beginning to consider their identity on their own terms.
It changed how we watched TV
The launch of Netflix’s streaming platform in 2013 marked a major shift in how we consume television, solidifying the concept of binge-watching. And Stranger Things, arriving three years after early Netflix hits House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black, specifically marked the first time that Gen Z en masse experienced the sensation of watching an entire series in one go, rather than waiting for weekly episodes. Only a handful of other shows have grasped our attention in the same way.
Actor Joe Keery, who played heartthrob Steve Harrington on the show, transitioned into music over the course of the series, and I can’t help but see my generation’s relationship to Stranger Things reflected in one of his lyrics. “I wave goodbye to the end of beginning,” he sings on his 2022 album Divide, capturing in just a handful of words what it meant to grow up alongside the show’s characters. Because we saw ourselves in the teenagers we saw on screen, and waved goodbye to them just as we stopped being teenagers, too.
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