"Kids" is a track and music cue created by Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein for the Netflix series Stranger Things. Released as part of Stranger Things, Volume One, the composition is prominently featured throughout the series, both in its original form and as numerous variants (released in subsequent soundtrack albums).
The original track, simply titled "Kids", is first heard in the Dungeons & Dragons scene from "The Vanishing of Will Byers", in which protagonists Will, Mike, Lucas, and Dustin are introduced. Because of this, the track, and accompanying leitmotif, are closely associated with "the Party" - characters who are 'kids'.
The track is notable for introducing a distinctive melodic music cue, or leitmotif, which are otherwise rare in Stranger Things's original score. Dixon and Stein usually focus more creating on a "specific" tonal palette and "mood", rather than reproducing recognisable cues, but the "Kids" motif is one of the few exceptions.[1]
Development[]
In an interview with Sound on Sound, Kyle Dixon describes the importance of the "Kids" cue:
| “ | Well, this is the first time you actually hear any music in the show, so it was a big cue for the Duffers. This is where we establish Hawkins as a quaint little town and introduce our main characters who are about to have their lives changed forever. We tried a bunch of different ideas, but ended up using a version of one of the early demos we made for general kid-sounding stuff. There is an element of anticipation that we needed to convey, so there is a somewhat strange bass note that drones for most of the beginning of the cue that adds a bit of tension. | ” |
He goes on to describe some of the synths used:
| “ | The [DSI] Prophet 6 plays a few of the parts, ARP Avatar for the bass, Univox Mini-Korg for the melody and Oberheim SEM for the high arpeggio during the biking scene. The Prophet 6 got used a lot on this score. Because it's new, it has some handy features [such as patch recall, MIDI and remote parameter control] that the older polysynths do not. | ” |
Variants[]
| # | Track name | Album | Track no. | Appearances |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Kids" | Volume One |
2 | |
| 2 | "Kids Two" | Volume Two |
15 | |
| 3 | "Home" | (original soundtrack) |
2 | |
| 4 | "Boys and Girls" | (original score) |
1 | |
| 5 | "Teens" | (original score) |
3 |
References
- ↑ "Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein on the signature sounds of Stranger Things" Composer Magazine by Spitfire Audio. 2022.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Scoring Stranger Things" Sound on Sound. March 2017.