Decades after Prince’s death in April 2016, his discography maintains unusual cultural dominance. The song’s resurfacing in the January 2026 Stranger Things series finale highlighted its flexibility. By scoring the resolution of Mike Wheeler and Eleven’s multi-season arc with Prince’s gospel rock ballad, the production team drew a direct line between 1980s pop nostalgia and the song’s central theme: enduring catastrophic, world-altering trauma by anchoring oneself to genuine love.
Prince was famously defensive of his licensing rights, regularly sending cease-and-desist letters to digital platforms and rejecting commercial soundtrack placements. His estate's selective willingness to license master recordings to narrative projects in 2026 demonstrates how the track operates today: not as incidental background music, but as an emotional centerpiece that carries immense narrative weight.
