Rubberband Girl

Rubberband Girl: Kate Bush and the Red Shoes Album

Kate Bush is a British singer, songwriter, and record producer born in Bexleyheath, Kent, in 1958, whose career began with the extraordinary commercial and critical debut of "Wuthering Heights" in 1978. That song, released when Bush was 19 years old, reached number 1 on the UK Singles Chart and established her as one of the most distinctive voices in British popular music, as much for the ambition and strangeness of its combination of soprano vocal technique, literary source material, and idiosyncratic production as for its commercial success. The reputation built by that debut was sustained and deepened through a series of ambitious studio albums throughout the late 1970s and 1980s.

By the time she released The Red Shoes in 1993, her seventh studio album, Bush had been absent from recording for four years since the release of The Sensual World in 1989. She had developed a reputation for perfectionism and self-direction that made each new release an event of considerable anticipation. The Red Shoes was produced entirely by Bush herself, recorded at her home studio in Berkshire and mixed at AIR Studios in London. The sessions were emotionally difficult: Bush's mother Hannah, who had been a significant emotional and creative presence in her life, was seriously ill during much of the recording period and died before the album's release.

"Rubberband Girl" was the lead single from The Red Shoes and was released in October 1993 on EMI Records. The production drew on a combination of acoustic and electronic elements, with a rhythmically urgent quality somewhat unusual in Bush's catalog and reminiscent of certain moments in alternative rock. The influence of acts including The Pixies was reportedly deliberate, as Bush had cited that group's energy as an inspiration for the more direct, propulsive tracks on the album. The result was one of the most immediately accessible recordings in her catalog, a quality that served its function as a lead single.

The song entered the Billboard Hot 100 on December 25, 1993, debuting and peaking simultaneously at number 88. It spent six weeks on the chart, demonstrating a modest but sustained presence that reflected Bush's cult following in the United States. The American market had always been less receptive to Bush than the British and European markets, where she consistently achieved higher chart positions and stronger sales. On the UK Singles Chart, "Rubberband Girl" reached number 12, a performance more reflective of her standing in her home market and consistent with her track record of top-20 UK singles throughout her career.

The song also appeared on the Modern Rock Tracks chart in the United States, where alternative radio had developed an appreciation for Bush's work that existed somewhat independently of mainstream pop radio interest. This placement was consistent with the way American audiences tended to receive Bush: as an art-rock or alternative figure rather than a mainstream pop act, an asymmetry that her British career, where she occupied a more central position in popular culture, did not reflect.

The Red Shoes album received generally positive reviews, with critics noting its emotional intensity while observing that its energetic moments represented something of a departure from the more introspective work that had preceded it. The album reached number 2 in the UK and number 28 in the United States. Bush also produced a film in conjunction with the album, titled The Line, the Cross and the Curve, featuring Bush and Miranda Richardson and drawing on the visual imagery of the album's themes. "Rubberband Girl," as the lead single, was the public's first encounter with this body of work, and its relatively direct, energetic quality served as an appropriate introduction to an album that explored a wider tonal range.

Bush's subsequent career included an extended hiatus from recording before the release of Aerial in 2005, a double album that received widespread critical acclaim. In 2014, she undertook her first live concerts since 1979, a 35-show residency at the Hammersmith Apollo in London titled Before the Dawn, which sold out immediately upon announcement and reinforced her status as one of the most important figures in British popular music history.