Stranger Things could have picked any Michael Jackson hit for its final season. Thriller. Beat It. Billie Jean. Instead, Season 5 quietly drops Rockin’ Robin into the mix, and that choice says a lot about what the show is really doing with our nostalgia.

Rockin’ Robin is not the dramatic, stadium-sized ’80s MJ most people expect. It is a bright, bouncy song from his Motown childhood, back when his voice was still small and sharp, and the world felt lighter.

Around it, the new soundtrack still feels huge. Volume 1 stacks the story with ABBA’s Fernando, Tiffany’s I Think We’re Alone Now, The Psychedelic Furs, Mr. Sandman and more. Digital drops arrive in three waves, with a full physical release landing later on CD, vinyl, and even a red cassette.

Remember how Running Up That Hill and Master of Puppets exploded after Season 4? Stranger Things has already proven it can pull a song out of the past and push it into the center of pop culture.

‘Stranger Things” Soundtrack For Season 5 Premieres With Cuts by Michael Jackson, ABBA

Rockin’ Robin contrast really comes into focus in the first big preview of Season 5. The official trailer builds everything around a sweeping remix of Queen’s Who Wants To Live Forever, turning the final run of episodes into something that feels huge, heavy and emotional. It is the clearest look yet at how music, monsters and last chances collide in the Upside Down, and why this season’s sound will be impossible to forget once you hear it play.

Stranger Things 5 | Official Trailer | Netflix

Tiffany’s I Think We’re Alone Now reminds you just how big these songs once were. It is pure late 1980s pop, all malls, denim and hair spray, which is exactly the world the show keeps bringing back to life.