‘Stranger Things’ Has Us Learning Metallica ‘Master of Puppets’

The Stranger Things bump to Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” keeps pumping demand for the ’80s metal classic in different ways. Billboard is reporting that the educational music platform Yousician is seeing a massive jump in interest in learning to play the song.

Yousician offers tutorials to learn to play the guitar, piano, bass and ukulele. They say that “user requests for (“Master of Puppets”) on its guitar tuning and songwriting platform, GuitarTuna Play, have increased by 1,700 percent since July 1, making it the most-requested song addition of the month so far.” It seems Yousician was unprepared for all this, as the song isn’t even available on GuitarTuna Play yet. They say they will, however, release it shortly.

Although specific demand for “Master of Puppets” seemed to have surprised Yousician, the music site is well-positioned to meet the hunger for people learning how to play all things Metallica.  The music learning platform has “launched its first-ever partnership series, a kind of ‘Master Class’ for musicians” taught by a handful of artists, including Metallica. Well-timed, for sure.

Says Billboard, “Yousician launched the ‘Metallica x Yousician’ collaboration in June, with three beginner-friendly courses in which guitarists James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett teach users how to play their favorite Metallica songs while sharing behind-the-scenes stories about the band’s career.”

There is a clip of Hammett talking about the “beauty” of playing music in a promotional video for the Metallica course below.

“Master of Puppets” soundtracking the final battle in the season finale for Netflix’s Stranger Things has created a resurgence for the song and energized interest around the band and the show. “Puppets” has rocketed up the Spotify Global chart, prompted a deluge of new fans, and spurred interest in the behind-the-scenes stars of the show.

So will there be a ton of guitar recitals with “Master of Puppets” from music students coming up in the next few months? We can only hope so.

Kirk Hammett for the Metallica x Yousician Music Couse