Campaign of the Month: The Stranglers – ‘Golden Brown’

This month, we’re spotlighting The Stranglers, and a campaign that helped their classic track ‘Golden Brown’ enjoy a new lease of life and go 2x platinum – as submitted by the team at Rhino UK.

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Campaign Overview

We first noticed an uplift in streams on ‘Golden Brown’ in February 2025, but the track really started to lift from May 2025 onwards, where streams had risen 40% month on month, and a 400% increase year on year.

The uplift was being driven almost entirely by TikTok, with the track being adopted by #medievaltiktok and #castlecore videos.

We identified a high volume of track creations associated with the medieval aesthetic on TikTok. Creators were using the song to create a ‘feeling’ of that historical period, with many users commenting that “Golden Brown” perfectly “captured” how the era might have sounded.

The track became an emotional anchor for the medieval aesthetic, deeply resonating with listeners and prompting them to stream the full track to carry that “vibe” with them throughout their day.

The trend soon evolved beyond medieval visuals. We saw the song gain traction within the gaming community, particularly with the #cosygaming hashtag.

Creators posted scenes from video games that fit the song’s aesthetic—like castles, battle scenes, and winter landscapes—and sparked community engagement by asking for game recommendations.

This debate further amplified the track’s resonance across various visual aesthetics. We’ve also observed the track being used in creations related to traditional board and tabletop gaming, which is a perfect fit for the autumn/winter trend cycle.

There has also been a fashion angle where creators dress up in medieval clothing, using the ‘Golden Brown’ sound. One in particular, a creator called ‘Camtholomew’ has been really creative in this space-and almost exclusively uses the track in his creations!

It’s been a truly fascinating journey for the team to dive into the various microgenres and microcosms of online spaces to discover why a track is reasonating to a huge extent with brand new audiences and how they have adopted it and driven a new surge in streams.

A ‘slowed down’ version of the track was the main driver of the TikTok trend. We worked with The Stranglers themselves and management to create a full length version of the slowed down track and release it to DSPs.

It’s now the second most popular track from The Stranglers on Spotify (under the original Golden Brown). We engaged various creators to encourage a consistency in new creations posted, as well as uploading visualisers to YouTube.

We also started an official TikTok account for The Stranglers to amplify the connection between the track and the band themselves, and drive their catalogue outside of Golden Brown.

We’re at 14k followers in less than 6 weeks and growing consistently [17k at time of publishing]. We’ve seen a noticeable uplift in streams for their other songs as new audiences find the band through this viral trend.