Why did Joe Keery’s “End of Beginning” dominate Spotify? We explain the lyrics meaning, who Caroline is, and the emotional connection to the Stranger Things 5 finale.
Stranger Things has come to an end. The last episode was broadcast on December 31, 2025, and we are all a bit sad. The rumors about a possible surprise new episode coming out in January have already been denied, nothing else will come out, so it’s time to bid an official farewell to one of the most beloved Netflix series of all time. And farewells are given with heartfelt gestures that convey emotions. Like sharing the right song with everybody.
We have described the social psychological process that led Joe Keery’s (aka Djo) song “End of Beginning” to the top spot on the Spotify streaming chart in January 2026, followed by an explosion of news sites reporting how the song dethroned Taylor Swift’s The Fate of Ophelia after 78 days of undisputed dominance. Because Joe Keery is the actor who played Steve Harrington in Stranger Things, and although End of Beginning has existed since 2022 and was released as an official single in 2024, Stranger Things fans have decided to turn it into the official farewell anthem for the series, sharing it en masse on social networks and delving into its meaning once again.
There are many questions, from the connection with the Stranger Things soundtrack to Caroline, mentioned in the lyrics, through all the times the song went viral. Today we will explore every aspect of End of Beginning to satisfy all your curiosities.
Is “End of Beginning” featured on the Stranger Things soundtrack?
Considering that “End of Beginning” has become the symbol of the farewell to the series, many fans have wondered if “End of Beginning” is actually part of the official soundtrack of Stranger Things 5. The answer, as surprising as it may be, is no. There is no trace of Djo / Joe Keery’s song in the show’s official soundtrack.
The Duffer Brothers’ series is known for its rigorous adherence to a specific musical context in its soundtrack: the tracks included in the episodes often echo 1980s nostalgia, and the songs that emerged in the series have often gone viral during the period the seasons aired: it happened with Kate Bush, Metallica, Toto, Diana Ross… in short, Stranger Things has been a true goldmine of past musical milestones.
“End of Beginning,” with its psychedelic yet decidedly modern synth-pop sound, couldn’t have found a place in the Hawkins narrative without breaking the historical immersion. However, in 2026, it became the “emotional” soundtrack of the series: a spontaneous tribute born from fans who saw in Joe Keery’s lyrics the perfect inner monologue of Steve Harrington as he bids farewell to his past.
When did it go viral? The story of an unstoppable success
“End of Beginning” was premiered for the first time in 2022 and is part of Djo’s second official album, Decide. But it didn’t become popular immediately: “End of Beginning’s” journey to the top wasn’t immediate, but divided into two key moments:
- The TikTok explosion (2024): The song began to circulate massively about two years after its initial release on the album Decide (2022). At that time, the trend was tied to pure nostalgia: thousands of users used the track to show places from their childhood or returns to their hometowns, making the line “And when I’m back in Chicago, I feel it” iconic.
- The Finale phenomenon (January 2026): With the airing of the final episode of Stranger Things, the song underwent a metamorphosis. It was no longer just a piece about geographic nostalgia; it became the symbol of the end of a television era. This second wave was the definitive one, pushing the track to number one globally and turning Joe Keery into one of the few actors capable of dominating the worlds of cinema and music simultaneously. Without even setting the marketing machine in motion to get there.
Who is Caroline in “End of Beginning”?
There is a particular line in “End of Beginning” that has sparked fans’ curiosity over the years: Who is Caroline, the woman mentioned in the lyrics?
Enter, Caroline
“Just trust me, you’ll be fine”
Joe Keery explained this during this 2022 interview with Jimmy Fallon. The anecdote dates back to his formative years: Caroline is his sister (Caroline Keery Whitmore), and for Joe, she represented a motivating force for his acting career. As Joe explained to Fallon, Caroline was the one who tried to wake him up from the apathy and insecurities related to the world of acting, pushing him to get involved.
For trivia lovers: at that time, partly as a joke, Joe had promised Caroline that if he ever ended up doing an interview with Jimmy Fallon, he would bring his sister with him. And he kept his promise: Caroline was in the audience during that interview, and Jimmy Fallon even wished her a happy birthday.
In the lyrics of “End of Beginning,” Djo/Joe visualizes his sister Caroline entering his room and speaking to him at a moment when he felt things were moving too fast. The song concerns another period of the artist’s life, 2016, shortly before his official acting career exploded with the start of Stranger Things. Doubts were many, but Caroline was there for him, reassuring him: “It’ll be fine, trust me.”
It is one of the many highly emotional points of “End of Beginning.” The love of a sister who follows and supports us through difficult times. There are other intense themes addressed in the song’s lyrics: let’s see what they are.
The Meaning of “End of Beginning” lyrics: A Goodbye to Innocence
“End of Beginning” is a song about the major turning points in our lives: in the lyrics, Joe Keery specifically retraces the moment when his acting career was about to take off and the doubts associated with that change: before Stranger Things, Joe Keery was a musician in Chicago, and his life had not yet been turned upside down by his success on Netflix.
This is the exact meaning of “End of Beginning”: at that time, Joe felt he was still at the start of his new life as an actor, and his debut in Stranger Things already promised to be the end of that “beginner” period. In the song’s first verse, Djo speaks of tears falling for the end of an era, and the need to save the last cry for when it is truly needed. Then he asks himself, “Remember twenty-four?” It was 2016, the year Stranger Things arrived on Netflix.
Just one more tear to cry, one teardrop from my eye
You better save it for
The middle of the night when things aren’t black and white
Enter, Troubadour
“Remember twenty-four?”
The chorus is one of those capable of making you cry. Joe remembers his time in Chicago, where he lived through those years. He was a different person then, a different version of himself. And today, as he writes “End of Beginning” as a famous actor, he revisits the moment he said goodbye to his “age of innocence.”
And when I’m back in Chicago, I feel it
Another version of me, I was in it
I wave goodbye to the end of beginning
As Joe Keery often says in interviews, being an actor represented a series of sacrifices he had to make. It’s something we as viewers don’t always think about: having to change cities, transforming one’s life to adapt to new demands, moving away from the people you love… sacrifice is at the center of “End of Beginning” and makes the change even harder to manage.
A major sacrifice, but clueless at the time
Enter, Caroline
“Just trust me, you’ll be fine”
Fortunately, Caroline reassures him. In the end, Joe will make it; he will manage to handle all the difficulties. The nostalgia will remain, of course: he feels it every time he returns to Chicago. That spirit will forever be a part of him, and no one can ever root it out of him, as the final part of the lyrics says:
You take the man out of the city, not the city out the man
“End of Beginning” is a song of rare beauty and intensity, and it’s no coincidence it went viral on TikTok as the soundtrack to our most nostalgic moments. Feeling changed and remembering bygone times and how different we were is an integral part of our growth and our lives. Even the end of a series that has stayed so close to us like Stranger Things represents a major shift: this is why “End of Beginning” is the song helping us say goodbye to a piece of our hearts.
