Radiohead’s 1997 Song Just Crashed Onto The Charts For The First Time Thanks To TikTok

In the 1990s, it seems nearly every major genre of music had some sort of peak or rise of a subgenre. The most obvious would likely be grunge, with the Seattle Four dominating the airwaves and cultural discourse well beyond the West Coast by the end of the decade, but there was also shoegaze, nu metal, pop punk—the list goes on.

One band that drew inspiration from any number of rising ’90s sounds, taking the world by storm as a result, was English alt-rock band, Radiohead. By the time they released their third album in 1997, the critically acclaimed, genre-bending and decade-defining OK Computer, they had staked their claim as one of the greatest artists of the ’90s.

Surprisingly, despite their mainstream success and dozens of charted tracks in the UK, Radiohead has only had four songs reach the Billboard Hot 100 charts. Even more surprisingly, the fourth one was “Let Down” from OK Computer, which didn’t chart when the album was released in 1997, but 28 years later in 2025.

Radiohead’s “Let Down” Is TikTok’s Latest Secret Masterpiece

28 years after its release in 1997, “Let Down” recently debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 91. The song’s newfound chart performance came as a result of it going viral on TikTok, and Radiohead isn’t the first band or artist experiencing a massive resurgence due to a song going viral decades after its initial release.

Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” experienced a similar uptick in popularity via TikTok in 2022, after the song was used in the Netflix series Stranger Things. Bush’s song quickly became the background music for many popular influencers in their makeup tutorials, recipe videos, or “get ready with me” vlogs.

The difference, however, between “Running Up That Hill” and “Let Down” is that the Radiohead track has gone viral not exactly in tandem with its sheer merit as a song, but rather because of it.

The viral TikTok sound incorporates the rather hopeful lyrics of “Let Down,” paired with the somber musical backing, to evoke dueling senses of emotion in videos that similarly combine feelings of sadness with hope.

Even if it did take nearly three decades, perhaps even because of GenZ’s growing reality that juxtaposes sadness with hope, it’s nice to see “Let Down” finally enjoying its well-deserved spot on the US charts.