The Viral Radiohead Song That Jonny Greenwood Almost Quit the Band Over: “I Was Astonished”

Artists have little control over which of their songs go viral and when, which is something Radiohead learned after discovering a song that almost broke up the band in the late 1990s had become a TikTok sensation decades later. As can sometimes be the case when a song experiences a resurgence in popularity years later, the track that started making the rounds on social media wasn’t even the most popular song from Radiohead’s 1997 album, OK Computer. “Paranoid Android” and “Karma Police” were far more ubiquitous after the album’s release. But lo and behold, “Let Down” has returned.

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After “Let Down” began trending on TikTok, the song reached No. 91 on the Billboard Hot 100. Previously, the song had peaked at No. 29 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart. In a 2025 interview with The Times, frontman Thom Yorke described how strange it was to realize a song from Ok Computer that he didn’t even like had made its way back into the mainstream. “I find that especially bizarre. I fought tooth and nail for it not to be on the record. But Ed [O’Brien, guitarist] was like, ‘If it’s not, I’m leaving.’”

Radiohead’s re-entry into the Hot Rock and Alternative Songs chart was the first time the band appeared on the list since the release of their 1992 single, “Creep”. Yorke asked his children, both adults at 18 and 21, about why they thought “Let Down” was becoming so popular. “What do you expect?” They replied. “Teenagers are depressed. It’s depressing music.”

This Viral Radiohead Song Still Speaks to the Masses Decades Later

Radiohead vocalist Thom Yorke’s kids were certainly on to something when they said the masses could relate to the depressing feelings Radiohead’s music often described. Although these kinds of emotions always feel singular and extraordinary when we’re in the midst of them, humans of all decades and generations have suffered in their own way. “Negative” emotions like fear, anxiety, and sadness are the darker but unavoidable part of the human experience. What first inspired Radiohead to create “Let Down” is still applicable today, even decades later.

Speaking to Humo in 1997 (via SongFacts), guitarist and keyboardist Jonny Greenwood said, “Andy Warhol once said that he could enjoy his own boredom. ‘Let Down’ is about that. It’s the transit-zone feeling. You’re in a space, you are collecting all these impressions, but it all seems so vacant. You don’t have control over the earth anymore. You feel very distant from all these thousands of people that are also walking there.”

And indeed, in an age where most people are chronically online and equally lonely, Radiohead going viral with a song like “Let Down” makes perfect sense.

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