In a plot twist no one saw coming—not even the band themselves—Radiohead’s 1997 track “Let Down” from the iconic OK Computer album has leapfrogged from existential headphone anthem to TikTok’s latest cinematic sad-girl-core soundtrack.
Yes, that “Let Down.” The one that sounds like being gently pushed down an escalator of emotions in a dream.
Now, thanks to a legion of moody Gen Z users armed with melancholy, mood lighting, and four types of anxiety, the song has climbed its way onto the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time ever. That’s right: it only took 28 years, a video-sharing app, and a generation that cries recreationally for “Let Down” to glow up.
Somewhere, Thom Yorke probably just blinked slowly and whispered, “How to disappear completely.”
TikTok: Where Teenagers Cry to British Men Who Look Like They Haunt Victorian Attics
While most viral TikTok sounds are either hyperpop earworms or cats falling off furniture, “Let Down” has become the soundtrack for every cinematic breakdown. Think: rain-streaked bus windows, grainy filters, captions like “POV: your life feels like a Wes Anderson movie but with more trauma.”
“I just found this song called Let Down by some guy named Radiohead and I haven’t stopped weeping since,” wrote @ghostinfrenchclass, whose video of herself staring out a bus window racked up 1.6 million likes.
Another TikToker layered it over a clip captioned, “When the choir version hits and you realize the vending machine ate your Sour Patch Kids AND you’re processing generational trauma.”
Unlike most TikTok trends that burn out faster than Thom Yorke’s patience at the Grammys, this one stuck. “Let Down” isn’t a trend—it’s a lifestyle of subtle emotional collapse.
Radiohead: Unaware, Unbothered, Possibly in a Bunker
Radiohead, famously allergic to commercial validation, has made zero public comments. Sources close to absolutely no one say this is probably because the band is:
On a collective sabbatical forming side projects like The Smile
Meditating in a server farm
Still trying to figure out how TikTok works
Thom Yorke once called TikTok “like watching algorithms swallow people whole,” so don’t expect him to duet your thirst trap anytime soon. Meanwhile, Jonny Greenwood is allegedly scoring an experimental short film about dust.
Still, with the song’s TikTok glow-up, diehard fans are wondering if “Let Down” will finally make it onto more setlists—despite its complex layering and Yorke’s legendary refusal to do anything remotely expected.
From Sad Banger to Billboard Darling
So here we are: in 2025, Gen Z turned a 1997 track about existential despair into a viral aesthetic. It’s not ironic, though—if anything, it’s the perfect full-circle moment:
A song written about alienation, now thriving on a platform designed to connect people by their alienation.
OK, Computer. OK, TikTok.
Somewhere out there, a 17-year-old is sobbing to Radiohead in 4K, and a 47-year-old is whispering, “Kids finally get it.”
