Why a Song From 1997 Suddenly Goes Viral

You can tell a lot about someone by scrolling their FYP for 10 minutes.

And if you’re anything like me, you’ve been hearing the same song on social media: Let Down - Radiohead. 

In their “OK Computer” Album.

OK Computer was released in 1997 and in the last 6 months has generated tens of millions of likes and views on TikTok.

The song makes you feel a way you can’t explain.

So instead of taking it as a “just a good song”, I decided to zero in on what makes the song resonant.

What makes a song create that feeling?

The first thing I found was that the lead singer, Thom Yorke, was in an extremely dark place

During the mid-90s, he was dealing with:

• intense anxiety

• panic attacks

• exhaustion from touring

• feeling disconnected from reality

• the early stages of what he later called a “full-on breakdown”

OK Computer was written right in the middle of that psychological spiral. It’s basically the sound of him falling apart.

He’s said in interviews he can’t listen to OK Computer without feeling physically sick. It takes him back to that dark place.

Radiohead recorded it late at night, when all of them were mentally drained from weeks of touring after “Creep” exploded.

Then there’s the dark magic the engineers and band worked:

The instrumentals mimic everyday life - escalators, trains, clocks, conveyor belts.

The layered harmonies (4 Thom Yorkes singing at once all milliseconds out of tune with each other) makes him sound echoey, like he’s far away, unreachable, like distant memories. 

Giving you that sense of nostalgia but you can’t tell what for.

The chord progression never fully resolves. It builds tension.

More tension, just on the release, then pulls away, back to the tension. Like a DNB song that never drops.

The guitars create a “falling-but-floating” sensation, bright but fragile, fast but soft, repetitive but slightly uneven.

This creates a dissociative, weightless sensation, like you’re suspended in mid-air.

The climax isn’t a climax, It’s a collapse. 

Most songs build toward a big emotional explosion.

Let Down builds and builds and builds until the last chorus… and then instead of exploding, it breaks apart.

It’s a “non-release.”

Your chest tightens, you expect catharsis and instead you get resignation.

That’s why you feel a painful, beautiful ache.

And finally, Thom’s vocals sound detached but devastated.

He is singing like someone who isn’t fully in their body.

His voice has:

• low intensity

• breathiness

• a slightly hollow tone

• almost no emotional peaks

It feels like he’s observing his emotions, not experiencing them.

That’s dissociation, and the listener mirrors it.

Your nervous system literally syncs with his vocal delivery.

But the real question is this: why does a 28 year old song hit harder now than when it was written?

It hits the emotional tone of this current generation perfectly.

• chronic overstimulation

• burnout

• loneliness even while surrounded

• a sense of “is this all there is?”

• pressure to perform

• a weird mix of numbness + longing

Let Down captures that with unnerving accuracy, even though it was written in 1997.

It feels like Thom Yorke predicted the emotional state of modern life.

The main chorus (and the most viral part on TikTok) goes like: 

“You know where you are with…”

At first glance it doesn’t even make sense.

But what it really means is Life is so routine and predictable that you know exactly what to expect, and it’s depressing.

It’s about comfort in monotony, but also the emptiness that comes with that comfort.

“And one day I’m gonna grow wings”

This is the emotional punch of the song.

It’s a longing for escape, transcendence, and breaking out of the monotonous, numbed-out existence he’s describing.

He’s not talking about literal wings, it’s a metaphor:

One day, I’ll rise above all this. I’ll escape the mundane life that’s slowly crushing me.

The sad part is that the way Thom sings it, almost defeated, makes it feel less like a confident promise and more like a distant hope he doesn’t fully believe.

And that’s the state of our current generation.

Even lyrics to another song in OK Computer; Fitter Happier, lays out a depressing form of rules for life we’re suppose to live by.

We are trapped in routine and emotional numbness with a desperate hope to feel alive again someday.

So while you’ve been listening to Let Down with that “feeling” you still can’t really explain, it’s actually your subconscious screaming in pain of how bored and numb it is. That’s why you can’t explain the feeling, it’s numbness.

And it fits the demographic perfectly, obviously it went viral on TikTok, when you’re scrolling you’re escaping real life, enjoying the quick dopamine hits, and this song mixes the escape, dopamine and hidden meaning of wanting to escape but you feel almost comfortable because at least someone else feels it too.

So what’s the solution to this problem?

If you’re someone who resonates with this song, you want to grow wings. You’re already half way there.

Growing wings = becoming someone who can lift themselves out of the version of life that’s crushing them.

It means:

• breaking out of your routine

• rising above your numbness

• becoming the person you KNOW you could be

• building something that feels bigger than your current life

• escaping the version of yourself that feels stuck, tired, or trapped

Here’s how you “grow wings” in real life:

1. You do the shit you don’t want to do.

Every time you win a battle with resistance, you grow a feather.

Cold shower. Run. Gym. Work. Content.

These are the basic examples that link to my life but you need to think of your own.

Maybe you need to stop smoking, stop drinking, go to bed earlier, text your mum more, hug your girlfriend more, tell your husband you appreciate him, walk the dog, quit the job, get a job.

It could be anything, but you know what it is.

2. You build a self you’re proud of.

Confidence isn’t belief.

Confidence is evidence.

You grow wings by stacking proof that you’re not the weak version of yourself.

3. You create something that gives your life weight.

A brand.

A mission.

A business.

A body.

A story.

When you have something that matters, you lift above the noise of life.

4. You stop fucking waiting.

Wings don’t grow on people who hesitate.

You act BEFORE you feel ready.

5. You burn the old version of yourself.

Let the weaker identity die.

Let the numb, drifting version go.

Wings grow when you shed the dead weight.

You already feel the urge to grow wings, that’s why Let Down hits you so hard.

The song resonates because you’re in the stage where your soul knows you’re meant for more…

…but your life hasn’t caught up yet.

This is the uncomfortable phase right before growth.

And you know what?

Most people stay here forever.

You won’t, if you decide you fucking won’t.