10 songs that didn’t deserve a TikTok revival
Don’t get me wrong, TikTok obviously has many major drawbacks – it’s decimated the current pop industry into soundbites, and not every song ever released needs an accompanying choreographed dance that fits completely into 15 seconds.
But as someone who grew up with the rise of social media right at their fingertips, I’m here to tell you that it’s really not all that bad. Social media platforms, but especially TikTok, go a long way in levelling the playing fields; where ordinary people with a passion can upload their music, and have as much chance of generating success as anybody else with skin in the game.
There’s also the fact that, by the nature of the algorithm and its ever-changing trends, older music has the chance to comeback from the point of obscurity and thrive once again, all with the help of a newfound adolescent fanbase as they take part in challenges or reveal questionable facts about themselves, to the soundtrack of a trending tune.
This is all very well in a lot of respects, but it still doesn’t avoid the fact that some songs which we once thought had been gladly forgotten have now had an unfortunate resurgence, all thanks to TikTok. Sure, it can be funny at first to find a tune you haven’t heard in 15 years suddenly come back into the zeitgeist of the moment, but after the 25th video you’ve seen today with exactly the same soundbite, it can get a bit wearing.
There are, naturally, many songs that don’t deserve their popularity on TikTok, whether they are old or new. But some graveyard tunes should be left as just that, as in a lot of ways, their fresh virality on For You pages and feeds all over the world is doing them more harm than good.
10 songs that don’t deserve their comeback on TikTok:
‘Rock That Body’ – Black Eyed Peas
As one of the most recent prolific offenders, The Black Eyed Peas’ monstrosity ‘Rock That Body’, originally released back in 2009, has made an unfortunate comeback to TikTok via the medium of a fever dream dance from the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. If you’ve never seen this squad cropping up on your feeds incessantly over the past year or so – congratulations, you might actually be the only one.
In fairness, they have given new rise to some classic tunes – ‘Thunderstruck’ by AC/DC being just one example – but resurging ‘Rock That Body’ might just be a bridge too far. The Black Eyed Peas were responsible for unleashing many unfathomable horrors into the world over their time, but this song might truly be one of the worst. It’s not like I wish ill on them or anything, but the sooner their latest comeback dies its death again, the happier we’ll all be.
‘Promiscuous’ – Nelly Furtado ft Timbaland
The seminal 2006 hit ‘Promiscuous’ by Nelly Furtado, featuring the rapper Timbaland, is one of those songs you might relatively enjoy if you were blackout drunk in the midst of a noughties club night. But in the cold light of day, with a pounding headache and a hangover bad enough to turn your stomach, it’s fair to say that the memory isn’t anywhere near as sweet.
As much as the song has somehow made its way back into the heart of TikTok trends, almost two decades on from its original release, the lyrics aren’t as frivolous as you might have once believed. What was once considered flirty and fun now just comes off as seedy and degrading; the type of tune that is far better left to the relics of the 2000s than being unceremoniously brought back in 2025.
<strong>’Murder on the Dancefloor’ – Sophie Ellis-Bextor</strong>
Before anyone comes for my neck – no, I am not completely devoid of fun. If I’m being quite honest, I actually really enjoyed the resurgence of ‘Murder on the Dancefloor’ at the end of 2023 and start of 2024, due to its interesting use in that scene in the film Saltburn. But as with many things on TikTok, it became one of those songs that got so overplayed that I genuinely nearly did commit a murder.
Of course, the main trend that surrounded the Ellis-Bextor hit at the time was recreating the infamous Saltburn image of Barry Keoghan. But something about parodying a psychopath traipsing around a mansion completely naked, as a commentary on power and dominance, just completely fell flat to the unnuanced TikTok audiences, and subsequently ruined the song completely. No, I don’t want to see you dancing down a corridor in your pyjamas. Just put it to bed.
‘Careless Whisper’ – George Michael
Don’t misconstrue this; I’m not about to shit all over ‘Careless Whisper’. It’s undeniably one of the greatest and best-selling love songs of all time, and the fact George Michael wrote it when he was still only a teenager is completely mind-blowing. But really, to this end, it should be left to revel as a work of genius – and instead, it’s been reduced to a parody.
The song’s famous saxophone solo was packaged into a meme format long before TikTok ever came along – think back even so far to the days of Vine – but because of this, it’s become more of a laughing stock than a piece of music that indisputably defined the musical catalogue of the 1980s. Couple that with the more recent annoying TikTok trend of using a skewed and distorted version of the song as a way of symbolising taking the mick out of things, and what was once a caressing, romantic anthem has now become more like an obnoxious alarm.
‘It Ain’t Over Til It’s Over’ – Lenny Kravitz
Lenny Kravitz might genuinely be one of the best artistic polymaths still out there, and while I am an undisputed fan of his, the 1991 song ‘It Ain’t Over Til It’s Over’ just doesn’t deserve its current popularity on TikTok, I’m sorry. But this isn’t because I actively dislike the song – in fact, far from it. It’s just being used for all the wrong reasons.
Anytime you come across the song on one of your many scrolling sessions, it’s invariably soundtracking something entirely superficial – day in the life videos, or meal planning; all perfectly curated posts with immaculate lighting and untouched scenery. Yet through its soul heart, ‘It Ain’t Over Til It’s Over’ is actually a song of pleading desperation. Kravitz was yearning to rekindle the relationship with his then-wife, at a time he described as “not just a depression, but a fog. I didn’t know which way was up.” Beach pictures just do not match that vibe.
‘Da’ Dip’ – Freak Nasty
If you’re not totally well-versed in the whims of TikTok algorithms, then you won’t be blamed for probably not being familiar with the song ‘Da’ Dip’ by Freak Nasty – most people likely also wouldn’t have been until recently. It’s undeniably one of the most obscure tunes to ever make waves on the app, not least because it was never that big a hit in the first place.
Released back in 1996 and becoming a sleeper hit the following year, peaking at number 15, ‘Da’ Dip’ was indeed the only major commercial success that Freak Nasty ever earned. In that sense, this makes its TikTok popularity all the more confusing, because there are plenty of other – better – 1990s hip-hop bangers out there. Why couldn’t one of them have been chosen?
‘Lover, You Should’ve Come Over’ – Jeff Buckley
Again, this one deserves a disclaimer – I absolutely am not, in no uncertain terms, discrediting the Jeff Buckley masterpiece, ‘Lover, You Should’ve Come Over’. It’s the absolute pinnacle of everything that modern rock should represent, regarded as true perfection and a sonic epiphany wrapped into a seven-minute song. There is truly nothing that can ever match it.
And, look, it is invariably always quite annoying when fans try to gatekeep their favourite artists, but in terms of the consternation among the Buckley diehards, you do kind of have to take their point on this one. Using such an emotionally devastating song to document the minor inconveniences of everyday life is completely reductive of its real meaning, and while he never lived to see the day, you can say with confidence that it’s most likely not the thing Buckley would have wanted.
‘You Make Me Feel Like Dancing’ – Leo Sayer
This is more of a personal vendetta, because there’s no denying that Le Sayer’s ‘You Make Me Feel Like Dancing’, released in 1976, is a complete staple of the disco era. But despite this, it was the extremes of TikTok memes and parodies that completely put this one in the gutter of my estimations, and I fear it may never be able to return to its once-illustrious heights.
Basically, it’s AI, vocal effects, and Beaker from The Muppets that are all to blame. One night, unsuspectingly during one of my bed-rotting scrolling sessions, I came across a video of the squeaky-voiced character performing a parody cover of the song, mimicking Sayer’s falsetto vocals. “That’s quite funny,” I thought, then put the phone down. But this thing haunted me – literally never left my head for weeks – and hearing the song over and over again only served as another haunting reminder. From that point forward, it was forever ruined.
‘California Dreamin’ – The Mamas and The Papas
‘California Dreamin’ by the Mamas and the Papas is a similar offender in my sights, mainly due to that insanely annoying trend where the song’s opening line of “All the leaves are brown,” would just be repeated over, and over, and over, again. It reduced the song from its once-defining status of early 1960s pop to the most boringly repetitive soundbite you’ve ever heard – and for a song that changed music, it really shouldn’t be that way.
Becoming the pioneer of ‘California sound’ and a beacon of the countercultural moment, the song really should be heralded as a seismic piece of sonic culture, left to revel in all its historic aura. But instead, it has been squandered down for the newest generation into ‘that song from that trend’. It’s no way to honour the greats, is it?
‘Champagne Coast’ – Blood Orange
Admittedly, ‘Champagne Coast’ by Blood Orange wasn’t a track I was overly familiar with until relatively recently – and to this end, it’s also one I wish I had never come across. It’s the prime example of a type of song I like to classify under ‘meaningless early 2010s shit soundscapes’, other examples of which you can find in the likes of ‘Sweet Disposition’ by The Temper Trap and ‘Midnight City’ by M83.
It’s just a load of lo-fi electronic beats thrown together underneath a slightly angsty vocal, and apparently voila, you had a hit. But there’s just simply nothing of substance here – possibly quite perfect for the mantra of TikTok, right enough – that whether it’s ‘Champagne Coast’ or ‘Midnight City’, it really doesn’t matter, because they all sound boringly the same.
