BREAKING: LEGENDARY BAND RADIOHEAD BLASTS ICE for stealing their song for a propaganda video: “Go f*ck yourself!”
Radiohead just delivered a blistering message to Immigration and Customs Enforcement — and they did not mince words.
After ICE posted a social media video soundtracked by a choral version of the band’s OK Computer classic “Let Down,” Radiohead fired back with a furious statement: “We demand that the amateurs in control of the ICE social media account take [the video] down. It ain’t funny, this song means a lot to us and other people, and you don’t get to appropriate it without a fight.”
The video in question — also shared by the Department of Homeland Security, the White House, and Donald Trump — paired the song with images of American citizens ICE claimed were “raped and murdered by those who have no right to be in our country.” The caption read: “This is who we fight for. This is our why.”
Radiohead’s response? Go f— yourselves.
The clash is just the latest in a growing rebellion from artists whose music has been hijacked for what critics call hardline immigration propaganda. Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo, and SZA have all condemned similar uses of their songs in administration-backed posts tied to an aggressive immigration crackdown. As SZA bluntly put it, “White House rage baiting artists for free promo is PEAK DARK ..inhumanity +shock and aw[e] tactics ..Evil n Boring.”
But thanks to the murky world of social media music licensing, artists often have little recourse to force removals — even when their work is used in ways they find morally repugnant.
And this isn’t the first recent cultural dust-up involving the band’s orbit. Guitarist Jonny Greenwood recently demanded that part of his Phantom Thread score be removed from a Melania Trump documentary, citing a breach of his composer agreement.
The pattern is becoming impossible to ignore: political accounts blast out emotionally charged videos, soundtrack them with beloved songs, and wait for the inevitable backlash — which then generates even more attention.
This time, though, Radiohead isn’t playing along.
When ICE tried to weaponize “Let Down,” the band made it crystal clear: you don’t get to turn art into propaganda without a fight.
Please like and share!
Leave a Reply