Radiohead are telling ICE “go fuck yourselves” and demanding that they remove a social media video featuring a version of the band’s OK Computer song, “Let Down.”
In a statement issued Friday, Feb. 27, Radioehad said, “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 statement appears to be in response to a video shared on ICE’s social media accounts last week, which featured a choral rendition of “Let Down.” (It was also posted on accounts belonging to the Department of Homeland Security, the White House, and President Donald Trump.) The song accompanied a video featuring photographs of American citizens that ICE claimed had been “raped and murdered by those who have no right to be in our country.” The caption on the post added, “This is who we fight for. This is our why.”
Radiohead’s frustration with the ICE video comes after the band’s guitarist, Jonny Greenwood, demanded a portion of his score for Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread be removed from the recent Melania Trump documentary. Though Greenwood does not own the copyright to the score, he claimed that Universal failed to consult him on this third-party use, which was “a breach of his composer agreement.”
The Trump administration has made a habit of soundtracking social media videos with songs by artists who are likely to dispute the use of their music in this way. Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo, and SZA have all condemned the use of their music in propaganda videos tied to the government’s brutal immigration crackdown. However, because of the way music licenses are governed on social media, there’s little artists are able to do to actually get this content removed.
Artists who speak out against this use also typically wind up spawning a gleeful response from the admin, usually filled with lots of half-baked wordplay. (“Here’s a Short n’ Sweet message for Sabrina Carpenter,” began a retort from a White House spokesperson, for instance.) As SZA succinctly put it, “White House rage baiting artists for free promo is PEAK DARK ..inhumanity +shock and aw[e] tactics ..Evil n Boring.”
Regarding Radiohead’s objection to the use of “Let Down,” a rep for DHS did not immediately return a request for comment. Perhaps they were still waiting for ChatGPT to generate some stupid OK Computer puns.
