From celebrity throwbacks to family videos, band’s 1998 classic is soundtracking a viral nostalgia wave
The hit song Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls is making a comeback as part of a viral nostalgic 1990s trend on Instagram and TikTok.
The song, which was released as a single in 1998 from the album Dizzy Up the Girl, became a massive hit. For many millennials and Gen Z listeners, the former Billboard Top 100 favourite has once again found its way back into popular music, reminding us of what early pop used to sound like. It was also featured in the film City of Angels.
The viral trend began with celebrity throwbacks, as fans started posting videos of their favourite stars growing up in the spotlight, while also revisiting memorable fashion moments from the late 1990s and early 2000s.
A TikTok page named Did You Catch This went viral for sharing such celebrity throwbacks, while some stars shared throwbacks themselves. A 90’s throwback of actor Matthew Lillard blew up on the platform.
Other videos showed fashion statements of prominent stars like Johnny Depp in the 90s.
Reese Witherspoon, known for her role as Elle Woods on Legally Blonde posted her own take on the trend.
Robby Takac, the band’s vocalist, expressed his surprise at the song’s resurgence. “This really has this sort of heart strings sort of thing and I think a lot of the kids are sharing it because it’s hard for you to believe that your parents used to be the people they were”, he said.
The singer added that the music has connected families across generations. “And that’s something we’ve been noticing a lot over the last ten years of our career,” Takac said.
“We’re heading into our third generation with some families now, it’s crazy,” he said, adding, “We have kids start showing up with the headphones, and all the sudden they’ve got mustaches.”
The singer reminisced about the time the song was written, recalling how his band mate John Rzeznik composed it in Los Angeles after Warner Bros requested a hit for a film. “John just went up to his room and wrote that song that night and called me and played the song for me,” he remembered.
“John writes tons of great songs, and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s a great song, just like all the other songs you write.’ It didn’t really stand out really so much,” he said.
He admitted he was mistaken, as decades later the song continues to resonate with listeners, who often re-visit the band’s live performance of the hit.
“This isn’t a business you expect to be in for a really long time,” Takac said. “We just keep kind of finding cool new ways to kind of connect with younger people. Some of it through our doing, some of it, just kind of how the world spins these days,” the singer noted.
The TikTok trend is not limited to celebrities, however, with many people using it to show themselves and their parents. Others are jokingly pretending they were once viral childhood stars in order to gain views. One user pretended that she was young Matilda and gained huge traction
While Iris continues to resonate among fans and their family members, along with personal favourites on the big screens, it’s certain that we all miss a period of time that we will never see again.
