Fleetwood Mac, Alphaville, Rod Stewart... vintage music comes back to life on TikTok

TikTok is thrilling young people with Fleetwood Mac, Alphaville, and Rod Stewart . A launch pad for younger artists and a chance for older ones to rebirth, the Chinese platform is now where trends are decided.

The network suffers from a bad reputation in the collective imagination, perceived as both an ultra-contemporary platform and a source of addiction. Yet, paradoxically, it is precisely its users, particularly Generation Z, who are helping to revive the aesthetics of music from the recent past: rock, pop, disco, new wave... All the classic standards are not only appreciated, but actively reinterpreted.

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Gen Z, also known as the "digital kids," is a group of young people born between 1990 and the early 2010s. They are discovering, thanks to the internet, cult songs from a time before they were born, such as Fleetwood Mac 's "Dream ," Alphaville's "Forever Young, " and Kate Bush's " Running Up That Hill ." Fleetwood Mac's 1977 hit " Dream " resurfaced in the top charts more than 43 years after its release, boosting streaming by 374%.

A virality triggered in 2020 by a social media user who filmed himself skateboarding while singing the song. In the comments of the YouTube video of this hit, fans make the connection with the TikTok video that brought it back into fashion: " This song is currently number 21 on Billboard thanks to a man on a skateboard on TikTok. It's simply awesome. " In France, it was the single Dernière Danse , by the singer Indila, released in 2013, which achieved unexpected success ten years later. In 2025, the single became the first French-language song to reach the billion-view mark on YouTube thanks to TikTok.

Also read: Fleetwood Mac re-enters Billboard thanks to a skater on TikTok

Gen Z no longer considers vintage sounds cheesy. Instead, they are drawn to the atmosphere, charm, and ambiance created by this music of yesteryear.

For many, these melodies are childhood memories, which they unconsciously associate with their parents or grandparents. They cling to this lost and reassuring past, which they contrast with a future tinged with pessimism. And it's TikTok that offers them the opportunity to escape reality.

It's through dance challenges, lip-syncing, and creative videos that these melodic phrases are being rediscovered. Rod Stewart's late-1970s disco hit, "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" , was resurrected from Dad's record collection thanks to a viral #dancechallenge. The memorable choreography has garnered over 1.8 million contributions on the platform. Rod Stewart himself took on the challenge and shared a video on his TikTok account.

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This miraculous revival isn't an isolated case. Connie Francis 's Pretty Little Baby made a winning comeback in 2025. With over 1.4 million posts, this 1960s song has won over Gen Z, thanks in part to its viral use by stars such as Timothée Chalamet and Taylor Swift . Users use it as a nod to their "pretty little babies," their lovers, or even their pets. Connie Francis, who recently passed away at the age of 87, will be touched and amused by this "revival" that is as late as it is glorious.

Gen Z needed an anthem. Alphaville's Forever Young , a cathedral-sounding new wave song about eternity and the end of the world, was the one. The melody serves as the soundtrack to TikTok's most personal videos: memories of summer nights, vacations with friends, life's crossroads. The message is clear: immortalize these moments, don't grow up, and stay " forever young."