The Grammy Catalog Question: Can a 1998 Ballad Win Again?

The Goo Goo Dolls' "Iris," released in 1998, ranked inside the Spotify Global 50 top 10 in late September. It charted ahead of brand-new singles from Ariana Grande and BTS.

That's not a typo. A 27-year-old power ballad (an emotionally swelling rock song built for stadium choruses) outdrew the streaming era's biggest acts in the same week.

How did "Iris" become a 2025 hit again?

Social media drove the resurgence. Users, plus celebrities from Drew Barrymore to Kevin Bacon, paired the song with 1990s throwback photos. "Iris" had originally earned nominations for record of the year and pop performance by a duo or group in 1999. It lost both.

Pat Magnarella, the Goo Goo Dolls' manager for 36 years, sees no reason the song shouldn't compete again. "I think it'd be an amazing idea, especially if something is culturally happening now. Why not?" he said. He added: "There's this whole new generation that's discovering 'Iris,' and the great thing now is with new music, there's no more genre. So as a 14-year-old kid hears 'Iris,' it's not like, 'Oh, that's an old song' — it's a new song to them."

The Grammy eligibility window (a one-year stretch between submission deadlines) currently excludes catalog tunes (older songs still in commercial circulation) unless they're reworked as covers, live cuts, or remixes. "Iris" qualifies under none of those.

What other older songs have caught fire?

The trend isn't isolated. Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams" and the Killers' "Mr. Brightside" — first released in 2003 — keep resurfacing too. "Mr. Brightside" hit No. 1 on Billboard's Rock Streaming Songs chart in early August.

Robert Reynolds, who has managed the Killers since their first recording contract, argues the Academy should catch up. "There's got to be some kind of recognition for that kind of thing," he said. "It feels like it is in the ballpark of the Academy. They already accept that the recording's life extends beyond the release year [with] the Hall of Fame, historical categories. I think this just applies the same logic to the living streaming culture."

What do listeners actually want?

Nostalgia — the warm ache consumers feel for sounds tied to their younger selves — is doing the heavy lifting. Luminate's 2026 midyear report (Luminate tracks global music sales and streams) found 60% of Gen Z consumers favor music from the 1990s or earlier. That's up from 18% in 2021. Vinyl buying tells the same story: 54% of Gen X and 49% of Gen Z cite nostalgia as a motivating factor.

Nearly half the songs on Spotify's Global 50 predate 2025. The catalog has overtaken the new-release pipeline.

Will the Grammys act?

The Recording Academy declined to comment. Reynolds thinks it should. "You have to stay relevant to the younger generations — they need to recognize this," he said. "It's definitely time for them to look at this gap between what they're rewarding and what's actually happening. Focusing only on what's come out within the last 12 months doesn't jibe with how music is being consumed anymore."

The Academy already gives a best historical album award (for audio restoration projects) and runs the Grammy Hall of Fame. Both reward past glories, not present-tense resurrections. Reynolds's argument is plain: if the institution honors a recording's afterlife in storage, why not on the charts?

The Grammys will decide, eventually, whether 14-year-olds discovering "Iris" deserve a trophy. The clock is already running.