When a song goes viral twice: Re-reviewing Djo in the post-“End of Beginning” era

"Decide" Album Art

Sanne Boere | April 2026

In early 2024, “End of Beginning” by Djo did something rare: it became a hit two years after its release.

Originally tucked into his 2022 album “Decide,” the track resurfaced not through a traditional rollout, but through the machinery of TikTok. It spread through nostalgia edits, year-in-review clips, and soft, cinematic montages from holiday footage to users’ most memorable moments. 

The chorus became a kind of emotional shorthand. Its hazy synths and open-ended mood made it endlessly reusable, the sonic equivalent of staring out a car window and imagining yourself in a film or music video. 

By March 2024, “End of Beginning” had entered the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time, eventually climbing into the Top 20 and becoming Djo’s highest-charting single to date. Streams surged into the hundreds of millions across platforms. But while the track was everywhere, the artist behind it wasn’t – at least not in the same way. 

Djo, for many listeners, remained abstract. Some still haven’t realised the project belonged to Joe Keery, also known as Steve Harrington from Stranger Things. Others encountered the song with no interest in authorship at all. The algorithm had done its job introducing the music, but it stopped short of introducing the musician. 

A Hit Without A Face

This kind of uneven visibility is becoming increasingly common. Social media platforms, especially TikTok, prioritise songs as moods before they function as works tied to an artist. Tracks circulate because of how they feel, not who made them.

“End of Beginning” was a perfect example. It wasn’t used because it was a Djo song – it was used because it sounded nostalgic, expansive, and slightly unresolved. To know the song wasn’t necessarily to know Djo.

Even when “Decide” saw a boost in streams, its deeper cuts didn’t travel the same way. The algorithm rarely rewards full-album listening; it rewards fragments. And, in Djo’s case, there was another layer to that distance – one that was, at least initially, intentional.

The Artist Who Didn’t Want to Be Seen

Long before “End of Beginning” found its viral footing, Joe Keery had already been carefully separating Djo from his on-screen identity. In the early years of the project, he performed in disguise; literally obscuring himself with wigs, sunglasses, and altered styling that made him harder to immediately recognise. 

It wasn’t a gimmick so much as a bouncer. Keery wasn’t interested in carrying Steve Harrington onto a stage and calling it a music career. Djo was meant to stand on its own, detached from the cultural weight of Stranger Things. 

At a time during which celebrity crossovers often rely on recognizability, this approach felt almost counterintuitive. He resisted the easy attention that comes with fame, choosing instead to build something quieter, more ambiguous.

For a while, it worked – perhaps too well. The separation between actor and musician became so effective that, when “End of Beginning” first went viral, many listeners didn’t connect the two identities at all. 

The result was a hit that felt, in a strange way, anonymous.

The Second Time Around

By late 2025, that anonymity began to dissolve. As anticipation built around the final season of Netflix’s Stranger Things, Joe Keery re-entered public conversation at full volume. Interviews, retrospectives, and promotional cycles brought him back into media focus: not just as a character, but as a performer with a broader creative identity.

This time, when audiences encountered “End of Beginning,” they encountered it differently. The song was no longer detached from its maker; it was reframed through recognition. 

Following the January 2026 release of the show’s finale, the track surged again, re-entering charts globally and reaching new peaks. In the UK, it climbed all the way to number one, holding the position for four consecutive weeks on the Global Spotify chart. 

What’s striking is that this second wave wasn’t driven by a remix or a re-release. It was driven by context. By then, Djo’s monthly listeners had climbed to around 55 million, placing him alongside major pop names like RAYE, Zara Larsson, and sombr. But, more importantly, listeners were arriving with curiosity – not just about the song, but about the artist behind it. 

Chart success often works retrospectively. As “End of Beginning” returned to mainstream prominence, previous Djo releases experienced renewed streaming activity, with “Decide” re-entering album charts in multiple territories. 

(Re-)Reviewing “End of Beginning”

Revisiting the track now, it lands differently.

In 2024, “End of Beginning” worked almost perfectly as emotional background music. Its appeal was immediate and atmospheric. Now, within the context of Djo’s wider catalogue, its details feel more deliberate. 

The production leans into soft pop textures reminiscent of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s — chorus-heavy guitars, a gently propulsive synth bass, layered vocals that blur rather than sharpen. It’s polished, but not overly clean. There’s a looseness to it that keeps it from feeling like an imitation. 

Structurally, it’s deceptively simple, but it avoids the kind of neat emotional resolution that defines most algorithmic hits. The song lingers instead of concluding.

Lyrically, its themes of displacement and reinvention feel more pointed in hindsight. What once read as generalised nostalgia now feels closer to autobiography; an artist negotiating identity across different spaces, trying to exist as more than one version of himself at once. 

Outside the context of “Decide,” it becomes easier to interpret the song as an aesthetic mood piece. Within it, it reads more like a statement of intent. 

What Happens Next?

The renewed attention hasn’t stopped at a single song. New listeners have begun digging deeper into Djo’s musical catalogue, which has started finding its own footing online. His more recent material, including his third and latest album, “The Crux,” and its deluxe edition, both started gaining traction on TikTok. 

At the same time, Keery’s growing presence as a live performer has shifted Djo further away from being just a streaming phenomenon. In 2025, he concluded his first European tour, opened for Gracie Abrams on select USA tour dates, and performed at festivals such as Glastonbury and Coachella. This has further expanded his reach beyond the algorithmic spaces in which “End of Beginning” first circulated.

Most recently, Djo has been announced as an opening act for Tame Impala’s upcoming tour – an alignment that feels particularly notable given longstanding comparisons between the two projects’ shared psych-pop sensibilities, and the fact that Joe Keery featured in Tame Impala’s “Loser” music video. 

There’s something slightly ironic about it all. A project that began with disguise, with distance, with an attempt to be heard without being immediately recognised, has now arrived at a point where visibility is part of its momentum.

But maybe that’s what makes this second wave feel different. It isn’t just big, it’s much fuller. Less so about a song drifting through the algorithm, and more so about an artist being understood in context. 

Listen to "End of Beginning" here!

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