Instagram Investigates Why It Kept Suggesting Creed’s ‘Higher’

Instagram is investigating why its Stories feature repeatedly recommended Creed’s 1999 hit “Higher” to more users than intended. The unusual suggestion appeared across unrelated photos and videos, turning a music-recommendation problem into an online joke before the platform acknowledged it.

An Instagram spokesperson told CNN that the company had examined the pattern and confirmed the song was reaching a wider group than planned. Engineers were still investigating the cause, and the platform had not announced a detailed technical explanation.

The recommendation seemed disconnected from users’ posts

Instagram normally proposes music for Stories by weighing signals such as songs a person has previously selected and visual details in an uploaded image or clip. In this case, users reported seeing “Higher” suggested for everything from pets and meals to sunsets.

The repetition prompted speculation that Creed or its representatives had arranged a promotional campaign with Meta. Nothing in Instagram’s response supported that theory. Instead, the company characterized the pattern as an unintended recommendation issue and said it was working toward a fix.

That distinction matters because recommendation systems can make ordinary content look coordinated when the same item surfaces again and again. A song appearing frequently does not, by itself, prove a paid placement or a deliberate push.

A 1999 anthem found a new social-media moment

“Higher” was released on Creed’s album Human Clay and became one of the band’s defining songs at the turn of the millennium. Its oversized chorus and lasting familiarity made it especially noticeable when Instagram began pairing it with everyday Story posts.

The glitch also arrived during a renewed period of public attention for Creed. The band returned to touring in 2024 after more than a decade away, introducing its catalog to longtime listeners and a younger audience encountering the songs through memes and social platforms.

Instagram said another frequently suggested track, Soulja Boy’s “Turn My Swag On,” reflected genuine popularity rather than the same problem. That comparison suggests the platform is separating normal trend-driven recommendations from the unexplained Creed pattern.

For users, the immediate result was more humorous than harmful: an old rock hit became an unlikely soundtrack for routine posts. For Instagram, however, the episode offered a visible example of how quickly an opaque recommendation system can create its own pop-culture story.