2008 - Top 100 Songs Of

His phone buzzed. A text from Sam, whom he hadn't spoken to in eight months.

The hours melted. The basement grew dark. #22: "Disturbia" by Rihanna. #18: "Love in This Club" by Usher. Each song wasn't just a track; it was a time-stamped photograph. The sticky floors of the club. The smell of cheap vodka. The feeling of a flip phone buzzing in his pocket. The absolute, terrifying, beautiful uncertainty of being young before the economy collapsed. top 100 songs of 2008

He smiled. Outside, a neighbor set off a firework. 2009 was seven minutes away. He put his headphones back on, queued up #100, and hit play. His phone buzzed

"The Top 100 Songs of 2008 is not a playlist. It's a life raft. It's the sound of millions of people pressing 'shuffle' on their anxiety. It's Auto-Tuned, it's ridiculous, it's painfully earnest, and it's the only reason we didn't all go insane. This was the year pop music looked at the end of the world and said, 'Okay, but first, let me finish this dance.'" The basement grew dark

He took a sip of flat Coke. #55: "Bleeding Love" by Leona Lewis. His ex-girlfriend, Sam, had cried to this song the night she broke up with him. He remembered sitting on the curb outside her dorm, watching her silhouette in the window, Leona Lewis belting out the chorus from a laptop speaker. He had to close his eyes for a full minute.