Top 100 Songs Of 2008 May 2026

Finally, he reached #1. He already knew what it was. He'd known since he started.

His phone buzzed. A text from Sam, whom he hadn't spoken to in eight months. top 100 songs of 2008

#41: "I Kissed a Girl" by Katy Perry. He laughed out loud. He remembered his conservative aunt, Margaret, standing up in the middle of a family barbecue and declaring, "This is the devil's work," before unplugging the radio. His dad had just shrugged and said, "It's catchy, Marge." Finally, he reached #1

He was twenty-two, a recent graduate with a degree in "Media Studies" and no job prospects. The only offer he had was from a dying blog called The Frequency . His assignment: write the definitive retrospective on the Billboard Top 100 songs of 2008. The pay was seventy-five dollars. The deadline was New Year’s Eve. His phone buzzed

He hit 'publish' at 11:47 PM.

"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.'"