2009 Vh1 Top 20 Info

She labeled it with a sharpie:

“Tonight’s gonna be a good night…” Jim sang along on screen. Mia laughed. This song was everywhere —school dances, baseball games, her mom’s Zumba class. It was the anthem of a year that felt, in retrospect, like one last innocent exhale before everything got complicated.

The video was all glitz and drama. Mia’s older sister had just come home from college crying over a breakup. They’d played this song on repeat, eating ice cream straight from the carton. For one night, they weren’t fighting—they were just sisters. 2009 vh1 top 20

Mia remembered hearing this on a bus ride to a field trip last spring. The way Caleb Followill’s raspy voice cut through her cheap earbuds—it made her feel less alone in a crowd of classmates she didn’t quite fit in with.

Now this. Mia sat up straighter. She remembered watching Gaga perform on an awards show in a dress made of Kermit the Frogs. Her dad had called it “ridiculous.” Mia called it brave . Gaga made being weird feel powerful. In October, Mia had cut her own bangs (disaster) and worn mismatched socks to school just because. She blamed Gaga. Thanked her, really. She labeled it with a sharpie: “Tonight’s gonna

As the credits rolled, Mia grabbed a blank CD-R and opened iTunes. She made a playlist: VH1 Top 20 of 2009 – My Life So Far.

It was the Saturday after Christmas. Snow fell outside, but inside, 16-year-old Mia sat cross-legged on her carpet, a bowl of popcorn in her lap, watching the VH1 Top 20 Video Countdown —the year-end special. Host Jim Shearer was hyped, his signature energy bouncing off the screen. It was the anthem of a year that

Mia smiled. Of course. The song that started it all. The one that leaked into her friend’s iPod touch at a middle school lock-in, and suddenly everyone was jumping on a hotel bed, shouting “ Just dance! Gonna be okay! ”

And it had been okay. 2009 wasn’t perfect. The economy was a mess, her parents argued more than before, and she’d lost touch with her best friend from elementary school. But the music—the VH1 countdown—was a time capsule. Each video a photograph. Each lyric a bookmark in her memory.