Me starting on this article: "25 songs? That's easy."

Me three hours later having gone back through all of my available middle school playlists, plus the musical history of my middle school years:

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I think I just assumed that, because my taste in music was still developing, the stuff I listened to in middle school may have been a bit limited in scope, but actually, that wasn't necessarily the case. Between the pop charts that I was paying more and more attention to, the ever-present nature of school dance playlists, my quickly expanding discovery of rap and hip-hop and, of course, the oncoming storm of the 2010s "club boom," trying to narrow down all of the music I was obsessing over between 2008 and 2011 was daunting.

I should also preface that this list is not based on quality. These songs are making my playlist in terms of how I was exposed to them, not by whether I still like them or not. The majority are choices I would stand by, but you'll quickly spot a few exceptions and hopefully join me in laughing at some of the more questionable decisions I made.

So, without further ado, let's take a trip back in time, shall we?

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1. "Got Money" - Lil Wayne ft. T-Pain
(I can't say for sure, but this might be the first rap song I ever listened to and resulted in way too many listens of Tha Carter III)

2. "Famous Last Words" - My Chemical Romance
(Rob Cavallo produced The Black Parade: thank you for my childhood)

3. "Brick By Boring Brick" – Paramore
(Rob Cavallo also produced Brand New Eyes; again, thank you for my childhood)

4. "Disturbia" - Rihanna
(Enters middle school dance, immediately hit with "bum bum, be dum, bum bum, bi dum bum")

5. "Green Light" - John Legend ft. Andre 3000
(Andre 3000, please collaborate with John Legend again, this was fantastic)

6. "Funhouse" - Pink
(Does "So What" have No Doubt's Tony Kanal as a producer? No...no it does not)

7. "Everywhere I Go" - Hollywood Undead
(Yup. I was a bonified, completely sincere fan of Hollywood Undead. Thirteen-year-old me, what on earth did you see in them?)

8. "Forever" - Drake ft. Kanye West, Lil Wayne, and Eminem
(I was a sucker for massive rap collaborations. Also, I credit this Grammys performance as one of the most influential music moments of my life; these rappers + Travis Barker on drums = The coolest thing teenage me had ever seen)

9. "Closer To The Edge" - Thirty Seconds To Mars
("Thirty Seconds To Mars used to be awesome" -My Nostalgia)

10. "Fireflies" – Owl City
(Which was the better Ocean Eyes: the Owl City project or the Billie Eilish song?)

11. "21 Guns" – Green Day
(Not just the original, but also the Broadway musical version and the Phineas Flynn version)

12. "Knock You Down" – Keri Hilson ft. Ne-Yo and Kanye West
(The three of them work so well on this song, why it isn't a karaoke staple still boggles my mind)

15. "Hello, Good Morning" – Diddy-Dirty Money ft. Rick Ross and Nicki Minaj/T.I
(Why a mega-mix of this song with both T.I and Nicki's verses was never released still boggles my mind).

13. "Fire Burning" – Sean Kingston
(Every Bar/Bat Mitzvah DJ's go-to after "I Gotta Feeling")

14. "DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love" – Usher ft. Pitbull
(Every Bar/Bat Mitzvah DJ's go-to after "Fire Burning")

15. "We R Who We R" – Kesha
(I didn't hear this at enough Bar/Bat Mitzvahs...)

14. "Waiting For The End" – Linkin Park
(One of my all-time favorite songs to this day; the guitar tones, the glitchy production, the build-up, the vocals, it's all just phenomenal)

18. "Animal" – Neon Trees
(Neon Trees: excellent new wave band and one of the best things to come from In-N-Out)

19. "Nothin' On You" – B.O.B ft. Bruno Mars
(Yeah "Nothin' On You" was cool, but how many of you heard "The Other Side?")

20. "I Need A Doctor" – Dr. Dre ft. Eminem and Skylar Grey
(I spent so many years looking forward to Detox...so many years)

21. "The Show Goes On" – Lupe Fiasco
(This is not my favorite song off of Lasers because "Words I Never Said" exists and I know Lupe has never liked this song, but it was the song that introduced me to his music so...)

22. "American Boy" – Estelle ft. Kanye West
(I saw two eighth-graders perform this at a talent show and could not stop listening to it for a month after)

23. "Soundtrack 2 My Life" – Kid Cudi
(Kid Cudi has had his ups and downs in my eyes, but that first Man on the Moon album was so cool and unique when I first heard it)

24. "Life In Technicolor ii" – Coldplay
(You were probably expecting "Viva La Vida," weren't you?)

25. "Rolling In The Deep" – Adele
(This song rules. That's it. That's the end.)
(Except it's not because here's the playlist I made if you want to hear all of these songs).

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