((full)) - 2009 Vh1 Top 20

December 26, 2009. A basement bedroom in a suburban house. Posters of Lady Gaga, The Black Eyed Peas, and Kings of Leon on the walls. A clunky desktop computer with iTunes open. A TV tuned to VH1.

VH1 Top 20 Video Countdown in 2009 was a defining era for the network, blending the rise of pop icons like Taylor Swift

The Last Night of the Decade

She cringed now, but in July? She’d danced to this in her room with a hairbrush microphone, pretending she wasn’t terrified of starting high school in the fall.

Looking back at the archives of the , we see a snapshot of a transitionary time. Guitar-driven "emo" was fading, hip-hop was leaning heavily into electro-pop, and a new generation of solo female superstars was rising. Let’s take a nostalgic trip back to a time when buying a single on iTunes was the pinnacle of music consumption and analyze the tracks that defined the year. 2009 vh1 top 20

Searching for the "2009 VH1 top 20" today is an act of digital archaeology. You won't find official, clean playlists easily because of music licensing changes. But you will find:

Mia felt a strange pang. 2009 had been her year. The year she discovered music wasn’t just background noise. It was a lifeline. December 26, 2009

But for one year, between the fall of TRL and the rise of Bing , the VH1 Top 20 was the king. It gave us Gaga’s meat dress precursor (she wore Kermit the Frog that year), the wisecracking host, and the blurring line between hip-hop and auto-tuned pop.

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. A clunky desktop computer with iTunes open

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.

: In addition to the weekly video rankings, VH1 aired a special in 2009 titled "100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs," Guns N' Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle" took the top spot. countdown from 2009? VH1 – Year-End Chart 2009 – Charts Around The World