Though it feels a bit premature to be writing my final column for the semester in mid-November, the truth is that this part of the semester accelerates: Soon we’ll be cramming for finals, heading home for winter break, and finally greeting the start of a new decade. I’m 20 years old now, and it is absolutely blowing to me that the next time we celebrate the start of a new decade, I’ll be 30.

That being said, at the start of the last one, I was only 10 years old, thoroughly enjoying the heyday of pop music radio. This past decade left quite a few musical legacies, most notably in terms of industry changes and digital downloading, but the early 2000s may be best understood as a golden age for Top 40 radio, when you could sing along to every pop song that carried over from the ’90s and embrace new R&B trends.

Here, we’ll take a look back at the No. 1 song on the Billboard charts on this very day in each of the past 9 years, to see how far we’ve come, and what sort of mark our generation is leaving on the popular music canon. You can add these tracks to your party playlist this weekend for some inescapable nostalgia as we celebrate the end of the decade.

2000: Destiny’s Child, “Independent Women”
Beyoncé might be in the running for artist of the decade, since she seems to be perpetually on the Top 10 list for all of it. The aughts started off with this ladies’ anthem — eerily similar to “Single Ladies,” actually—with a hooky chorus equally suitable for the club and for your car stereo: “All the women, independent / Throw your hands up at me.” The rest of the Top 10 in 2000 featured ’N Sync, Christina Aguilera, Mya and Creed—all crossovers from the ’90s.

2001: Mary J. Blige, “Family Affair”
Another independent woman, Mary J. blended topical rap with groovy dance beats to make one of the decade’s most insistent, nonsensical choruses: “We don’t need no hateration, holleration, in this dance-arie.” In a few years, Soulja Boy Tell’Em steals this lyrical crown, but in 2001 she remained the queen of lyrics so absurd they seem almost profound.

2002: Eminem, “Lose It”
2002 brought a leap towards fast-paced, manic rap with a chorus you could sing along to, with Eminem at the forefront, Missy Elliott’s “Work It,” and Cam’ron’s “Hey Ma” are still close behind.

2003: Beyonce Knowles feat. Sean Paul, “Baby Boy”
Beyonce is back again! Only this time the pop diva comes out with a jingly-jangly R&B-pop fusion track that is girly, catchy and collaborative. Her chart-topping hit was followed by Chingy’s “Holidae Inn,” Outkast’s “The Way You Move,” and the ultimate dance-party hit of 2003: Lil Jon’s “Get Low.” To the window, to the wall.

2004: Usher and Alicia Keys, “My Boo”
R&B crooner royalty Usher and Keys teamed up to make this track, thus implanting the term “boo” into hip slang for a brief stint. Snoop Dogg, at No. 2, also entered the lingo sweepstakes with his hit “Drop It Like It’s Hot,” while Destiny’s Child (Beyonce again!) held down the charts with “Lose My Breath.”

2005: Kanye West, “Gold Digger”
Kanye West could also be considered a strong candidate for artist of the decade (but Beyonce had the best decade of all time!) Today his antics speak louder than his music, but at the halfway mark of this decade he gained cred for the opus Late Registration, released fresh on the heels of 2004’s The College Dropout.

2006: Justin Timberlake, “My Love”
A mere eight years after ’N Sync’s debut album sated a nation of teenyboppers, boy bands were long gone from the scene and Justin Timberlake was promising to bring sexy back. 2006 also launched the solo career of Fergie, with “Fergilicious” joining the Top 10 alongside Beyoncé’s “Irreplaceable.”

2007: Chris Brown feat. T-Pain, “Kiss Kiss”
OK, 2007 wasn’t that long ago, and I heard this song at a party last weekend. But this year brought an important shift towards digital production and the use of Auto-Tune, with none other than T-Pain himself bearing the torch. This year also marked the first time (of many) that Soulja Boy Tell ’Em formed an entire song around his own name, with “Crank That Soulja Boy” making the Top 10.

2008: T.I. feat. Rihanna, “Live Your Life”
“Live Your Life” was one of those late-summer blockbuster hits that continued airplay long-term, making No. 1 on the charts even in November. T.I. brought credibility to the Atlanta rap scene throughout the decade, but crossed over to the mainstream on Paper Trail with lines like, “The spirit of a hustler / and the swagger of a college kid.”

2009: Jason Derulo, “Whatcha Say”
It remains to be seen what the defining song of 2009 will be, but Derulo’s remix of an Imogen Heap song might be a contender, alongside Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind” and of course, the ever-present, increasingly abrasive Miley Cyrus tune, “Party in the USA.”