Autoplay, Betrayal, and the Last Great Internet Romance

By Annette Geneva

A love letter to the chaos and intimacy of the MySpace era.

Once upon a time…let’s say the year was 2005…long before Instagram Stories, TikTok trauma-dumping or even Twitter/X (whatever it is now) - there was a whole wonderful world of glitter animations and music where your social status wasn’t measured in followers, but in something far more intimate … Your TOP 8.

“What was the TOP 8?” - you ask - my lovely, presumably Gen Z reader. Your childhood was obviously joyless.

The TOP 8 was a row of 8 highly curated (way more curated than your instagram feed) “top friends” displayed publicly on your MySpace profile. Your clique, your emotional rare Pokémon that you showcased to prove your loyalty, popularity or desire. It was a total social pressure cooker, a codependent love letter and psychological warfare. But it looked so good, wrapped in glitter font and autoplay music(another pressure you had to navigate with your poor fragile heart). You got some sweet extra brownie points if you knew a bit of HTML coding.

“Why did it matter?” - you ask, my clueless friend. TOP 8 wasn’t just a silly list. It was like an unspoken contract or friendship blood oath. A living tale of betrayal, love, flirtation, obsession and everything in-between. Your TOP 8 didn’t just scream “look at my friends?” It was more along these lines:

Forget DM’s, forget texting (T9 was a pain), forget eye contact in the hallway. Being someone’s TOP 8 was the ULTIMATE confirmation that you mattered. And being removed was worse than being blocked. Worse that being muted, because you still had access to the remover’s profile - it was the ultimate declaration of WAR. The Psychological Warfare was thought out really well: Moved from #2 to #6 - you knew they were mad at you. Promoted to #1? That's pretty much a confirmation of love.

The reason I thought about this was not at all about social wars and hierarchy. Trust me, my TOP 8 was always bands. Even my high school boyfriend wasn’t in. It wasn’t because of being empathetic or righteous or above it all - no. I just could never choose my TOP 8, so I went via a cowardly path of crowning my favourite bands my favourites. It was okay and I was 100% okay. The reason was noticing and utilising those little notes on Instagram, where you can add music. And nowadays - you can even add music to your profile and that’s “So Myspace”.

So, let’s not ignore the soundtrack. MySpace profiles were audio-activated declarations of identity, fandom and how much music knowledge you really had. Your song choice, your avatar and your TOP 8 linked - emotionally, spiritually…pathetically.

If your #1 didn’t match your bib - GONE. If your crush didn’t notice that you changed your profile song to 'Between the Bars' by Elliott Smith the week they didn’t text you back. DEAD TO YOU. If someone had 'Check Yes Juliet' as their profile song and didn’t have you in their TOP 8. Better call the emotional spiral police.

We needed this TOP 8 drama because we didn’t have Instagram notes or BeReal or whatever cursed simulation you’re all doing now. We had Tom. We had TOP 8 and a raging desire to be seen by someone - anyone - before we died of dramatic page changes and over-posting.

The TOP 8 let us build little emotional altars to the people we were hopelessly devoted to that week. It was messy. Petty. Beautiful. And painfully honest.

It was curation as communication. It was ranking your heart’s chaos in real time. It was your own personal Rolling Stone cover story, told through badly coded profile layouts and angsty track selections.

And now after the glitter gifts faded, after Tom left us for island life, after we all grew up (sort of) -  there’s a part of us that still longs for the TOP 8. Because despite the drama, the emotional roulette, and the HTML-induced migraines, the Top 8 was the last time we told the world that we had a tribe, we told the truth, we shared chaos and we shared music.

Final thought : I think that in a world where everyone is always online without being connected or really present, MySpace TOP 8 was painfully real. It connected and exposed you. And maybe we need another TOP 8, because sometimes, it’s not about the likes, or the views, or the blue check. Sometimes…it’s just about knowing that you belonged in someone's TOP 8, even if it was just their sad little playlist. And here is mine:

'I Woke Up in a Car' - Something Corporate

'Cute Without the ‘E’ (Cut from the Team)' - Taking Back Sunday

'Hands Down' - Dashboard Confessional

“I’m With You” - Avril Lavigne

'Lover I Don’t Have to Love' - Bright Eyes

'Portions for Foxes' - Rilo Kiley

'A Praise Chorus' - Jimmy Eat World

'The Art of Losing' - American Hifi

These days, sadly, we have to rely on Spotify

You can pretty much safely guess which song/artist was adjacent to what mood/social situation.