Best Dance Songs 2008

Tracks by Madonna, Lady GaGa, Dizzee Rascal, M.I.A., Kylie & Rihanna

Jan 5, 2009

From 80's inspired newcomers like Sam Sparro and Lady GaGa to 80's royalty Madonna, Kylie and Cyndi Lauper, 2008 was a mixed bag of dance songs

The year in music 2008 had many surprises and letdowns. From 1980's revival, with the arrival of new albums by the queens of dance that failed to deliver on promises, to a new crop of dance hit makers eager to hit the floor, 2008 was a year of exciting dance music.

“If the fish swam out of the ocean and grew legs and they started walking,” Sparro muses on his first single “and the apes climbed down from the trees and grew tall and they started talking,” the next thing they’d do is dance to this underappreciated dance track from Australia’s answer to Howard Jones.

The title says it all, New York native GaGa, no stranger to dancing with or without clothes, dropped this single which danced all the way to the pole position on the charts and continues to get feet on the floor in clubs all over the globe.

UK rapper meets the man who invented disco, and, along with up and coming rhymer, create one of the best dance songs of 2008 and either man’s career. With a new wave dance beat, these guys beg you to get on the floor – bad spelling and all. The song struck top ten gold in the UK and continues to chart at year end.

Her Good Girl Gone Bad album spawned so many hits, Rihanna was forced to expand it to include the number one single “Take a Bow”, a Maroon 5 remake and this dizzying spin through clubland. Along with her other dance tracks “Don’t Stop The Music” and “Shut Up and Drive” this bad girl from Barbados owned the dancefloor in 2008 and proved that the best dance music still has room on the charts.

“Don’t stop me now, don’t need to catch my breathe, I can go on and on” the 50 year old newly single Material Girl sang on the best song from her uneven 2008 Hard Candy album. If she sounds this good and fresh at 50, maybe she will go on and on and on…

Las Vegas New Wavers team up with dance floor magician Stuart Price to create one of their most danceable singles since “Mr. Brightside”. While the song has an awesome hook and funky beat, it’s probably best known for its awkward lyric “Are we human or are we dancer,” which confused many listeners into wondering if they were singing ‘denser’. Either way this track scored big on the dancefloor and the charts in 2008.

Australian dance princess released her tenth album, X, in 2008, containing a mixed bag of pop gems including “The One” – a breezy ode to true love. Not her most deep track lyrically, but one of her most accessible singles and best dance songs in years.

Along with Madonna and Kylie Minogue, Cyndi Lauper had her heyday back in the 80’s. But 20 years later, after a varied career, in 2008 the girl just wanted to have fun on the dance floor. The track, inspired by New York City’s crazy nightlife, peaked at number one on Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Play chart and gave Lauper a whole new audience.

Banned from entering the US, M.I.A. released this track based on a satire of immigrant stereotypes in the summer of 2007 before making it big in 2008 after it was used in a movie ad. “Paper Planes” with its hard hitting lyrics and gun toting chorus finally allowed one of the most creative voices in contemporary music to shine. The track became so popular it garnered a Grammy for Record of the Year.

Hailed as her comeback single (even though she had released three successful singles in 2007), “Womanizer” shot to the top of the charts upon its second week of release. Containing a dazzling electro synth buzz and ‘crazy’ lyrics, this track finally took the heat off Brit’s train wreck personal life and gleefully placed it back on the dance floor.

2008 didn’t contain any all-encompassing hit dance songs that defined the year but it did contain many great dance/pop and dance/techno tracks that made it one of the most schizophrenic years in a long time.

The copyright of the article Best Dance Songs 2008 in Dance/Techno Music is owned by James W. Coates. Permission to republish Best Dance Songs 2008 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.