What's the 'most millennial' song? Semi-charmed strangers have all-star debate

Can you define an entire generation by a single song? Nah, probably not. But it’s still fun to think in sweeping generalizations, and it’s even more fun to debate nostalgic pop-culture topics. Enter: the Internet, where strangers have been regularly trying to determine, based on raw emotion and zero science, "the most millennial song" ever.

It’s an all-star challenge with a semi-charmed foundation, and the good folks at Reddit have been tossing this one back and forth for years. After scouring numerous threads, I can’t definitively conclude which song best represents the millennials, a group that, according to the Pew Research Center, includes everyone born between the ages of 1981 and 1996. But as a music journalist and card-carrying member of this age demographic, I feel equipped to sort through the hundreds of responses, take note of clear patterns, and select some of the most cogent arguments for one tune or another.

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First off, let’s look at a thread in the r/millennials subreddit titled "What song do you think summarizes the millennial experience?" This one’s a bit messy and felt very skewed toward mainstream rock music—but that’s understandable, given that electric guitars were a lot more fashionable in the '90s and 2000s.

Some popular answers include Jimmy Eat World’s 2001 emo-pop classic "The Middle," Chumbawamba’s temporarily inescapable 1997 chant-along "Tubthumping," New Radicals’ 1998 alt-rock anthem "You Get What You Give," The Killers’ chiming 2004 hit "Mr. Brightside," and perhaps the funniest pick of the bunch, "Any song from the Shrek soundtrack"—a clear reference to Smash Mouth’s meme-spawning 1999 hit "All Star."

Looking through just this one thread is like glancing at a NOW That’s What I Call Music! compilation, touching on almost all of the era’s popular styles, including nu-metal (Linkin Park’s angsty 2000 smash "In the End") and pop-punk (Blink-182’s snot-nosed 1999 single "What’s My Age Again?").

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Alluding to the latter track, one user wrote, "Came here for this. Blink-182 is really the alpha and omega of bands that capture the millennial experience." Meanwhile, someone else left a poignant comment in agreement: "I remember being 17 when that song came out and 23 seemed so far away. And then suddenly I was 23 and yelling that line at the bar listening to a cover band. Then 33 came and went out of nowhere. And last week I realized when I see Blink again in Oct. I will be 43."

After examining another thread titled "Fellow millennials, what is the Quintessential song that defines our generation?", clear pick patterns start to emerge. Again we see votes for "Mr. Brightside," "In the End," and "All Star," along with some votes for Third Eye Blind’s signature 1997 thunderbolt "Semi-Charmed Life" and 2003’s "Get Low," the crunk party staple by Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz. ("This is the correct answer," someone replied, pointing to the latter. "Gets [millennials] turnt [AF] at weddings.")

I also respect the shout-out for Harvey Danger’s 1997 power-pop barnburner "Flagpole Sitta," which one user described as the "quintessential song" of that decade. "It encapsulates everything about the era," they wrote. "The frenetic depression, being overwhelmed with the changing world, being jaded by counter culture, on and on."

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One thing’s for sure: No matter how you tried to summarize these selections, "Mr. Brightside" would have to be on any list. We even have one notable source we can point to. In 2024, The New York Times’ Jessica Goldstein authored an entire feature about the song’s influence on its generation, writing, "If boomers gave the masses “Don't Stop Believin',” millennials can claim 'Mr. Brightside' as the generation's official entry into that canon: a song that gets everybody at the bar shout-singing along."

In 2024, comedian Tess Tregellas went viral for a performance clip teased with the caption "How to spot a millennial." In the footage, she gives the audience a lyric-based test to figure out which generation they really belong to—and the most obvious prompt is "Hey now," which could invoke involuntary singing of "You're an all star" (Smash Mouth) or perhaps "don't dream it's over" (Crowded House's 1986 hit of the same name). Music: always a tool for learning.