Between them they’ve got some impressive programs and games, what’s state of the art for most of Earth besides Wakanda, which is apparently hopelessly more advanced over the rest of the planet. But of course the main purpose is the music. Peter’s going to keep the Zune as well, if only as a reminder of Yondu, but the sheer amount of stuff this device can hold means it has to be his primary music repository. And it’s got a lot on it already. Potts-Stark made sure of that before she gave it to him.
The playlists are numbered, putting the songs from his original tapes and the Zune on top of the screen. Right after them come the playlists put together by Earth’s various superheroes for the Guardians of the Galaxy to remember them by.
Except Tony Stark hadn’t lived to do his, of course, so his wife and old bodyguard had put it together. It’s mostly “classic rock,” loud rock music from roughly his mother’s era, the stuff he thinks she liked only in smaller amounts, if that. The sort of stuff Rocket loves, and this stuff he’s had time to hear, too. Groot will probably soon grow to love it too-that’s something he’s vaguely worried about.
Peter expected Steve Rogers’s playlist to be mostly from the 30s and 40s. And about half of it is. But the other half is more modern. Some of it was very obviously introduced to him by those born more recently. Including Rocket. It was probably him who introduced Steve to Madeleine Quill’s favorites, and “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” and “Ooh Child” both made his list. It’s a strange, surreal feeling, imagining Captain America-heck, he was still wrapping his head around him having shown up in the modern day-listening to those songs and thinking of them as ones she’d loved first. As part of her, and as part of Peter himself.
Of course, his fondness for Marvin Gaye must have also come from Sam Wilson; the latter’s playlist is indication enough of that. Peter’s never much classified his home planet’s songs by their artists; even with the Zune, there were too many of them where he only had one song by them. But Sam’s one of those that favors enough particular names it makes Peter curious about them. He might even ask Nebula or Thor what they know about them.
It’s Bucky Barnes’ playlist that’s mostly music from the 40s. It’s one of the shorter ones. What modern music he has is mostly from Wakanda. That really is unlike anything else produced on Earth. Thor has pointed out some aspects of it that he’s heard in other pieces of music from Africa, but also sounds and effects made by technology the rest of the planet is still getting introduced to, and is only just now finding use in the music of other countries. Some of it reminds him of the overhead music in commercial complexes and seedy bars and occasionally markets out in space, even though it's not all that like it in tone or style, because he can't help but hear the technology. Peter’s not sure how he feels about that kind of music coming from Earth.
Thor, of course, brought all his favorite music on board himself. But he added a playlist to Peter’s phone too, with contributions from his various other friends. That one’s mostly extra-terrestrial, and the majority of it consists of albums of traditional Asgardian pieces, recorded by the surviving Asgardians to fund the building of New Asgard. Apparently those are still making them plenty of money. There’s a good chance Peter won’t ever listen to this playlist all the way through, honestly, at least not on his own. Thor will probably play it all on the ship’s system enough for anyone.
Natasha Romanov’s is the shortest. Her friends did the best they could, putting anything on it they knew she liked, but so much of even that died with her. It’s mostly classical music, plus recordings of the Russian songs Clint Barton heard her sing to his youngest kid. Also two pop hits from the last five years. They’re neither of them directly about what happened, but they’re both about loss.
Peter hasn’t fully looked through Barton’s playlist. He’s listened to a few songs unique to it, and that put him off the rest. His mother warned him off country.
The one playlist he has listened all the way through already is from the other Peter. Peter Parker is the one who at least knew what was hot five years ago, and in between their all coming back to life and the loading on this StarkPhone, he even had time to hear and approve of two more recent hits, both of them a bit more cheerful than Romanov’s. Probably much of it is what Madeleine Quill would’ve listened to and loved and shared with her son had she been born thirty years later. Except maybe Peter Quill is finally getting old and ornery, because a lot of it leaves him cold, and he’s not even sure why. It just doesn’t seem to have the soul that the older music does, or at least, he can’t feel it.
Stephen Strange’s playlist has the fewest songs on it, five fewer than Romanov’s. Timewise it’s much longer, though, because it’s entirely classical. With some instrumental Asian music, much of which is also on the long side. Peter has to wonder if it even truly reflects his musical tastes, or if he’s just posing. But at least Nebula likes the half she’s listened to so far.
Bruce Banner’s playlist starts with a song somebody recorded about him. It’s called “The Green Guy and the Sky” and it’s one of the weirdest things Peter’s ever heard, and he’s heard Brae’Taro Chant. The rest of it’s more varied, with some Indian/Bollywood stuff that’s great for dancing to. But there’s also a lot of “relaxing” music that Peter personally thinks “boring” would be a better term for.
James Rhodes’ playlist has a good deal of the exact kind of disco music his mother always spoke disparaging of. Luckily Peter himself really isn’t picky about good dance music. Some of Stark’s classic rock favorites as well. She really would cringe. But it’s also got no less than six of her own favorites as well. Also the Star Wars theme, which Peter would have loved him for in any case. And another piece from the prequels called “Duel of the Fates,” but that one is just making Peter dread his inevitable watching of said prequels. All the Star Wars movies which have been made so far are on the laptop, and he hasn’t watched the newer ones yet, but he knows he must sooner or later.
Carol Danvers’ playlist starts with “Off We Go Into the Wild Blue Yonder,” which makes Peter laugh. Especially since aside from that, and some 90s songs that Peter suspects were more the favorites of her adopted daughter/niece, and one song with Carlos Santana called “Maria Maria,” it’s actually mostly extra-terrestrial music. Some of which everyone who’s been in space has heard, and some of which doesn’t even seemed to be commercially released; there’s weird instrumental stuff that Peter suspects to be Skrull music.
Some of the playlists are joint playlists. One of those is Wanda Maximoff’s, with a note that it included what favorites Vision had as well. This one, too, is more recent pop music, in this case tending more towards the 1990s, and what Thor has identified as “Europop” and “Eurodance.” (Peter's not sure the Asgardian actually knows the difference.) In other words, obviously the stuff she listened to as a kid, before her parents got killed. Maybe with ones her brother liked mixed in. That’s really sad, if Peter thinks about it. So he doesn’t. He just dances, because the music begs for it.
T’Challa and Shuri also sent a joint playlist, which multiple people have told him was probably mostly her. It’s possible Okoye contributed as well. (“She’d never admit it, though,” Rocket noted.) Obviously that one’s heavily Wakanda, and Peter wonders if it’s more a cross-section of the country’s musical history. There’s also a selection of Kendrick Lamar. Apparently he put out an album a couple of years back that made heavy use of Wakandan music tropes and is generally considered to be the best job anyone outside of Wakanda has done with that so far. But the playlist has only one song from that, which of course the King and his sister would’ve only recently heard. The rest of it’s older. If Peter ever sees them again, he’s going to have to ask who was responsible for the Lamar. He’s not even sure why he’s so curious; he just is.
Rocket and Nebula also made a playlist for the phone, even though they too brought what music they’ve become fond of with them. As well as the classic rock Stark introduced him to, Rocket’s got the stuff he no doubt loves even more: the really hard rock, of the guys screaming into their microphones. Not stuff Peter finds at all appealing for the most part, though he’s developed a weird weak spot for the Beastie Boys’ “Intergalactic.” It’s got a good beat.
Still, he kind of really wishes he and Nebula had done separate playlists, to make it easy to listen to just hers. That the playlist is entirely Earth music doesn’t keep her selections (or at least the ones that definitely aren’t Rocket’s) from being the most broad and interesting. If there’s any specific preferences she shows, it may, oddly enough, be for Asian pop. He wonders how many of Earth’s languages she’s learned; he knows she learned Chinese. But there’s plenty of stuff in English too, some of it in genres Peter’s never heard of. He thinks he might like the song that describes itself as “dream pop” way more than makes sense for him.
Of course, that might be out of the feeling he has that Gamora would’ve liked it. Though the playlists by the various Avengers are followed by seven playlists, apparently compiled as a group effort with Thor’s spurring it on, because he wanted to give each of his new crewmates some music they’d like, and also his possible future crewmate-to be. Peter hasn’t listened through any of those. He especially doesn’t want to touch the one meant for Gamora.
He is, of course, an optimistic man. And because he’s an optimistic man, he is very confident that they will, sooner or later, find the Gamora now wandering around this universe, he is hopeful that she will ultimately decide to at least try the life the original version of her had been happy in for four years, and he is even thinking of ways to convince her to choose the same long-term booty call she had last time around, even if there is now an Asgardian available.
But he knows she won’t be who she was. She hasn’t had any of the experiences that helped reshape the Gamora he knew and loved, not even breaking out of the prison with them. And when it comes to finding her tastes in things like music again, she may not at all like the same music she did before.
He grieves for that Gamora, is sometimes still consumed by rage at her father for what he did to her, and at the universe for letting him, for being that devoid of justice that it would let that happen. Sometimes he thinks that when they find the new Gamora, he’ll suggest she listen through the songs; he thinks she might agree to, if only out of curiosity. Other times he can’t stand the thought of anyone listening through it, even her.
Of the others, only Mantis has listened through hers so far, sitting through the whole thing with a rather confused look on her face. Peter doesn’t expect Drax will ever listen to his, but he figures the others will sooner or later.
Himself included. They made the longest of all the playlists for him. He’s glanced over the songlist, which didn’t tell him as much as it might have had he lived on Earth more recently, but at least he knows all the artists that had a song in either the cassettes or the Zune. Some of them, he’s glad to have more of them. Others, not so much. He’s started to seriously wish he’d figured out how to delete that stupid song about the dragon.
Truth is, it still stuns him, that these people who don’t really know him, who probably got a less than flattering picture of him from Rocket, went to all this trouble. Hell, there’s an argument they should still be mad at him for losing his head the way he had on Titan. (His Gamora would’ve had some pretty choice words for him over that.) “It’s for a fellow Avenger,” Rocket explained to him when he said so. “They’ll adopt you into the group whether you even like it or not,” and Nebula nodded her agreement.
So even if he doesn’t like every song they’ve loaded onto that StarkPhone, Peter is still happy every time he looks at it. He’s always wanted to belong to groups more than he’d admit.
Besides, multiple playlists on it contain “Old Town Road.” Whatever he thinks about the pair of genres it belongs to in general, that’s definitely his new favorite song.