Guardians of the Galaxy, released in 2014, kicked off the “cosmic” side of the MCU with style, simultaneously turning James Gunn from an esoteric indie punk rock filmmaker into an A-List writer/director. It’s also the film that turned Chris Pratt and Dave Bautista into bona fide movie stars.
One of the most iconic elements of Guardians of the Galaxy is its jukebox soundtrack, consisting of some great pop songs from the 1970s. You know, the kind of songs you’d hear on AM radio back in the day. Songs like Blue Swede’s cover of Hooked on a Feeling, Escape (The Pina Colada Song) by Rupert Holmes, and Come and Get Your Love by Redbone, among a bunch of other popular songs from the era, as well as a couple of outliers from the 60s.
However, things could have been much different. During an AMA session on Threads, James Gunn answered a bunch of questions about his work. One user asked him, “What was the worst note you ever received,” and Gunn’s answer revealed an alternate timeline where, instead of breathing new life into 70s classics, the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack was filled with 90s tunes from the likes of Britney Spears.
Gunn recalled that someone, presumably a higher-up at Marvel or Disney, said that nobody would like the unique soundtrack of Guardians of the Galaxy and that he should change the selections to more recent pop songs from the 1990s. Thankfully, Gunn ignored the note, and cinema history was made.
The music in Guardians of the Galaxy isn’t just window dressing. It’s an integral part of the film’s storytelling. The songs featured in the film are all part of “Awesome Mix Vol. 1,” a mixtape made by Peter “Starlord” Quill’s mother, consisting of all of her favorite songs. She loved listening to the radio and her son keeps her close to his heart by listening to the music she left him before she died and he was abducted by aliens. The emotional throughline of these songs would be somewhat diminished if the movie used songs from the 90s, especially since Peter Quill was abducted in 1988.
The sequel, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, uses music from Awesome Mix Vol 2, the last gift Pete’s mom gave to her son before she died, while Vol 3 uses music given to Peter by his adopted father, Yondu, via a Zune MP3 player.
All in all, it’s impossible to know if Guardians of the Galaxy would have been so successful and culturally relevant if the soundtrack was changed to late-90s pop songs. But I do know that James Gunn had a vision (or a sense of hearing, as it were) for the soundscape of his movie, and without it, it simply wouldn’t be the same.
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