The process of integrating the songs into the script was not an easy one. While a lot of filmmakers typically lean on a music supervisor to help craft the soundtrack, Gunn did most of the work alone, alongside his rewrites. Narratively, it made sense to keep things rooted in ’70s pop. The two mixtapes that Quill kept from his childhood on Earth aren’t just anchors to his heritage: they’re also time capsules of a sort. Gunn worked hard to choose recognizable songs, if only to help “ease the audience” into the world of the film.
“I started the process by reading the Billboard charts for all of the top hits of the ’70s,” Gunn told Vulture in 2014. “I downloaded a few hundred songs, and from that made an iTunes playlist of about 120 songs, which fit the movie tonally.”
Certain songs inspired specific scenes that Gunn added to the script; other times Gunn used a piece of music to elevate a scene that had already been written. After completing the script, Gunn brought the songs to the set as well: “‘Ooh-Ooh-Child,’ ‘Hooked on a Feeling,’ ‘Come and Get Your Love,’ and more were all played on set by our marvelous sound team. I find it helps the actors and the camera operators to find the perfect groove for the shot.”
