WE GO TOGETHER LIKE A WALKMAN AND YOUR FAVORITE TAPE
music speaks to the mind and reaches a place that nothing else can — ask victor creel if you don’t believe us. there’s something about the feeling of walking down the street with your headphones on that helps to drown out the rest of the shitty world, if anything can be shittier than hawkins, indiana right now.
for task 005, we ask everyone to create a playlist for their muses ! whether physically creating it and linking it to share with others, or simply writing out each song that would be on their characters favorite tape, we want to know what music keeps the citizens of hawkins... sane.
please explain why each song represents your muse or you can create a playlist based off of milestones in your muses life ! however you want this to look is entirely up to you. feel free to use songs from any time period and not strictly from 1987 and the past !
when done, please tag your playlist with #hawkinstm.task005 !
001 - Every Breath You Take by The Police ( images of dancing with Mike at the Snowball, staying in the fort in the Wheeler’s basement, the time spent with Mike before the move to California )
002 - Angel by Madonna ( images of Max singing in El’s room, going shopping for the first time and picking out her style, reading comics with Max )
003 - You Don’t Mess Around with Jim by Jim Croce ( images of fixing up the cabin with Hopper, watching Miami Vice, learning more about Hopper’s life, reuniting with him after his time in Russia )
click play for more
notes:
el is still new to music and knows only what some have shown her or played on the radio and she liked. these on their playlist have been their top favorites since hearing them and most remind them of someone they care about.
while most songs on the playlist tend to bring up a memory for them, these are the top ones that would work against vecna if they ever needed.
001 - Fernando by ABBA ( images of meeting Elias, dancing, laughing, talking all night, moving in together, inside jokes calling them Fernando, finding out they were going to have a baby )
002 - Dancing Queen by ABBA ( images of being pregnant with Natalia and her kicking to the song, her dancing away any time the song would play, her little voice singing at the top of her lungs )
003 - Jailhouse Rock by Elvis Presley ( images of her childhood home, her brothers letting her listen to their favorite music so it became her own )
click play for more
notes:
a playlist of some of the songs that came out in 1987 or before. all songs that once upon a time, anyone could’ve caught lily humming to herself or playing around the house with a mix of songs that remind her of people she loves the most.
while time after time by cyndi lauper has been her favorite song as of late, these three songs above would be the ones that could save her from vecna if by chance he went after her as they give off some of the happiest times of her life.
highlight: bundle of hyacinths - field medic & samia
.001 ✎ my angel - adrianne lenker
「 strange as she appears to be / oldest friend invisibly / she brushes my hair with a physical hand / lowers my body down to the land 」
.002 ✎ yellow - coldplay
「 your skin, oh yeah, your skin and bones / turn into something beautiful / and you know, you know I love you so 」
.003 ✎ bundle of hyacinths - field medic & samia
「 so i climb into the attic / pull the sheet off of the canvas / to paint a picture of your essence / a bundle of hyacinths 」
.004 ✎ backup plan - maya hawke
「 your pencils, your dress socks / your charger, your bike lock / anything that's not in your junk drawer / i wanna be anything you've lost that you might be lookin' for 」
.005 ✎ paper rings - taylor swift
「 kiss me once 'cause you know I had a long night / (oh!) kiss me twice 'cause it's gonna be alright / three times 'cause I've waited my whole life / (one, two, one two three four!) 」
i don’t have a full list of notes, they’re just cute and soft and see beauty in absolutely everything.
.001 ✎ do it like a girl - morgan st. jean ( misogyny tw )
「 anything that you can do, i can do it better / while I'm bleeding / every dollar that you make, i make a percentage / call it even 」
.002 ✎ confident - demi lovato ( sexual tw )
「 i used to hold my freak back / now i'm letting go / i make my own choice / bitch, i run this show 」
.003 ✎ teen idle - marina ( suicide mention tw )
「 yeah, i wish i’d been a, wish i'd been a teen, teen idle / wish i'd been a prom queen, fighting for the title / instead of being sixteen and burning up a bible / feeling super, super (super!) suicidal 」
.004 ✎ til it happens to you - lady gaga ( loss tw )
「 you say i'll pull myself together, pull it together / you'll be fine / tell me what the hell do you know / what do you know 」
.005 ✎ don’t play - halsey
「 when i'm out, clothes on lay away / tryna take back what you say to me / i don't give a damn what you say to me / there ain't no time for games with me 」
notes & honorable mention below
honorable mentions ✎
no body no crime - taylor swift (you really don’t want to mess with erica’s friends; she is not afraid to take action, whatever that may be)
notes ✎
the order is loosely tied to erica’s life but is also just vibes. all her life, she’s felt the weight of being a girl, always being held to a higher standard and getting less for it. after talking with dustin in the russian tunnels, she did have a change of mindset about being herself, judgements be damned. she’s smart - she was a nerd, and she was proud. however, since finding out about the upside down and all the horrors that came with it, she did feel a yearning for normal life again. she wanted to fight for titles instead of fighting for her life. whenever people try to help her through it, she won’t have it, because they truly don’t know what she’s going through. she feels as though she can rely on herself (or maybe that’s because she’s only comfortable being vulnerable around herself under most circumstances). she’s grown, and she’s tired. no more games with anyone.
.001 ✎ two birds - regina spektor ( possible abandonment tw )
「 two birds of a feather / | say that they're always gonna stay together / but one's never going to let go of that wire / he says that he will / but he's just a liar 」
.002 ✎ life on mars - david bowie
「 her mummy is yelling, "no!" / and her daddy has told her to go / but her friend is nowhere to be seen / now she walks through her sunken dream 」
.003 ✎ would that i - hozier
「 with each love i cut loose, i was never the same / watching still-living roots be consumed by the flame / i was fixed on your hand of gold / layin' waste to my lovin' long ago 」
.004 ✎ no plan - hozier ( existential crisis tw )
「 why would you make out of words a cage for your own bird? / when it sings so sweet / the screaming, heaving fuckery of the world? 」
「 if i'm gonna learn how to choose you / i need to unlearn what i'm used to / need to unlearn how to run when it feels right / oh my god, i'm tryin' 」
notes & honorable mentions below
honorable mentions ✎
rebel rebel - david bowie (robin’s go-to feel good song, full on singing into a hairbrush)
best friend - conan gray ( @demoslayers -> steve )
sleeping with anxiety - maddy hicks ( @upsidedownism -> taeng )
notes ✎
songs one through five represent and narrate robin’s life and how she felt at each major stage. it started off carefree, though laced with lies; then leading into her parents disagreeing and maddie leaving. throughout middle and high school, through all of her toxic relationships, she felt a piece of her burn every time, and the only thing keeping her going was what maddie showed her even if she felt abandoned. songs four and five could be interchangeable, but i think that order suits them best. no plan is robin coming to terms with the world not making sense, having no explicit meaning, and becoming comfortable in her own skin, living for herself. even with this realization, she knows overcoming her trust issues is a whole other battle that she’ll have to inevitably fight if she ever wants to feel romantic love again.
the bowie nod is special to me, and robin, and was absolutely necessary. bowie was her comfort when she felt as though she had no one else, particularly in his ziggy stardust era (which is also special to me). he provided an escape for her; she felt as though she was a space cadet, floating with major tom, getting caught in a spider web with ziggy, dancing it out to rebel rebel (which truly did get her mother in a whirl).
i have a full playlist, but it’s mainly based off vibes, not lyrics, which i’m working on changing
001 - Hold Me Now by Thompson Twins ( images of hoping a love will last, slow dancing in the moonlight, falling in love )
002 - Heart of Glass by Blondie ( images of high school days, going out to parties and spending time with friends, singing this song at the top of her lungs in the car with her friends )
003 - Uptown Girl by Billy Joel ( images of summer, lifeguarding at the pool, going to the movies, having fun )
click play for more
notes:
a playlist of the mostly pop songs that heather loves to play at any given time.
these top three songs would be the best to play for heather if she was trying to be saved from vecna. each one almost reminds her of the same thing: being happy and free, possibility of falling in love, and just being herself.
001 - Shout It Out Loud by KISS ( images of sneaking out for the first time at fifteen, walking into a party and this song playing in the background, having fun for the first time in a totally new environment )
002 - Shout At The Devil by Motley Crue ( images of her first apartment, having friends over and laughing, getting to live a life she wants )
003 - Science Fiction/Double Feature by Richard O’Brien ( images of being seventeen and going to a friend to see this show everyone can’t stop talking about, falling in love with Rocky Horror the second it starts, fully realizing now that the world is so much different and not was bad as she’s been told )
click play for more
notes:
a playlist of the best songs, according to eden, to grace the planet. all are mostly hard rock except for the Rocky Horror soundtrack as it’s become a must in her life.
these top three songs would be the best to play against vecna. they each represent her finding herself and music has been a big part of that.
