Even as the credits have rolled on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, with the film’s theatrical release being in the rearview mirror as home audiences enjoy it on Disney Plus, the Microsoft Zune continues to be the punchline that just doesn’t end.
The latest example of this is the fact that the media player, which was meant to be Microsoft’s answer to the iPod, is making a kind of pathetic comeback in the form of the design of a special edition cassette tape for the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 soundtrack (AKA Awesome Mix Vol. 3). The fact that cassette tapes, the very media format that the Zune was supposed to replace (along with CDs and MiniDiscs), are making a comeback as a trendy type of retro novelty just makes Microsoft’s defeat that much worse.
I was one of the rare adopters of the Zune when it first came out, in the mid-2000s, and I even had that ugly brown-and-green one that Chris Pratt’s Peter Quill has in the movie. I have to say, I loved my Zune and would probably still use it today if it didn’t die on me within a decade after I bought it.
At a time when video playback was considered a premium feature on iPods, that was a standard spec on the Zune’s debut device. And I will never forget the gloriously weird animated music video that came preloaded on my player, Chad VanGaalen’s “Red Hot Drops.” It was definitely a piece of media that far surpassed any force-fed U2 album, like the kind that would be seen on Apple devices years later.
Still, I knew I was an outsider. I remember being distinctly disappointed that the Zune had its own proprietary computer application for loading content that was pretty much just as cumbersome and annoying to use as iTunes, albeit slightly more aesthetically pleasing. I recall another low point running into a friend on the bus as I was listening to my Zune and, sensing the world’s rejection of the device, I desperately rambled about why it was actually great to use, like a profusely-sweating door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman.
Anyway, I still miss my Zune to this day. But as painful as it is to see it as just another punching bag for a joke, it’s a bit of a nostalgia rush to see the same player I had available for purchase on a cassette soundtrack.
