LINQ, C# -- easy "Generic.List" fix ?

Below "var genres" WORKS, displaying the attached.
How can I get the below "var genres2" to display a LIST ?

When I run, a
Cannot implicitly convert type 'System.Linq.IQueryable<System.Collections.Generic.List<char>>' to 'System.Collections.Generic.List<string>'. An explicit conversion exists (are you missing a cast?) error displays.

The "PartNumber" database column is varchar(50)
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   public ActionResult Index()
        {
            var genres = new List<string> { "Rock", "Jazz", "Country", "Pop", "Hip", "Disco" };

            var genres2 = from o in db.Lookup_PartNumbers
                          select o.PartNumber.ToList();

            // Create our view model
            var viewModel2 = new StoreIndexViewModel
            {
                NumberOfGenres = genres.Count(),
                Genres = genres,
                Test = genres.Count()
            };

            return this.View(viewModel2);          
        }