The National RecordingRegistry has made history with Queen Latifah and Super Mario Bros
The Music Treasures of the Nation: Queen Latifah, the soundtrack of a video game and a female rapper’s song “All Hail The Queen”
The 25 recordings named as audio treasures worthy of preservation for all time are considered to be a part of the nation’s recorded sound heritage.
The annual list includes a mix of popular songs, radio broadcasts and significant speeches in order to define the sound of the country’s history and culture. But, for the first time, it will include the music of a female rapper and the soundtrack of a video game.
Queen Latifah recorded her breakthrough 1989 album All Hail The Queen when she was just a teenager. “Her album showed rap could cross genres including reggae, hip-hop, house and jazz — while also opening opportunities for other female rappers,” the LOC statement said.
The original 1986 theme for the game Super Mario Bros. has also been selected, in what’s hard not to see as a clever cross-promotional move, right when a movie version is storming theaters.
The First Mariachi Performances — Recordings for NPR’s “The Sounds of America” at the Archives of the Library of Congress
A college senior named Koji Kondo got the job as a composer. The ad was on a bulletin board. Kondo said there wasn’t a lot of data for making music or sound effects at the time.
Kondo told the Library of Congress through an interpreter he had to be innovative and use the programming ingenuity that we had at the time. I used different genres that matched what was happening on screen. We had jingles to encourage players to try again after getting the ‘game over’ and fanfares to applaud them for reaching goals when time was running out.
In 1909, mariachi music was used in a performance for the country’s president in Mexico City, but recordings of it before 1912 are the oldest additions to the registry. Ellen Taaffe Zwilich is the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for her piece, and is also the first woman to earn a PhD in composition from the Juilliard School.
In between is a riotous mix of reggaetón, ’80s pop, funk-infused jazz, gospel, political analysis and a reading of an influential 1994 book by Carl Sagan. The Librarian of Congress will discuss the National Recording Registry in the series “The Sounds of America” from NPR’s 1A, which focuses on this year’s selections.
- Cuarteto Coculense recorded the very first mariachi recordings. “St. Louis Blues” — Handy’s Memphis Blues Band (1922)3. “Sugar Foot Stomp” was written by “Fletch Henderson.” commentary and analysis of the European situation for NBC radio 23-Sept. 6, 1939)5. “Don’t let nobody distract you” is the motto of The Fairfield Four. “What the World Needs Now is Love” — Jackie DeShannon (1965)7. “Wang Dang Doodle” is the title of a song by Koko Taylor. “Sherry” — The Four Seasons (1962)9. The song is named “Ode to Billie Joe.” Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young wrote “Déj Vu”. “Imagine” — John Lennon (1971)12. Led Zeppelin had a song called “Stairway to Heaven”. “Take Me Home, Country Roads” — John Denver (1971)14. “Margaritaville” — Jimmy Buffett (1977)15. “dance…What a feeling…”, it was written by the person named Irene Cara. “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” is a song by Eurythmics. “Synchronicity” — The Police (1983)18. Wynton Marsalis wrote “Black Codes (From the Underground)”. The composer of Super Mario Bros. theme is kaki Kondo. Madonna’s song “Like a Virgin” was released in 1984. “All Hail the Queen” — Queen Latifah (1989)22. “All I Want for Christmas is You” is a song by Mariah Carey. “Pale Blue Dot” — Carl Sagan (1994)24. “Gasolina” is a song by Daddy Yankee. “Concerto for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra— Northwest Chamber Orchestra, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, composer (2012)
A song called “Take Me Home, Country Roads” by John Denver was added along with “Stairway to Heaven” and “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)”.
