Emily Chan
The United States Library of Congress recently announced that 25 music-related works have been selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry.
Among them include the theme from Super Mario Bros, along with songs by Mariah Carey, Madonna, and Queen Latifah. They have made it onto the registry because of their significant historical impacts on our nation.
With more than 173 million items, the Library of Congress is the most extensive library in the world and the United States’ oldest federal cultural institution.
The Super Mario Bros video game soundtrack, known as “Ground Theme,” is the first music from a video game ever to join the registry.
The tune is even familiar to those who don’t play the Super Mario Bros video games. Anyone who hears it knows exactly where it’s from. That’s how much significance it has in American culture.
A man named Koji Kondo created the music for Super Mario Bros in the 1980s. As a college senior in Japan, he noticed a recruiting flyer from Nintendo and decided to answer it. And that’s how the playful jingle came to be.
To this day, he still works for Nintendo and has seen his music used and celebrated in many different forms throughout the decades.
Furthermore, Madonna’s 1984 album “Like a Virgin” was selected for changing the way women were viewed in the music industry.
She became a star for her empowering lyrics and was regarded as one of the most influential feminist icons of her time.
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