Microsoft's iconic Windows 95 and Minecraft Alpha themes just became historic, literally

Whether you are a Neowin reader or not, you are probably aware of the iconic Microsoft Windows pieces of music used for start-ups or reboots. The Windows 95 reboot music also happened to be one of those and it looks like it is not just technology nerds or geeks like us who understand its value.

The U.S. Library of Congress (LoC) has inducted the Windows 95 sound into its National Recording Registry (NRR). For those unfamiliar, the NRR is essentially a list of sound recordings that "are culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant, and inform or reflect life in the United States."

Alongside the Windows 95 theme, Minecraft's Volume Alpha has also been chosen, alongside 23 other mainstream songs. The press release says:

Elton John’s monumental album “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” Chicago’s debut “Chicago Transit Authority,” the original cast recording of Broadway’s “Hamilton,” Mary J. Blige’s “My Life,” Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black,” Microsoft’s reboot chime, and the soundtrack to the Minecraft video game phenomenon have been selected as some of the defining sounds of history and culture that will join the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress.

 

Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden today named 25 recordings as audio treasures worthy of preservation for all time based on their cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage.

The LoC has also explained why it chose the Windows 95 reboot theme by Brian Eno exclaiming that it was a crucial point in the home PC revolution:

The 1990s witnessed the beginning of ubiquitous use of personal computing that is a familiar aspect of the world today. This revolution gained significant momentum in August 1995 with the release by Microsoft of the Windows 95 operating system. This iteration brought more of the computer’s operation under a graphical user interface (GUI), making a home computer more accessible to a non-specialist audience of consumers. To mark this and other improvements, Microsoft chose to incorporate a brief start-up sound that would play when Windows 95 booted up.

 

The company chose the ambient music creator and prolific music producer Brian Eno to compose this sound. Eno, now a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, has also been a pioneer in the creation of ambient and electronica music. Eno delivered 84 sound elements to the Microsoft designers, who ultimately selected a sound almost twice as long as requested but which they felt conveyed the sense of welcome, hopefulness and progress that they envisioned.

You can listen to it below

Meanwhile, about Minecraft's Volume Alpha by Daniel Rosenfeld (also known as C418), the LoC writes:

Since its official release in 2011, Minecraft has grown into a cultural phenomenon, building its legacy as one of history’s most successful video games one voxel at a time. Key to the game’s early success is the ambient-style soundtrack, created by German producer Daniel Rosenfeld under his alias, C418. The gentle electronic score lends itself perfectly to the game’s open-ended design and sandbox environment, which invites players to interact, explore and build, free from any specific narrative constraints. Inspired by pioneers of intelligent dance music such as Aphex Twin and the ambient music of Brian Eno, Rosenfeld’s original soundtrack to the game, compiled on the 2011 release “Minecraft: Volume Alpha,” provides a soothing and inviting backdrop to the video game’s open-world environment, creating instant nostalgia in the process.

 

The influence of C418’s music can be traced through the proliferation of ambient scores appearing in video games since Minecraft’s initial release, as well as the cultural phenomenon of “lo-fi hip-hop,” which grew in popularity during the late 2010s and shares many of the same calming and nostalgic musical aesthetics as those found in Minecraft’s original score.

You can listen to the songs below:

Here's a shorter version:

You can read the full press release here on LoC's official website.

Source

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