Just days after the launch of the movie the US National Recording Registry has added its first ever video game music, and it’s the GOAT.
Every year the US Library of Congress adds 25 new films to its National Film Registry, which you often hear about and are usually a mixture of new and old titles that are deemed ‘culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.’
The same idea goes for sound recordings in the National Recording Registry and yet until this week no video game music had ever been added, but now the Super Mario Bros. theme tune is changing that and it’s not even American.
For films and TV it’s supposed to be movies produced or co-produced by an American film company but the rules for sound recording are a little looser and are just mean to be ‘works of enduring importance to American culture’, which the Super Mario Bros. theme tune most certainly is.
The theme tune is featured in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, but since the selection process is a long and complicated one, that does seem to be a coincidence, and just one more sign of how popular, and ubiquitous, the tune is.
The soundtrack for Super Mario Bros. was created in 1985 by the legendary Koji Kondo, who also composed the equally iconic main theme for The Legend Of Zelda and has worked on most of Nintendo’s biggest titles and, at 61, still creates new music today.
Despite its popularity the main theme doesn’t really have a name, although it is sometimes referred to simply as Ground Theme or Overworld Theme.
It has had various lyrics added to it over time, the first submitted to a Japanese radio programme in 1985 and then an unrelated set created for the American Super Mario Bros. Super Show in 1989.
Unlike the older Film Registry, the Recording Registry has only been going since 2002 but it already has 600 recordings in its vaults. Others being added at the same time as Super Mario Bros. include music from Mariah Carey, Eurythmics, Jimmy Buffett, Wynton Marsalis, and John Lennon.
A blog post announced the new additions but unfortunately Super Mario Bros. is only mentioned in passing, as the first video game to qualify.
Public nominations are taken into account when choosing what is to be added, so once video game fans find out that game music is eligible you can bet they’ll be spamming the Recording Registry with suggestions next year.
The only caveat is that all recordings must be at least 10 years old, to prove they’re not just a flash in the pan, which Super Mario Bros. is clearly not.
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