You don’t often see Microsoft mentioned in the same breath as Elton John, Celine Dion, and Chicago, but it just happened. Twice. The software giant has been inducted into the National Recording Registry of the U.S. Library of Congress for the Windows Reboot Chime in Windows 95 and the soundtrack album for the game Minecraft (not this year’s movie).
Well, sort of.
The Windows Reboot Chime was created and recorded by ambient music wunderkind Brian Eno while the soundtrack to Minecraft, called Volume Alpha, is by Daniel Rosenfeld. But both are apparently now “some of the defining sounds of history and culture,” and “audio treasures worthy of preservation.”
“This year’s National Recording Registry list is an honor roll of superb American popular music from the wide-ranging repertoire of our great nation, from Hawaii to Nashville, from iconic jazz tracks to smash Broadway musicals, from Latin superstars to global pop sensations – a parade of indelible recordings spanning more than a century,” National Recording Preservation Board chair Robbin Ahrold said.
Microsoft joins some august company in this induction: Vaunted musical acts like Roy Rodgers, (Happy Trails), Chicago (the album Chicago Transit Authority), Miles Davis (Bitches Brew), Helen Reddy (I Am Woman), Elton John (the album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road), Steve Miller Band (the album Fly Like an Eagle), Tracy Chapman (the album Tracy Chapman), Celine Dion (My Heart Will Go On) and many others made the list, as did the soundtrack to Broadway’s Hamilton and the 1968 comedy album Hello Dummy! by Don Rickles.
Brian Eno described the creation of the Windows Reboot Chime and several other sounds he made for Windows 95 in an interview four years ago. And yes, he used a Mac to record the music. Eno has never used a PC.
“The agency said, ‘We want a piece of music that is inspiring, universal, blah-blah, da-da-da, optimistic, futuristic, sentimental, emotional,’ this whole list of adjectives, and then at the bottom it said ‘and it must be 3.25 seconds long’,” he explained. “I thought this was so funny and an amazing thought to actually try to make a little piece of music. It’s like making a tiny little jewel.”
To me, the Eno composition for The Microsoft Sound, which was used for the Windows 95 startup sound, is a bit more iconic. And let’s not forget that Robert Fripp recorded the sounds for Windows Vista. Perhaps he’ll get a nod sometime soon as well.