The original Doom soundtrack joins ‘our national playlist’ in the US Library of Congress

The United States Library of Congress got a little cooler today by inducting the soundtrack of the original Doom into its National Recording Registry. The Doom soundtrack, by composer Bobby Prince, is one of 25 recordings now designated as “audio treasures worthy of preservation for all time based on their cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage.”

“Music and recorded sound are essential, wonderful parts of our daily lives and our national heritage. The National Recording Registry works to preserve our national playlist for generations to come,” acting Librarian of Congress Robert R. Newlen said. “The Library of Congress is proud to select these audio treasures and will work to preserve them with our partners in the recording industry.”

Other recordings in the 2026 crop of inductees include the Taylor Swift album 1989, Mambo No. 5 by Pérez Prado and His Orchestra (that’s the original, not the Lou Bega version), Feliz Navidid by José Feliciano, Weezer’s Blue Album, The Devil Went Down to Georgia (Charlie Daniels Band) and Midnight Train to Georgia (Gladys Knight and the Pips), and The Fight of the Century: Ali vs. Frazier, a broadcast recording of the famous boxing match between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali, which saw Ali take his first professional loss.

It’s the proverbial mixed bag, in other words, although frankly that’s just the Weezer talking—otherwise it’s a solid list all around. (I’m not a huge fan of I Feel For You either, but it’s fine to the extent that I get why other people would like it.) What we’re really here for, though, is the rip-and-tear aural experience of Doom, and the Library has some very nice things to say about it:

Originally released in 1993, the videogame Doom brought a heavy metal energy to MS-DOS systems across the globe, while at the same time pioneering the ever-popular first-person shooter genre. Key to Doom’s popularity was the adrenaline-fueled soundtrack created by freelance video game music composer Bobby Prince. Prince, a lifelong musician and practicing lawyer, was fascinated by the MIDI technology that rose in prominence in the mid-1980s as a means for instrument control and composition, an interest that led to his earliest work composing videogames.

For Doom, Prince took inspiration from a pile of CDs loaned by the game’s chief designer, John Romero, including seminal works by Alice in Chains, Pantera and Metallica. Despite the limitations of the 1993-era sound card drivers, Prince composed the perfect riff-shredding accompaniment for the game’s demon-slaying journey to hell and back. Taking advantage of his knowledge of MIDI, Prince even worked to ensure that the sound effects he created could cut through the music by assigning them to different MIDI frequencies. The Doom soundtrack would go on to inspire countless remixes and lay the foundation for future generations of game composers.

Prince is sometimes criticized for cleaving a little too closely to his inspirations. This, for instance, is Them Bones from the great Alice in Chains album Dirt:

And this is Bye Bye American Pie, heard in Barrels o’ Fun—a Doom 2 map, to be precise, but the point remains.

Still, there’s no denying that the Doom OST slaps, and that Prince’s work helped make Doom one of the most intense and foundational videogames of all time. It is not, however, the first videogame to have its music committed to the Library of Congress for eternal posterity: That honor goes to the Super Mario Bros. theme, which got the nod in 2023. The Minecraft soundtrack is in there too.