How, When and Where The Streets Have No Name

Are the recordings of our music stars forever or can they be lost?  The Library of Congress is taking all precautions to be sure the most important music of our time is preserved forever.

See this from the BBC:

U2's 1987 disc The Joshua Tree is among 25 new additions to the US Library of Congress's National Recording Registry.

The Irish band's fifth studio album spawned such hits as With or Without You and Where the Streets Have No Name.

The original cast recording of Stephen Sondheim's 1979 musical Sweeney Todd and Isaac Hayes' Theme from Shaft have also been added to the archive.

Established in 2000, the registry contains recordings deemed important enough to be preserved for posterity.

Each year, 25 recordings that are at least 10 years old are added to the registry, which now includes 400 deemed to be "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".

The oldest of this year's additions is The Laughing Song, a track by George Washington Johnson - the first African-American to make commercial records - that dates from around 1896.

The most recent, Jeff Buckley's version of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, was recorded in 1994.

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Last year, the US Library of Congress registered Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" to be sure to preserve it for eternity. 

At least Congress got one thing right.