Library of Congress adds Taylor Swift, Beyoncé to national audio archive

Taylor Swift and Beyoncé moved into the nation’s official audio archive as the Library of Congress added 25 recordings to the National Recording Registry, a selection that stretches from pop and soul to Broadway, country, rock and video-game music.

The new class gave Swift and Beyoncé their first registry entries, with Swift’s 1989 and Beyoncé’s Single Ladies among the most prominent modern additions. Acting Librarian of Congress Robert R. Newlen said the chosen recordings are “audio treasures worthy of preservation for all time,” and said the registry exists to preserve the nation’s recorded-sound heritage for future generations. The Library said it will work with partners in the recording industry to preserve the selected works.

The 2026 class expanded the registry to 700 titles. That makes the registry a small, highly selective slice of the Library’s recorded-sound collection, which holds nearly 4 million items. More than 3,000 recordings were nominated by the public this year, and the Library said Weezer was among the most nominated selections.

The broader list underscores how the registry now treats 21st-century pop as part of the country’s historical record, not a separate commercial category. Alongside Swift and Beyoncé, the class includes Ray Charles, José Feliciano, Chaka Khan, The Go-Go’s, Reba McEntire and the original Broadway cast album of Chicago. The selections also reflect the range of sounds the Library now treats as nationally significant, from country and soul to rock and theater.

The 2026 class spanned 70 years, beginning with Spike Jones’s 1944 recording Cocktails for Two and ending with the Doom video-game soundtrack, only the third video game music selection ever added to the registry. The inclusion of Doom reinforced how far the archive has expanded beyond older forms of recorded music.

One of the class’s clearest family-history notes came with Rosanne Cash’s The Wheel, which made Rosanne Cash and Johnny Cash the first father-daughter pair in the registry. Johnny Cash’s At Folsom Prison was selected in 2003. The registry has been open to nominations from the public and the National Recording Preservation Board since 2002, with selections required to be at least 10 years old and culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.