CONGRESS PASSES NATIONAL RECORDING PRESERVATION ACT

The Act approves a National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress. The Registry, which has a maximum appropriation of $250,000 per year, will identify and preserve "historically important" recordings from the last century, up to and including Whitesnake. Music from the previous century was deemed "too hard to dance to."

A board will be established to assist the Library of Congress in choosing recordings. It will be made up of members of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, experts, artists, music industry professionals and a person chosen on a FOX TV special, "Who Wants To Be On The Board Of The National Recording Registry?"

The Library of Congress will preserve recordings and make them available to the public for scholarly and research purposes. Recordings become eligible 10 years after their creation, though a special exemption could be made for novelty songs such as "The Macarena."

"For many years the Academy and the Grammy Foundation have been working to educate the recording community and the public at large about the time-sensitive issue of recorded media and technology at risk," said Recording Academy President/CEO Michael Greene. "Unfortunately, we've been using phrases such as ‘technology at risk.'"

The Act heads to President Clinton to be signed or vetoed, just as "Schoolhouse Rock" taught us.