Windows 95 Startup Chime Immortalized in the Library of Congress

The boot-up chime for Microsoft Windows 95 is being preserved in the Library of Congress, the National Recording Registry announced this week. The track was produced by famed songwriter Brian Eno, who reportedly wrote it on a Macintosh. In an interview with the BBC in 2009, Eno was candid about the iconic song, saying, “I wrote it on a Mac. I’ve never used a PC in my life; I don’t like them.” So much for loyalty. He went on to describe how he pulled together 83 soundbites of music to produce the song. Microsoft had given Eno “about 150 adjectives” to describe the desired noise. “The piece of music should be inspirational, sexy, driving, provocative, nostalgic, sentimental…” he said. Eno’s track was twice as long as the 3.8-second length Microsoft requested, but the company decided to use the entire thing because they felt it “conveyed the sense of welcome, hopefulness, and progress that they envisioned” for the new era of personal computing. It could be argued that “The Microsoft So ... Read full article.