Each year, 25 culturally or historically significant musical recordings are added to the US Library of Congress Registry, established in 2000. This is a federally funded archive that seeks to preserve songs and sounds that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States". This year, Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon received the highest number of public nominations, so the album is to seal its place in history.

The library said the album, celebrating its 40th anniversary this weekend, benefitted from "brilliant, innovative production in service of the music. The album is notable for the close vocal harmonies of Richard Wright and David Gilmour and for double tracking, both of voices and guitars. More unusual effects include the flanged choir in Time, the precisely placed delays in Us and Them, and a tape loop at the beginning of Money that was so long a microphone stand had to be used to hold it up. Band member Roger Waters interviewed studio staff and others responding to a series of flashcard questions, then used snippets of their answers throughout the album. Befitting its title, the themes of the concept album are dark – madness, violence, greed and the passage of time, culminating in death – as Waters put it, 'those fundamental issues of whether the human race is capable of being humane.'"

Other artists to make it into this year's selection include The Ramones with their eponymous album from 1976, Cheap Thrills by Big Brother and the Holding Company, and the Sounds of Silence album by Simon and Garfunkel. See the full list - and selections made in other years - here.