The legendary soundtrack from DOOM has officially secured a place in gaming history after being selected for preservation by the United States Library of Congress. The influential score, originally composed by Bobby Prince for id Software’s groundbreaking 1993 shooter, has now been added to the National Recording Registry, recognising its long-term cultural, historical and artistic significance.
The inclusion marks another major milestone for DOOM, a game widely regarded as one of the most influential releases in video game history. While the title itself helped redefine first-person shooters during the 1990s, its soundtrack became equally iconic thanks to its aggressive heavy metal-inspired style, fast-paced energy and instantly recognisable MIDI compositions.
The Library of Congress selects recordings each year that are considered “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant,” with only a relatively small number of works added annually. DOOM’s soundtrack joining the registry places it alongside some of the most influential audio recordings ever preserved by the institution, ranging from classic music albums and radio broadcasts to historically important speeches and performances.
For many players, the music became inseparable from the experience of battling through demon-infested corridors armed with shotguns, chainguns and rocket launchers. Tracks such as “At Doom’s Gate” helped define the atmosphere of the original game, blending adrenaline-fuelled melodies with darker undertones that perfectly matched the violent sci-fi horror setting. Despite the technological limitations of the era, the soundtrack left a lasting impression on an entire generation of players.
Composer Bobby Prince drew inspiration from a range of heavy metal bands and rock influences while creating the soundtrack, contributing to the raw intensity that became associated with DOOM itself. The music’s style stood apart from many other game soundtracks of the time, which often leaned more heavily into fantasy orchestration or simpler arcade-inspired loops. Instead, DOOM embraced distorted riffs, aggressive pacing and driving rhythms that pushed the game’s action forward.
The soundtrack’s preservation also reflects the growing recognition of video games as an important artistic and cultural medium. For decades, gaming music often received less mainstream recognition than film scores or traditional albums, despite many soundtracks becoming hugely influential in their own right. The decision to preserve DOOM’s music highlights how far the industry has come in terms of wider cultural acceptance and historical recognition.
DOOM now joins a select group of video game-related recordings to receive preservation recognition from the Library of Congress, further underlining the enduring legacy of the franchise more than three decades after its original release.
The influence of DOOM’s soundtrack can still be heard throughout modern gaming today. Heavy industrial music, fast guitar-driven combat themes and aggressive electronic-metal hybrids have become common across shooters and action games, with many developers and composers openly citing DOOM as a major inspiration. Even newer entries in the series, including the modern reboot titles, have continued emphasising powerful, combat-driven music as a core part of the experience.
Outside of gaming itself, the soundtrack has maintained a strong following online for years through remixes, cover versions and fan recreations. The MIDI format used by the original game also helped make the tracks especially memorable and widely shared during the early internet era, further cementing their place within gaming culture.
The preservation of DOOM’s soundtrack also serves as another reminder of how influential the original game remains across multiple areas of the industry. Beyond helping establish multiplayer deathmatches, modding communities and fast-paced first-person action design, DOOM also demonstrated how important music could be in shaping atmosphere and player identity within games.
More than 30 years after players first stepped onto Mars to battle demons, DOOM’s music continues to stand as one of the most recognisable soundtracks ever created for a video game. Its addition to the Library of Congress registry ensures that the score will now be preserved as part of America’s wider cultural history for future generations.
