The first 50 recordings to be named to a new American National Registry of Sound have been chosen. “The registry, which began life yesterday with 50 inaugural inductions, is meant to call attention to the problems of preserving this country’s recorded legacy. The recordings chosen include significant troves of folk music, famous speeches, ethnographic recordings and a few representative classical, jazz and pop selections that are already widely familiar to audiences. The recordings were required to be more than 10 years old and be culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”