ABSTRACT
Much as Moe would have insisted, it is necessary to set the stage with some context before jumping into many of the business details that preceded Folkways. Moe's attitudes to recording and the values that he sought to enshrine did not arise in a vacuum. The vast changes of the Industrial Revolution set the foundation for a myriad of astounding technological innovations. One of these—Edison's invention of the phonograph—can easily be called the seminal event of a now-ubiquitous recording industry. However, as is often the case, the value of such an invention was not immediately apparent. Eventually, its power as a medium for music found footing and began to blossom. It was into this growing technology, and the turmoil of East European expansion, that clearly shaped Moe's vision about the world around him, and what he could contribute to the world in the form of his famous “encyclopedia of sound.”
