In 1924, Victor released a record entitled, " The Wreck of the Old 97 [1]" backed with, "The Prisoner's Song [2]", sung by a light opera tenor from Texas named Marion Try Slaughter [3]. Taking his pseudonym from the names of two towns in his home state, he recorded the song as 'Vernon Dalhart [3]' on Victor's black label category of popular music. To everyone's surprise, the record became an instant hit and went on to rapidly sell one million copies (and eventually six-million copies). The Victor Talking Machine Company -- the largest phonograph and record company in the world -- had long cultivated the cultured segment of the market with its "Red Seal" series of grand opera and classical recordings, and the dollars generated by this surprise 'country' hit caused them to notice a segment of the market that they had previously ignored. Victor wanted more of this action, but its stolid A&R department did not have a sense of how to get it. They rather, continued to rely on Dalhart and a few other artists, who were not really rural musicians, but who conveniently lived in the urban areas where the studios were located, to interpret material that Victor felt would appeal to the rural record buyer. In the rare cases when a true rural musician was recorded, their records were not distributed nationally, but instead released back into the same market from where the musician hailed. In those nascent days, it did not occur that there might be any universal appeal for traditional music.

With the exception of "The Wreck of the Old 97", and a handful of others, 1924 was the worst year for record sales in the history of the industry. Not only was the phonograph market saturated, but it appeared that acoustical recording technology had reached its sonic zenith. Competition from the newest technology, radio, was sweeping the country. Entertainment on the radio was free, it could reach into the most remote cabins,
as well as Fifth Avenue penthouses, it was immediate and live -- there was a sense of presence -- and, it sounded different. Microphones were sensitive enough to pick up the tiniest sounds. With the advent of radio, entertainment and information could literally be plucked from the air. Record and phonograph sales plummeted. Combination radio-phonographs were hurried onto the market, but the radio portion that used a speaker sounded different -- if not better -- from the phonograph portion with its purely acoustical-mechanical diaphragm and horn amplification. Something was needed to put the phonograph and the radio on an equal technological footing.

Experiments in electrical recording had in fact been undertaken since the days of the tinfoil phonograph, but primarily viewed as a way to record telephone conversations. One of the critical components not yet invented was an effective electrical amplifier, which was not successfully developed until the invention of the Audion vacuum tube by Lee DeForest [4] in 1915. By 1925, a team of engineers at the Western Electric Company [5] under the direction of Joseph P. Maxfield and Henry C. Harrison, and using principles described by Arthur Gordon Webster, and others, developed a practical system of electrical recording -- collecting sound waves with a microphone, converting the sound waves to electrical impulses, strengthening the impulses with an amplifier, and using those impulses to drive an electro-mechanical cutting head to inscribe the vibrations into a revolving wax or acetate blank disc. Electrical recording had several distinct advantages over the old acoustical method: the sensitivity of the microphone could be adjusted to record any sound, soft or loud -- no longer were only certain voices or instruments recordable; the dynamic range, frequency response, and signal-to-noise ratios were all improved over the acoustical method -- that is, electrical recordings were louder, had more bass and treble (more realistic), and had less surface noise relative to the over-all volume of the recording; and, electrical recording equipment was portable -- no longer would rural artists have to come to the recording studio, the studio could come to the artists.