The invention of the accordion in 1829 in Vienna was not merely another addition to the extensive family of musical instruments. Rather, it marked a historical turning point, as the accordion (along with the harmonica, concertina, and the roughly contemporaneous emergence of valve-operated brass instruments) ushered in a new democratic era of music. For the first time, it became possible for anyone to engage in musical practice and actively participate in musical life without prior knowledge. The unprecedented spread of the instrument across all social classes was simultaneously supported by its increasingly perfected industrial production, and as a universal sound generator in a new mass culture, it contributed to the birth of new musical styles. Ultimately, the accordion emerged in the wake of colonization, missionization, and migration.