In the mid-1960s Robert A. Moog effectively launched a music revolution with the pioneering synthesizer that bears his name. The complex, organ-like analog instrument could produce an array of electronic tones, and quickly became a favorite of rock virtuosos; for a number of years in the 1970s the Moog sound was ubiquitous across a spectrum of pop-music styles. Moog's creation was eventually supplanted by cheaper imitators, but has retained its cult status among musicians. 'The first synthesizers created new sounds from whole cloth,' explained Bergen County Record writer Jim Beckerman, 'by manipulating the raw ingredients of music, sound waves, into new patterns by changing their frequency and duration.'

Born on May 23, 1934, Moog grew up in Flushing, a section in the New York City borough of Queens. Though his piano-teacher mother imposed musical training on him, Moog instead took after his father, an engineer, and loved to tinker in the family workshop. In his youth he built radios from mail order kits, and then became fascinated by the theremin, an obscure musical instrument designed by a Russian, Leon Theremin, which was used in avant-garde classical performances in the 1920s. Considered the world's first electronic instrument, the theremin was played by waving a hand in front of an electromagnetic field, which produced an eerie, ethereal sound. Moog built his first theremin at the age of 14 from a how-to magazine article, but .