IDEAL Records is an iconic music label for Mexican-American music that operated from 1946 until 1960. IDEAL was owned by Armando Marroquín and Paco Betancourt in Alice, Texas. Marroquín made all the recordings in the studio, and Betancourt manufactured and distributed the records throughout the U.S. and Mexico. Ethnic and regional musicians had largely been dropped from record labels during the war years when supplies to press vinyl were under restriction. Frustrated with the lack of regional music available, Marroquín began recording local artists, and the record industry boomed as workers returned home from war and America entered its lucrative Golden Age. IDEAL launched the careers of many key conjunto and Tejano artists, including Narciso Martinez, Beto Villa, Tony de la Rosa, Valerio Longoria, El Conjunto Bernal, and later, Freddy Fender. The albums produced on IDEAL helped shape the sound of conjunto by making the accordion standard instrumentation and integrating polka instrumentals with ranchera lyrics. The conjunto sound we know today is largely owed to IDEAL, which remained the largest and most influential Mexican-American recording label in the Southwest until the 1960s. In 1960, Marroquín founded a new record company, Nopal Records, and Betancourt continued to press and distribute IDEAL recordings in his new studio at Rio Grand Music Company in San Benito, Texas. Arhoolie Records owner Chris Strachwitz now owns the IDEAL masters and has preserved the historical recordings for future generations.