Moby

Moby is an American electronic musician. Moby's real name is Richard Melville Hall (born September 11, 1965 in Harlem, New York City) - he takes his performing name from his relative Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick.

Arguably most famous among his peers for the track "Go", a progressive track using the string line from the Twin Peaks theme song, Moby is also well known for the single "Next is the E". Moby has released singles under the names "Voodoo Child", "Barracuda", "UHF", "The Brotherhood", "DJ Cake", "Lopez", and "Brainstorm/Mindstorm".

Moby plays keyboard, guitar, and bass guitar, and expresses mild irritation at the assumption that everything on his newer albums is a sample. He used to be in a punk band, but abandoned punk in 1989 for electronica, performing under various names including "Barricuda." His first album for Elektra Records was Everything Is Wrong; he followed that up with a hard rock/electronica album called Animal Rights. Animal Rights was commercially unsuccessful and Moby and Elektra parted company. Moby's Play was released through V2.

After a decade's worth of music, Moby's latest efforts have gained him international notice. Mainstream reviewers have raved about his talents on the 1999 album Play, though some early fans were let down. The album has 18 tracks on it and was the first album in history to have all of its tracks commercially licensed: "Porcelain," for instance, appeared on a commercial for Bailey's Irish Cream and Nordstrom; "Find My Baby" was on a commercial for American Express. The album's tracks eventually were accepted in various radio formats, but because of Play's extensive licensing, the album could have been financially successful even without radio play.

Moby has a television show on MTV, Señor Moby's House of Music, which focuses mostly on more obscure electronic music.

In 2001 Moby earned the ire of Eminem after calling his music misogynist and homophobic; Eminem later satirized Moby in "Without Me", calling him a "fag" and questioning his relevance with the claim, "Nobody listens to techno!". The two were in a confrontation at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards, though Moby expresses respect for Eminem's musical talents.

As of August 2002 Moby, a vegan non-denominational Christian and self-proclaimed simpleton (for his often sincere and idealistic political assessments), lived in New York City's Little Italy, where he's lived for a decade in a small apartment in a five-story building across the street from David Bowie. He owns a small restaurant and coffee shop called TeaNY, where he occasionally waits tables.

Discography

• Voodoo Child - Baby Monkey (2004)
• 18 B Sides+DVD (2003)
• 18 (2002)
• Play (1999)
• Play: Limited Edition 2 CD Box Set
• Mobysongs
• I Like to Score
• Rare: The Collected B-Sides 1989-1993
• Voodoo Child -- The End of Everything
• Animal Rights
• Everything is Wrong (DJ mixed)
• Everything is Wrong
• Early Underground
• Ambient
• The Story So Far
• Instinct Dance

External links

• Moby.com
• Musicbrainz Discography

References

• The May 2002 issue of Wired has a largely skeptical but nonetheless informative cover story on Moby.

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"Moby" is also slang, in hacker parlance, for "big" or "impressive."