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Moby is slang, in hacker parlance, for "big" or "impressive."
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 singles "Next is the E", "Southside", and "We Are All Made of Stars".
Moby has released singles under the names Voodoo Child, Barracuda, UHF, The Brotherhood, DJ Cake, Lopez, and
Brainstorm/Mindstorm. Several of his songs have also found their way into major motion pictures, most notably the ambient piece
"God Moving Over the Face of the Waters", which was featured in the 1995 motion picture
Heat. Most recently, his song "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?"
was used in the moving climax of the documentary film 'Peaceable Kingdom.'
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 electronic music. His first
album for Elektra Records was Everything Is Wrong,
which earned early critical praise and minor notoriety. He followed that up with a hard rock/electronic album called Animal Rights in 1996. in 1997, he released I Like to Score, a collection
of music included in music and movies. Among those tracks was an updated version of the James Bond theme. However, both Animal Rights and I Like to Score were commercially
unsuccessful and Moby and Elektra parted company.
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, (released on the much smaller V2 label) 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 featuring golfer
Tiger Woods. 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.
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.
In 2002, Moby had a television show on MTV,
Seņor Moby's House of Music,
which focused mostly on more obscure electronic music. The show is
no longer produced.
As of June 2004, Moby, a vegan non-denominational Christian and self-proclaimed simpleton (for his often sincere and idealistic political assessments), lives 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
- Baby Monkey (as Voodoo
Child, 2004)
- 18 B Sides + DVD (2003)
- 18 (album)
(2002)
- Play (1999)
- Play: Limited Edition 2 CD Box Set
- Mobysongs
- I Like to
Score
- Rare: The Collected B-Sides 1989-1993
- The End of
Everything (as Voodoo Child)
- Animal Rights
- Everything is
Wrong (DJ mixed)
- Everything is Wrong
- Early
Underground
- Ambient
- The Story So
Far
- Instinct
Dance
External links
References
- The May 2002 issue of Wired has a largely skeptical but nonetheless informative
cover story on Moby.
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