Richard Melville Hall (born 11 September 1965), known professionally as Moby, is an American musician, songwriter and animal rights activist. He has sold approximately 20 million records worldwide. AllMusic has described him as among the most significant figures in early 1990s dance music, noting his role in bringing the genre to a wider mainstream audience in both the United States and the United Kingdom. After learning guitar and piano at the age of nine
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Richard Melville Hall (born 11 September 1965), known professionally as Moby, is an American musician, songwriter and animal rights activist. He has sold approximately 20 million records worldwide. AllMusic has described him as among the most significant figures in early 1990s dance music, noting his role in bringing the genre to a wider mainstream audience in both the United States and the United Kingdom. After learning guitar and piano at the age of nine, he performed in several underground punk rock bands during the 1980s, including Vatican Commandos, Flipper, and Ultra Vivid Scene, before transitioning to electronic dance music. In 1989, he moved to New York City, where he became active as a DJ, producer, and remixer. His 1991 single "Go" marked his commercial breakthrough, particularly in Europe, where it reached the top ten in several countries, including the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Between 1992 and 1997, he achieved eight top ten entries on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart with tracks such as "Move (You Make Me Feel So Good)", "Feeling So Real", and "James Bond Theme (Moby Re-Version)". During this period, he also released music under various pseudonyms and issued the album "Everything Is Wrong" (1995). His subsequent release, "Animal Rights" (1996), which incorporated a stronger punk influence, received a mixed response from his existing audience. Moby achieved wider commercial and critical success with his fifth studio album "Play" (1999), which gained significant international popularity in 2000 after an initially modest reception. It remains his best-selling album, with around 12 million copies sold worldwide. The single "South Side", featuring Gwen Stefani, reached number 14 on the US Billboard Hot 100. He followed "Play" with a series of albums exploring a range of styles, including electronic, rock, and downtempo, such as "18" (2002), "Hotel" (2005), "Last Night" (2008), "Wait for Me" (2009), "Destroyed" (2011), and "Innocents" (2013). He later returned to punk-influenced material with The Void Pacific Choir, releasing "These Systems Are Failing" (2016) and "More Fast Songs About the Apocalypse" (2017), followed by the more melodic albums "Everything Was Beautiful, and Nothing Hurt" (2018) and "All Visible Objects" (2020). Following a performance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2018, Moby was invited by Deutsche Grammophon to record an orchestral album. The resulting release, "Reprise" (2021), featured reworked versions of earlier material with new vocalists and was recorded with the Budapest Art Orchestra. It became his highest-charting album in over a decade, reaching the charts in multiple countries. Its follow-up, "Resound NYC" (2023), continued this approach with additional reinterpretations and collaborations. Alongside these releases, Moby has produced a number of ambient works, including "Long Ambients 1: Calm. Sleep." (2016), "Long Ambients 2" (2019), "Live Ambients – Improvised Recordings Vol. 1" (2020), "Ambient 23" (2023), and the collaborative project "Always Centered at Night" (2024). He has continued to record and release new material. In addition to his music career, Moby is known for his advocacy of veganism and his support for animal rights and humanitarian causes. In 2020, he founded Little Walnut Productions, a company focused on creative activism across film, television, and theatre. He has authored several books, including the memoirs "Porcelain: A Memoir" (2016) and "Then It Fell Apart" (2019). Full Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby Studio albums Moby (1992) Ambient (1993) Everything Is Wrong (1995) Animal Rights (1996) Play (1999) 18 (2002) Hotel (2005) Last Night (2008) Wait for Me (2009) Destroyed (2011) Innocents (2013) Long Ambients 1: Calm. Sleep. (2016) These Systems Are Failing (2016) More Fast Songs About the Apocalypse (2017) Everything Was Beautiful, and Nothing Hurt (2018) Long Ambients 2 (2019) All Visible Objects (2020) Live Ambients – Improvised Recordings Vol. 1 (2020) Reprise (2021) Ambient 23 (2023) Resound NYC (2023) Always Centered at Night (2024) Future Quiet (2026)
