Moby

From underground techno DJ and punk rock activist to blues-sampling chart-topping pop star, Moby's career - a bald, vegan Christian - is nothing if not diverse. Starting out playing guitar in punk bands in the late 1980s, his break came as a techno DJ when the Twin Peaks-sampling floor-filler Go hit the UK Top 10. Debut album Moby (1992) established his club credentials and in 1996 he released the snarling protest punk album Animal Rights. But it was Play in 1998 which turned him into an unlikely global sensation. Sampling 1930s/40s blues and gospel recordings by American folklorist Alan Lomax, he layered and looped them into the euphoric dance pop hits Natural Blues, Honey and Porcelain which, triggered by relentless use in TV advertising campaigns, sold over 10 million. He then experimented with a range of musical styles on the albums 18 (2002), Hotel (2005), Last Night (2008) and Wait For Me (2009), but hasn't repeated the success of Play.