Moby: The unlikely ’90s icon who united metalheads, teenyboppers, and activists

Los Angeles: No matter which genre ruled Top of the Pops in a given week, the 1990s were a musical gold mine. From Nirvana’s angsty grunge to the Oasis-versus-Blur Britpop battle and the Spice Girls’ “Girl Power” era, the decade had something for everyone. Yet one artist cut across all of it: Moby.

With his trademark black-rimmed glasses, shaved head and concerned expression, he didn’t fit the leather-jacket rock-star mold of his peers. Still, tracks like Porcelain and Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad? became part of the decade’s soundtrack.

Moby’s music threaded through popular culture, appearing in The Beach, Twin Peaks, the Bourne series, and more recently, Stranger Things. His blend of electronic beats, gospel samples, and ambient textures gave him reach from club floors to film scores.

The artist is almost as well known for his activism as his music. A vegan long before it was mainstream, he has the words ANIMAL RIGHTS tattooed in large letters down his forearms. He traces that commitment to childhood, when his struggling single mother regularly took in stray animals that became companions to a shy young Moby.

Three decades on, that mix of sound and conviction keeps him relevant — a figure who, in the fractured ’90s, managed to unify metalheads and teenyboppers alike.