Imagine it's 1996, and you've got tickets to see legendary grunge band Soundgarden. And you're really excited about this, so you even go to the show early to get a good spot. So you're there just in time to see the opener. It's a non assuming bald guy opening the show, playing music from his latest album. He's best known for electronic music, but he's trying to play some punk and rock music to revitalize his career. But it's not very good. So what do you do? Well the only thing that feels natural. You throw bottles at him.
This was Moby's career in 1996. And as far as he was concerned, his career was over. His latest album Animal Rights hadn't panned out at all, so he decided to make one last album, and figured that would be it for his career. He'd go back to his roots in electronic music, using an old CD of field music recordings his friend had shown him. He worked really hard on this album. He was determined to go out with a bang. So when it was finally released on May 17, 1999......nothing happened. It flopped.
the first show he did in support of Play, at the basement of the Virgin Megastore in Union Square, was attended by only around 40 people, about half of whom knew who he was. His career was over.
But Moby decided to tour anyways. It would be his last tour in support of an album, so why not enjoy it. Almost a year after it came out, after a horrible show opening for Bush, Moby got a call from his manager. His album was number one in the UK, 10 months after it had come out. Against all odds, Moby was a hit.
In what seemed like a blur to him, movie stars started coming to his concerts. He started getting invited to fancy parties and suddenly the journalists who wouldn't return his publicist's calls were talking about doing cover stories. Everyone wanted to talk about Play.
The week Play was released in 1999, it sold 6000 copies. A year later, it was selling 150,000 copies a week. It's since been certified platinum in more than 20 countries, selling over 12 million copies world wide, playing a crucial part in making electronic music acceptable in the mainstream, and leaving a legacy for artists decades after him.
Still, it's not a surprise it wasn't the only album to come out that week in May 1999. There was another musical trend bubbling up in pop culture, one led by Ricky Martin, who released his self titled album just one week earlier.
How do these two albums stack up against each other? Do Moby and Ricky Martin have anything in common? No. No they do not. Welcome to When Albums Collide