Moby praises the UK for inventing rave cultureMoby – one of the most important figures in the history of dance music – has praised the UK’s contributions to the genre during his headline set at Brighton’s On The Beach festival.
In fact, the American musician went as far as to say the UK “invented rave culture”, thanks to the explosion of some of dance music’s most enduring subgenres like house music and techno on its shores.
“When I was growing up I was such an Anglophile,” Moby told the crowd [via MusicRadar]. “I was obsessed, probably from the time I was six years old because I was able to watch Monty Python TV on Channel 13.
“But later on when I discovered the Sex Pistols and Public Image and the Clash, then I discovered Joy Division and New Order and Echo and the Bunnymen. I just fell in love with music from the UK.”

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He continued: “This is where house music exploded. This is where techno exploded. And thanks to the originators like Paul Oakenfold, Danny Rampling, Pete Tong and Carl Cox… I don’t think it’s overstating it. I don’t think it’s hyperbole – you guys invented rave culture.”
Officially, the origins of techno music can be traced back to Detroit, Michigan in the early ‘80s – and the origins of house music back to Chicago, Illinois around a similar time – but the sound quickly made its way across the pond, before UK acts like Aphex Twin and The Prodigy helped it explode along with the rise of illegal warehouse and free party culture.
Moby himself – real name Richard Melville Hall – has straddled the boundaries of many genres over the course of his career, but his defining work came with the release of 1999’s Play. While the album initially had poor sales, it topped multiple charts in the months following, and has since become one of the top-selling electronic albums of all time, with over 12 million copies sold worldwide.
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