Peter Gabriel

Peter Brian Gabriel (born February 13, 1950, in Cobham, Surrey, England) is an English musician. He first came to fame as a member of the progressive rock group Genesis, went on to a successful solo career, and more recently has focused on producing and promoting world music and pioneering digital distribution methods for music. In addition he has been involved in various humanitarian efforts.

WOMAD and other projects

Gabriel has been interested in world music for many years, with the first musical evidence appearing on his third album. This influence has increased over time, and he is the driving force behind the WOMAD (World of Music, Arts and Dance) movement. He created the Real World Studios and record label to facilitate the creation and distribution of such music by various artists, and he has worked to educate Western culture about the work of such musicians as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Youssou N'dour. He has also recently been interested in multimedia projects, creating the Xplora and Eve CD-ROMs. He has a long-standing interest in human rights, and launched the Witness programme to supply video cameras to human rights activists to expose abuses.

Related Topics:
World music - WOMAD - Real World Studios - Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - Youssou N'dour - Multimedia - Human rights

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Gabriel's song "We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)" from So refers to Milgram's experiment, and in particular the 37 out of 40 subjects who showed complete obedience in one particular experiment.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

He was one of the founders of On Demand Distribution (OD2), one of the first online music download services. Its technology is used by MSN Music UK and others, and has become the dominant music download technology platform for stores in Europe. OD2 was bought by US company Loudeye in June of 2004.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Additionally, Gabriel is also co-founder (with Brian Eno) of a musicians union called Mudda, short for "magnificent union of digitally downloading artists."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In June, 2005, Gabriel and broadcast industry entrepreneur David Engelke purchased Solid State Logic, a leading manufacturer of mixing consoles and digital audio workstations.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~