Robert Steven Moore (born January 18, 1952) is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter who pioneered lo-fi (or "DIY") music.

[3] Born the son of Nashville A-Team bassist Bob Moore, Steven grew up in the 1960s listening to the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Mothers of Invention, and Jimi Hendrix.

[1] In his teens, he acquired access to a reel-to-reel stereo tape deck and began recording as a one-man band in his parents' home.

With help from his uncle, he made his official label debut with 1976's compilation Phonography, which was well received in New York's punk and new wave circles.

Although he is best known for "'60s-inspired power pop in the XTC vein,"[4] his body of work incorporates a variety of music genres, both popular and experimental, and his records are typically styled after freeform radio.

Throughout the 1980s, the French label New Rose released a series of Moore vinyl albums: Everything (1984), Glad Music (1986), Teenage Spectacular (1987), and Warning (1988).

Steven characterized his father as a "terrible" parent and said that "It was a very intense, dramatic, abusive childhood, with all this money coming in, because he's doing these amazing historical sessions.

"[10] On his 16th birthday, he received a four-track reel-to-reel tape deck and began recording as a one-man band set up in his parents' basement in suburban Madison.

"[10] Over the years he would describe himself as "a huge record collector and music historian" with interests ranging from beatnik and avant-garde to noise and jazz: "I love attempts at all genres and styles – even if I fail.

[14] Throughout the early 1970s, Moore continued to play local shows with a group of high-school friends whose band name changed frequently.

Engineer Paul Whitehead remembered of those sessions: "Moore [would] perform on ANY instrument with total control and an energy that I have never witnessed in a studio.

[9] Technically a compilation, the LP was assembled by Palmer[1] using material from Moore's previous two years of home recording, with its contents split between pop songs and spoken-word interludes.

[16] Phonography was reviewed in New York's Trouser Press as "an outrageous collection of musical brain spewage" and "a true slash of genius".

[17] Moore credits the review's author, Ira Robbins, as "the one who helped turn people on to Phonography and those early independent records.

[9] Dominique Leone of Pitchfork wrote that Phonography and other albums from this time ultimately "defined his aesthetic: a mixture of Anglo-powered pop, Zappa-esque instrumentals, lo-fi experimental sound design, and other music that defies categorization.

[19] In February 1978, Moore relocated to Montclair, New Jersey[6] and got a job working at a Sam Goody record store in Livingston, where he remained for many years.

"[20] Music critic Richie Unterberger, in an essay about the developing cassette culture, wrote that he subsequently became "one of the most famous" artists associated with the movement.

"[20] In 2002, he recorded an album with Half Japanese frontman Jad Fair, titled FairMoore, described as "a lovely, heartfelt effort that shows both in top form" by critic Dave Mandl, who wrote that it "brings together two fiercely original figures in the American music underground", the album consisting of Fair reciting his poetry over Moore's instrumental backing.

[31] Moore said that the "final album playlist was purposefully kept safe, clean and more hi-fi mainstreamy, without my usual quirky left turns and lo-fi inserts.

"[32] On December 31, 2019, he issued a statement on his website purporting that he would offer "absolutely no further song writing, recording, performing, travelling, [or] interviews.

AllMusic's Stewart Mason summarized Moore's body of work as a "one of a kind" mixture of "classic pop influences, arty experimentalism, idiosyncratic lyrics, wild stylistic left turns, and homemade rough edges."

However, "entire generations of lo-fi enthusiasts and indie trailblazers, from Guided by Voices to the Apples in Stereo, owe much to [his] pioneering in the field.

"[9] In the liner notes of Me Too, XTC member Dave Gregory stated that Moore was "a seriously underrated maverick talent, the Neil Young of the real underground ... his lyrics are intelligent and/or downright funny, he knows how to string a sequence of chords together and he has a gift for melody that many a more 'successful' songwriter would envy.

"[36] Moore also hesitated to be associated with the "outsider music" tag, explaining that while he "loves" artists like Wesley Willis and Daniel Johnston, "they have no concept as to how to write or arrange a Brian Wilson song.

"[6] In 2012, The Wire's Matthew Ingram argued that "[h]is echoes can be heard in the music of artists like Pavement, Smog, Guided By Voices and Beck, and through his disciple Ariel Pink, he has unwittingly provided the template for the entire movement currently known as Hypnagogic Pop.

"[6] Tim Burrows of Dazed Digital similarly noted that "with a little help from James Ferraro and a few others, Moore and Pink can be credited with influencing [the] whole [genre of] hypnagogic pop.

[37] He noted having "sort of ... two discographies: my own that contains all of my self-released material and the official releases, which are what record labels decided to put out over the years.

[21] In a 2021 interview with a Los Angeles radio program, Jason Falkner said Moore has completed more than 300 records, though "not all in physical form."

Although it is often reported that his complete discography exceeds 400 albums, Moore said that the estimate was not an "actual proven number" and that "400 might seem stretching it a bit, [but] when it comes down to every bit of home taping I've ever done, including producing friends, alternate dub versions, session discs, audio verite ephemera, etcetera, it suddenly becomes an unlimited guess.

"[6] In response to this Wikipedia article about Moore, which formerly stated that the count was "at least 200", he requested fans on his website to tally a more accurate estimate.