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The Prodigy (or just Prodigy) are an English band, whose music consists of various styles ranging from rave, hardcore techno and industrial in the early 1990s to alternative rock and bigbeat with punk vocal elements in later times. The current band members include Liam Howlett (composer/keyboards), Keith Flint (dancer/vocalist) and Maxim (MC/vocalist). Leeroy Thornhill (dancer/very occasional live keyboards) was a member of the band from 1990 to 2000, as well was a female dancer/vocalist called Sharky who left the band during their early period. The Prodigy first emerged on the underground rave scene in the early 1990s, and have since then achieved immense popularity and worldwide renown. Some of their most popular songs include "Charly", "Out of Space", "Smack My Bitch Up", "Voodoo People", "No Good (Start the Dance)", "Breathe" and "Firestarter". The name changes from The Prodigy to Prodigy between Music for the Jilted Generation and The Fat of the Land in 1996 and back again with the release of Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned in 2004. This was only done to fit the changing logos, according to Howlett.[1][2]
HistoryBeginnings
The Prodigy's first public performance (with Howlett augmented by dancers Keith Flint and Leeroy Thornhill) was at the Four Aces in Dalston, London. Charly released six months later, became a huge hit in the rave scene at the time, catapulting the band into the wider public consciousness for the first time. The Kaos Theory compilation of contemporary hardcore tracks also contained the Prodigy Track "G Force (Energy Flow)":
The music charts were filled with unsophisticated "hardcore" rave tracks to which speed- and ecstasy-filled clubbers had danced all night but which did not appeal to critics in "the music press" such as Urban Hype's Trip to Trumpton, and Smart E's (a reference to Ectasy) Sesame's Treet, instigating death-by-publicity to the underground "hardcore rave" scene. Charly (a contemporary reference to cocaine), with its memorable sample of the "Charley Says" children's Public information films and The Prodigy were thus identified as "kiddie rave". Charly was soon followed by the band's first full length album, Experience, a landmark release in the history of British rave music. After Experience (album track "Death of the Prodigy Dancers" featured Ragga MC band member Maxim Reality) and the run of singles that accompanied it, the Prodigy moved to distance themselves from the "kiddie rave" reputation that now dogged them. The rave scene was beginning to move on from its hardcore phase, with the Criminal Justice Act's "anti-rave" legislation on the horizon. In 1993, Howlett released an anonymous white label, bearing only the title Earthbound I. Its hypnotic, hard-edged sound won wide underground approval. Many former critics of the band were astounded when Howlett finally acknowledged responsibility for the record[citation needed]. It was officially released as "One Love" later that year, and went on to chart at #8 in the UK.
The international success of Music for the Jilted Generation meant that touring beyond the UK was now a viable prospect. The band augmented their line-up with guitarist Jim Davies (who, later, joined the group Pitchshifter) in 1995 for tracks such as Their Law, Break And Enter 95, and various live-only interludes and versions. The 1996 release of Firestarter, featuring vocals for the first time courtesy of a new-look Keith Flint, helped the band break into the US and other overseas markets, and reached number one in the UK. In this year the Prodigy also headlined the prestigious Lollapalooza festival. The Prodigy have toured all over the world, including Beirut and Moscow's Red Square. The third Prodigy album, The Fat of the Land, was released in 1997. Like its predecessors, the album represented a new milestone in the development of both the band and the wider mainstream dance scene. Featuring simplified melodies, sparser sampling, and more sneering, punk-like vocals (supplied by a shockingly madeover Flint), the album nevertheless retained the bone-jarring breaks and buzzsaw synth so idiomatic of the band. The album cemented the band's position as one of the most internationally successful acts in the hard dance genre, entering the British and American charts at number one. The best selling single, Breathe (1996), was taken from this album, as was Firestarter, the group's first UK number one. The Prodigy have been nominated twice for the Mercury Music Prize, in 1994 with Music for the Jilted Generation, and again in 1997 with The Fat of the Land, however they failed to win both times. "Smack My Bitch Up" controversy (USA)Image:Prodigy Ant-01.jpg The Prodigy logo in The Fat of the Land era. Prodigy was getting a lot of airplay on rock stations with their track, "Smack My Bitch Up," and were getting even more negative backlash for the song. Time-Warner, Prodigy's parent company, was feeling the heat from the National Organization for Women (NOW) over the track. Although the song's lyrics are few but repetitive (in their entirety, the lyrics are "Change my pitch up, smack my bitch up"), NOW stated that the lyrics are a "...dangerous and offensive message advocating violence against women." Howlett responded to the attacks by claiming that the song's lyrics are being misinterpreted: (the song means) "...doing anything intensely, like being on stage – going for extreme manic energy." The band did not write the lyric, but rather sampled it from the classic Ultramagnetic MCs' track "Give The Drummer Some" which also appears on the Dirtchamber Sessions (they had also sampled another Ultramagnetic MCs song "Critical Beatdown" on their earlier "Out of Space" single).[3] Several radio stations defended the song, yet only played the track at night. The music video (directed by Jonas Åkerlund) featured a first-person point of view of someone going clubbing, indulging in large amounts of drugs and alcohol, getting into fist fights with men, abusing women and picking up a prostitute. At the end of the video the camera pans over to a mirror, revealing the subject to be a woman. MTV only aired the video between 1 and 5 a.m. in order for mature viewers to see the "groundbreaking" images. The director got the inspiration for contents of the video after a night of drinking and partying in Copenhagen. Wal-mart and Kmart later announced they would pull The Fat of the Land off their shelves. Even though the LP had resided on their store shelves for over 20 weeks, the two stores found the marketing campaign for the new single release offensive. In mid-2002, the complete, unedited video was aired on MTV2 as part of a special countdown showing the most controversial videos ever to air on MTV. This countdown was only shown late at night because of the graphic imagery of "Smack My Bitch Up" and several other videos on the countdown. This video in particular was deemed the "Most Controversial Video" by MTV and showed at the #1 spot on the countdown. Later Works1999 saw the release of The Prodigy's Dirtchamber Sessions Volume 1, a DJ mix album by Howlett, produced as an official record of a successful guest appearance on the British Radio 1. In 2002, after a break from touring and recording, the single "Baby's Got a Temper" was released to critical disappointment. The song was written by Keith Flint's sideband, Flint, and also featured Jim Davies. Howlett produced it. Once again, the band courted controversy by including references to the so-called "date rape" drug Rohypnol in the song lyrics, although it is unclear whether or not the band "glorifies" or presents the drug in a negative light. In the same year, however, Q magazine named The Prodigy as one of the "50 Bands To See Before You Die". The Prodigy's fourth studio album, Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned was released on 23 August 2004 (14 September 2004 in the USA.) A precursory and experimental single, "Memphis Bells", was released in very limited numbers, followed by the traditional release of the single "Girls". The U.S. version of the studio album contained a bonus track; a remix of "Girls" entitled, "More Girls". 5,000 digital copies of "Memphis Bells" were sold over the Internet. Each copy was a combination of customer-chosen instrumental, rhythmic, and melodic options, of which 39,600 (of 660,000 total) choices were available. Five mixes were sold in three file formats, WAV, two audio mixes in MP3, and a 5.1 DTS surround sound mix and all were free of Digital rights management. The experiment was a success, with the 5,000 copies being sold in just over 36 hours in spite of server problems from the demand. In 2005, they released a compilation, Their Law: The Singles 1990-2005, which spawned a single containing new remixes of the songs "Out of Space" (the "Audio Bullys Remix") and "Voodoo People" (the "Pendulum Remix"). The latter was also followed by a music video which featured on the DVD release of the compilation. Sharky, the group's only female member, is shown running and winning the race depicted in the video. Their work has been featured in several video games, TV shows and movies. For instance, the video game Need For Speed: Most Wanted featured the song "You'll Be under My Wheels", which was also used in an advert for the BMW 1 Series as well as the closing credits for the film The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. As from the album The Fat of the Land, songs like "Firestarter" appeared in its instrumental version in the videogame Wipeout 2097, while "Mindfields" appeared in the film The Matrix, and the track "Funky Shit" in the closing scene and end credits of Event Horizon. The title "Voodoo People" and "One love" appears in the soundtrack of the movie Hackers and also in the French movies Wasabi and Dobermann. In 2006, "Spitfire" from Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned appeared in the opening scenes of an episode of Las Vegas on the NBC network in the USA. The song "Breathe" was also featured in a FLIP skateboard companies video entitled "Sorry" and was used by Rune Glifberg. Interestingly, the film "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" made extensive use in its soundtrack of the controversial track "Smack my bitch up". DevelopmentThe Prodigy are a difficult band to classify, because they have developed significantly with time. Each of their albums represents a distinct stage in the band's musical development. From their initial inception as a psychedelic rave band with scene staples such as "Your Love" and "Out of Space", to the much more mainstream dance of "No Good", to the rock-oriented "Their Law" to punk tracks such as the L7 cover "Fuel My Fire" in more recent years, the Prodigy continue to innovate and surprise. The Prodigy have had the ability over the years to appeal to widely varying cross-sections of music fans; from the purist dance festival Creamfields, to the more general appeal of T In The Park, to the heavy metal oriented Download Festival. Because of their broad appeal to fans across several genres, The Prodigy have been described as "A rock band that plays dance music," 2005–2006 recording sessionsDuring the Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned tour the band debuted two new songs, 'Warning' and 'Dead Ken Beats'. 'Warning' features Keith Flint on vocals and consists of heavy basslines and guitar riffs, whilst Dead Ken Beat contains a sample of the Dead Kennedys song 'California Uber Alles' that features prominently throughout, and has Maxim doing vocal duties. Both these tracks have undergone significant development during the recent tour, and on at least one occasion Liam Howlett has confirmed that Dead Ken Beats would feature on the next Prodigy record,
A track that mixed 'Spitfire (Nitebreed Remix)' with 'Wake Up Call' has been played frequently live by The Prodigy, and was released in January 2006 as 'Wake The Fuck Up' on Liam's 'Back To Mine' compilation. Another new track was played during the 'Their Law' tour, which was printed on a setlist as being called 'Heatwave'. It is thought that it has been renamed 'Heatwave Hurricane', due to Liam listing it as this among his current favourite songs for a recent interview. It has been described as "something like a cross between Hotride (live version) & the Firestarter remix". A short clip can be seen on Youtube, revealing that the song includes a sample of 'I'm Five Years Ahead Of My Time' by The Third Bardo, a song which is also featured on Liam's 'Back To Mine' compilation. The new album is set to be released in summer 2007 on their own Ragged Flag record label in association with Cooking Vinyl Records. Recently, The Prodigy released a new track "First Warning", which is available on Smokin' Aces soundtrack. Not the Prodigy – The CastbreederIn 1998 an album being passed off as a Prodigy release began circulating, entitled The Castbreeder. However, it was not an official Prodigy album, nor did it have anything to do with The Prodigy or their record label "XL Recordings". Many believed it to be a real release due to the high quality and craftmanship, but it is actually nothing more than a bootlegged compilation of various live and studio recorded tracks from the fellow big beat artists Junkie XL and Lunatic Calm. In fact, the music on the album is similar enough in style to The Prodigy's to have fooled quite a few people, however there were a few dead giveaways that the album was fake. The "thanks to" section was taken directly from the cover of Music for the Jilted Generation, and the wrong font for the XL Recordings clearly proved it to be a fake.The tracks are listed on the album cover as follows: Castbreeder (Single Version)/Collapse/144/Many, Many, Many, Many, Many People (Live At Noorderslag)/Castle Road/Fuzz Fucking/Junky's Cinder/Disco To Face/9) Bungalow's Island/Aluminium Jazz/Abnormal Bunx. However, the real names of the tracks are Dealing With The Roster by Junkie XL/War by Junkie XL/No Remorse by Junkie XL/Fight (Live At Noorderslag) by Junkie XL//Leave You Far Behind by Lunatic Calm/X-Panding Limits by Junkie XL//Mulu by Junkie XL/Bustin' Like This by Junkie XL/Def Beat by Junkie XL/The Sound by Lunatic Calm/Underachievers by Junkie XL MembersCurrent members
Ex-members
Live membersFormer live members
DiscographyNotes and references
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