The Prodigy

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

The Prodigy is an English electronic band from Braintree, Essex. The producer and keyboard player Liam Howlett started the group in 1990 with the dancers Keith Flint and Leeroy Thornhill. Howlett DJed at the local club and made a mixtape for Flint, with his own tracks on the other side. On the cassette he scratched the word Prodigy, after his Moog Prodigy synthesizer. Flint and Thornhill devised dances to go with it, and so the band came into being. At the first gig MC Maxim also joined, coming from the reggae scene.

Music and breakthrough

The band emerged from the underground rave scene. The debut Charly (1991) used little voices from a British public information film for children and became a big hit. Howlett did not want to be labelled children's rave afterwards. On Experience (1992) and above all on Music for the Jilted Generation (1994) the sound became harder and darker, with heavy breakbeats, techno and guitar samples. That last record was also a protest against a new law that restricted raves. Howlett himself called his style electronic punk.

Influence

In 1996 Firestarter was released, with Keith Flint as singer. With his punk haircut and screaming voice he brought rave to the rock audience. The album The Fat of the Land (1997), which also included Breathe, reached number 1 in sixteen countries, including America. The Prodigy are regarded as pioneers of big beat and breakbeat and are one of the most successful electronic groups ever. Thornhill left in 2000 and Flint died in 2019.

Listening

• 
  Charly · The Prodigy, 1991
  Apple Music ↗
• 
  Firestarter · The Prodigy, 1996
  Apple Music ↗

Discography

Studio albums

• 1992Experience
• 1994Music for the Jilted Generation
• 1997The Fat of the Land
• 2004Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned
• 2009Invaders Must Die
• 2015The Day Is My Enemy
• 2018No Tourists

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

• Mixtape 8: Electronic Music^NL Reader

Mentioned in other articles

• Big beat GenreThe Chemical Brothers, The Prodigy and Fatboy Slim from Brighton scored big hits with it in the late 1990s, such as The Rockafeller Skank (1998).

See also

• Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned
• Invaders Must Die
• The Day Is My Enemy
• No Tourists
• Rave