From the commercial heights of nu metal to the more recent experiments with hip hop combining both emo and country, Genre fusion has come a long way. But back in the 90s Dance and Rock were separate entities. In the UK, The Stone Roses, Primal Scream, the Happy Mondays and of course New Order had been tinkering with dance music within a rock format but for the most part dance was dance, rock was rock. And rarely did anyone listen to both. Then came Liam Howlett and The Prodigy. They cared not for genre divides. Starting off as a chart-bothering rave act in 1990 with tracks like "Charly" and "Out of Space", by their second album, Music for the Jilted Generation, they had moved beyond pure dance into something way more interesting, for example on "No Good Start the Dance", "Poison" and "Voodoo People". Inspiring everyone from Death Grips, Pendulum, Refused, Enter Shikari and Skrillex. Their unique mix of electronica, hip hop and rock led to their storming dance-punk crossovers 1996’s “Firestarter” and "Breathe" on the album The Fat of the Land. With them, they proved that a song could still be both danceable and metal heavy. Even today, it remains as one of the heaviest UK number one singles of all time. This is New British Canon and this is the story of How “Firestarter” Won Over the Metalheads.
#theprodigy #RIPKeithFlint #musicdocumentary
Some footage circa 1992 from Nathan Damour with VIEWstudios
Soundtrack:
Luar - Clouds ( / luarbeats )
Patricia Taxxon - Trap (patriciataxxon.bandcamp.com)
Luar - Ignite ( / luarbeats )
Luar - Anchor ( / luarbeats )
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:42 Origins
05:37 Music For The Jilted Generation
09:20 Firestarter
13:03 Music Video
15:07 Aftermath
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