DS Forums

 
 

The Prodigy say their new album is an attack on formula based Dance Music


Reply
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 28-10-2014, 19:29
DRAGON LANCE
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 1,230

http://www.nme.com/news/the-prodigy/80710

Good to hear they are still feeling "violent." I appreciate the sentiment. Its not to say their is no innovation in modern dance music, but so much of it is so horribly generic now. Whilst I would say its a good thing there are tutorials out there for budding DJ's on You-Tube, I totally take his point at how its also opened the doors for talentless people making some seriously bland music using the same sets of tricks.

Indeed I believe Deadmau5 recently expressed his disgust at how Paris Hilton has started a career as a DJ and now apparently earns silly money (up to 1 million dollars at time!) to "play a CD" as Deadmau5 kindly put it.

Does show the world has gone totally mad.

Excellent if the Prodigy can shake things up with their new album.
DRAGON LANCE is offline   Reply With Quote
Please sign in or register to remove this advertisement.
Old 28-10-2014, 21:05
Pointy
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2013
Posts: 1,733
As noble as their intentions are, it really needs to be a younger act who challenges the status quo in modern dance music. It would be like the Manic Street Preachers claiming they're going to overthrow the hegemony of the modern underachieving indie scene.
Pointy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 28-10-2014, 22:10
DRAGON LANCE
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 1,230
Actually I think the Manic Street Preachers have claimed exactly that on a few past occasions, god bless them!
DRAGON LANCE is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 29-10-2014, 13:18
Johnny_Cash
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 572
Didnt the prodigy do dance music for white boys that like guitars? They created a problem in itself.
Johnny_Cash is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 29-10-2014, 13:41
Ænima
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Posts: 34,147
Didnt the prodigy do dance music for white boys that like guitars? They created a problem in itself.
Why is that a problem?
Ænima is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 29-10-2014, 14:00
Pointy
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2013
Posts: 1,733
Actually I think the Manic Street Preachers have claimed exactly that on a few past occasions, god bless them!
That's kind of what I was alluding to.
Pointy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 29-10-2014, 15:17
Eric_Blob
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 7,124
Didnt the prodigy do dance music for white boys that like guitars? They created a problem in itself.
lol it's true. A lot of their fans seem to be people who like guitar music, rather than people into actual rhythmic styles of music. Kind of reminds me of Pendulum, they do drum & bass music, yet for some reason a lot of guitar music fans decided to like them (and not any other drum & bass artists). Also the same with people like Gorillaz, The Streets, Eminem. For example, I find it difficult to understand how people can like The Streets, yet not like any other hip hop/UK garage artists...

I do understand what they're saying though. I've seen this in real life around my city too. I know a guy who started DJing in September last year (and only in his room for fun), then just a few months later he was already DJing in one of the most famous clubs around here. Another one of my friends has also managed to DJ in the same club, and even he admits he's not very good. I just don't understand how this kind of stuff happens. Maybe it's always been like this, I don't know. I always imagined it'd be a little more difficult to DJ in places like those. There's also a girl I know who's currently travelling around the world DJing. I grew up with her, so I know she had little interest in music beforehand, yet now she's somehow being booked to DJ all over the place, even in Asia and the US. She can't have been DJing more than a couple of years maximum.

I think people like Martin Garrix just watched some Youtube tutorials, illegally downloaded FL Studio or Ableton or Logic Pro or whatever, made a song, then probably paid some company to get his song high on Beatport, then once you're high on Beatport everybody listens to your song because they think it's actually popular (or going to be), then things just take off from there.

I do think dance music has improved recently, at least in the mainstream. It was worse a few years ago imo.
Eric_Blob is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 29-10-2014, 15:46
Soupietwist
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Posts: 781
They haven't really done anything of worth since 1997 - their last two proper albums were utter drivel - I can't see any reason to think they'd return to form.
Soupietwist is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 29-10-2014, 16:22
CupidStunt2010
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: London
Posts: 767
The Prodigy made millions from ripping off less successful artists from the underground music scene.
They helped create the formula based dance music that they keep moaning about
CupidStunt2010 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 29-10-2014, 16:25
mushymanrob
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: derby
Posts: 14,765
Didnt the prodigy do dance music for white boys that like guitars? They created a problem in itself.
Why is that a problem?
exactly....

i dont understand how prodigy created the problem when they were far from formulaic themselves creating some original dance 20 odd years ago. (pre firestarter).

i know quite a few rock fans from the 70's that got into dance via the likes of prodigy and klf. rock had become rather samish by c1990, most of the styles had been created and it was becoming passe... rock fans i knew turned to dance because it was exciting and new and the rhythms they liked in rock were now being found in dance.

is dance formulaic now?... well yes to a large degree, because most of the stronger styles appear to have been discovered and exploited. as with rock, its harder now then ever to create something original that doesnt borrow either deliberately or accidentally from previous sounds.
mushymanrob is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 29-10-2014, 16:28
mushymanrob
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: derby
Posts: 14,765
The Prodigy made millions from ripping off less successful artists from the underground music scene.
They helped create the formula based dance music that they keep moaning about
but they were part of the underground scene, they were the ones who got a lucky break...

no...they helped create dance music, its only become formulaic when new avenues of styles became exhausted.
mushymanrob is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 29-10-2014, 21:52
DRAGON LANCE
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 1,230
Hypocrisy? You could argue the Prodigy started out very much like the people they are insulting with their cheesy (what would be dubbed happy hardcore now) child safety ad sampling song Charly.

They got panned for that song, "Charly killed rave" the headline. And they responded evolving into to something totally unique. On Jilted Generation they were very much dance orientated but darker and very different to their peers at the time. Fat of the Land of course saw them hit the big time with the Rave Rock Firestarter.

I always rather liked their album Always Outnumbered Never Outgunned too. After all the stupid Smack My Bitch Up lyrics, I thought it was a great response by Liam Howlett to dump the male vocalists Keith Flint & Maxim to do an album with female vocalists and rappers.

If they became "dance music for white boys who like guitars" at their peak they did it in style and were effectively their generations Sex Pistols. They were the ones that invented the template that Pendulum and co. have copied since.

So quite a varied career really with lots of different things in the mix, some bad, some great and some innovation along the way along with some controversy. After everything they have done The Prodigy have earned the right the lash out at current cockie cutter DJ's culture if they want to.
DRAGON LANCE is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 29-10-2014, 22:00
montyburns56
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 1,377
Those are fine words from The Prodigy, but I bet in reality their new music will just be a rehash of their former glories.

And Deadmau5's comments about Ms Hilton are hilarious as he seems to have only just realised that these celeb/model DJs are being payed daft money for playing a CD. That has been going on for years!
montyburns56 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 29-10-2014, 22:25
SpaceToilets
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 2,386
Their last two albums were crap and they got slated during their Experience days for being cheesy themselves and being exactly what they are criticising about Dance music now. Dance music goes far beyond the cheesy 'EDM' crap that gets in the charts and I doubt three out of touch, middle-aged men who can only be bothered to knock out an album every 5 years are the people to save the genre (not that it even needs saving).

I was a massive fan of The Prodigy from Experience up to Fat Of The Land but Liam Howlett chats some utter bollocks. The Prodigy are well and truly past it now. Music has moved on without them. There are better, hungrier producers out there with better ideas and making better music that I'd rather spend my time listening to.
SpaceToilets is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 29-10-2014, 22:28
SpaceToilets
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 2,386
They haven't really done anything of worth since 1997 - their last two proper albums were utter drivel - I can't see any reason to think they'd return to form.
Exactly.
SpaceToilets is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 29-10-2014, 22:37
Inspiration
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 53,398
Indeed I believe Deadmau5 recently expressed his disgust at how Paris Hilton has started a career as a DJ and now apparently earns silly money (up to 1 million dollars at time!) to "play a CD" as Deadmau5 kindly put it.

Does show the world has gone totally mad.
To be fair Paris has been "hosting" as she calls it for a number of years now and has always made a lot of money doing it. Usually on NYE. If someone is willing to pay silly money for her to do it then so be it. I admire her for making the most of it.. she could live off mummy and daddy but she makes her own money. Smart girl. She talks about it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBqnIVrWyCU

Anyway back to The Prodigy.. agree with the sentiments that their recent work wasn't great. I think it's just one of those sad realities that back when they did their best work they were younger.. the music scene was richer, more varied and they were able to produce good sounds for the time. Things have changed now. Maybe they'll pull it off but I think it's just life really. The Prodigy will always be that 90s band.

It's a shame. Personally I always thought they were brilliant. But then so were The Petshop Boys, Pulp, Oasis, Blur.. I could go on and on. You get the idea. The tragedy is I don't see any young artists or bands really hitting the same quality. But maybe I'm just getting old.
Inspiration is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 30-10-2014, 04:24
Billy Hicks
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 443
To give huge credit to them they did incredibly well with their 2009 comeback, especially given that they'd flopped singles-wise in 2004 so to suddenly get two top 10 hits in a year again - 'Omen' their biggest hit since Breathe - was astonishing. Not sure how well they'll do this time as it's already a lifetime away in chart terms, the Pet Shop Boys got a #14 hit that year but today chart nowhere near the top 40.

Invaders Must Die is a hell of a lot better than Always Outnumbered Never Outgunned, and much more underrated than The Fat of the Land if nowhere near their early 1991-1995 material.
Billy Hicks is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 30-10-2014, 16:09
homer2012
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Planet Earth
Posts: 5,071
but they were part of the underground scene, they were the ones who got a lucky break...

no...they helped create dance music, its only become formulaic when new avenues of styles became exhausted.
They helped destroy a dance scene too! I love prodigy from the early 90's to 1994. Playing at legendary clubs like shelleys laserdome gave them a massive boost.
homer2012 is offline   Reply With Quote
 
Reply




 
Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 14:49.