Song of the Day - Breathe by The Prodigy

Been a cloud over today for me in the wake of Keith Flint passing. It's really hard to overstate the influence The Prodigy had on the US dance music scene. If you were living outside of a major city in the 90s there is a pretty good chance that they were the reason you got into electronic music and a large portion of it had to do with Keith Flint. In hindsight, it always felt like in America radio and MTV struggled to connect audiences with electronic music simply because of an inability to promote music that fell outside of the established norm. What I mean is that most electronic music didn't have a visual esthetic or frontman to be promotable under traditional channels. This is something artist like Daft Punk, The Chemical Brothers, Moby, and Fatboy Slim seemed to inadvertently figure out with videos that resonated despite not having a clear frontman, but this isn't really about them, this about all the kids out there who saw Keith Flint with that insane punk rock energy come across their TV during videos for Breathe and Firestarter and instantly knew there was something wild and innovative happening in music. The Prodigy hacked the 90s landscape with his energy alone.

You might be asking why should this matter, but for those of us who didn't live near a scene getting that radio play and MTV play made all the difference in the world. I remember so distinctly seeing them play Breathe on MTV from a festival in Europe back in 1997 and being blown away by energy that those crowds were giving them. It just opened my eyes up to the fact that there were other scenes operating independently of what America was doing that felt vital. It was my first taste of rave and just really important to be in my musical education. I remember stealing my brother's copy of The Fat Of The Land and spending so much time secretly listening to it and falling in love with this scene that I had never even had a chance to experience yet.

So, I don't know where I'm going with this but RIP Keith Flint. You influenced an entire generation of musicians and I know I wouldn't be into what I spend much of my time obsessing over if it wasn't for your work. If you are struggling out there, don't be afraid to every reach out and get help.

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