In 1997, alternative rock was in a strange place, having already seen the grunge era come and go, and with no clear core to the genre to keep it commercially and culturally competitive with pop and hip-hop as the turn of the century approached. One potential way forward presented itself in the form of big beat, the loosely defined, hard-hitting electronic subgenre that also took cues from hip-hop and rock and fit on radio stations and MTV playlists alongside songs by Sublime and Smashing Pumpkins. And the biggest artist of that big beat moment was unquestionably The Prodigy: the quartet of U.K. rave-era survivors who matched dazzling production with explosive beats, confrontational lyrics (and attention-grabbing videos) with a level of star power previously unseen in the scene.
This month on the Greatest Pop Stars podcast, we’re returning for another mini-series spin-off of our usual Vintage Pop Stardom series, titled Vintage Almost-Pop Stardom. All October, we’ll be welcoming on some of our favorite guests (and one or two first-timers) to look at a quintet of really interesting artists during years in which they brushed against pop stardom, but perhaps never quite got all the way there (at least in this country). This week, we’ve got the legendary Tom Breihan of Stereogum (and The Number Ones) on to talk about 1997 Prodigy, where the band briefly became stars on both sides of The Altantic, taking over MTV and getting rock writers way too excited in making future-of-rock predictions.
Along the way, we answer all the most pressing questions about 1997 Prodigy? Was it weird to have a band where the most important member was also its least visible? Should The Prodigy’s first two albums have gotten more attention in the U.S.? How did “Firestarter” turn them into immediate music video stars? Was “Breathe” actually even better than “Firestarter”? What the hell was Liam Howlett doing behind those gigantic banks of synths at their live shows? Did MTV overestimate the group’s ability to provide appropriate runway model music? Are “Smack My Bitch Up” and its video defensible on any level? And perhaps most importantly: Why did both Prodigy and big beat disappear pretty much immediately after this?
Check it out above — along with a YouTube playlist of some of the most important moments from The Prodigy’s 1997, all of which are discussed in the podcast. And subscribe to the Greatest Pop Stars podcast on Apple Music or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts) for weekly discussions every Thursday about all things related to pop stardom, including more Vintage Almost-Pop Stardom episodes all this October!
Pick up Tom’s The Number Ones book here and of course subscribe to Stereogum here.
And finally, as we say in every one of these GPS podcast posts — if you have the time and money to spare, please consider donating to any of these causes in the fight for trans rights: