The Prodigy is a British electronic music group from Braintree, Essex, England. Alongside The Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim and The Crystal Method, they were among the pioneers of electronic dance, later qualified as "big beat">" by the press>. This style reached its popularity in the 1990s with the development of raves and their media coverage as soon as they were made illegal. The Prodigy has a total of more than 20 million records sold worldwide, making it the largest record seller in the history of dance. Their musical style borrows from different styles ranging from rave, hardcore breakbeat, industrial music and breakbeat, in the early 1990s, then evolving towards electro-rock, big beat and naked skool breaks with a greater share given to vocals. The group includes Liam Howlett (composer and keyboards), Keith Flint (dancer and singer) and Maxim Reality (MC and singer, Keith Palmer by his real name). Leeroy Thornhill (dancer, very occasionally on keyboards in concert) was a member of the group from 1990 to 2000. A dancer and chorister, called Sharky, accompanies the group during its first period. In concert, Rob Holliday (having played for Marilyn Manson) plays guitar while Leo Crabtree plays drums. The Prodigy appeared on the underground rave scene in the early 1990s, and has since then achieved immense popularity and worldwide fame. Some of his most popular songs - Charly, Out of Space, Breathe, and Smack My Bitch Up - are club and festival anthems, before being broadcasted by the media and advertising. The group won many awards during its career, including two Brit Awards, three MTV Video Music Awards, two Kerrang! Awards, five MTV Europe Music Awards, and two Grammy Awards nominations. In 1990, Liam Howlett came into XL Recordings' offices with a demo tape containing ten tracks he had recorded in his room. This raw and biting music draws its direct inspiration from the most muscular scene of underground dance, that of raves. Liam won a contract, and four tracks from the demo tape were released on the first single in February 1991. The name The Prodigy is chosen by Liam as a nod to the Moog Prodigy> monophonic synthesizer. The name displayed on the album covers changes from The Prodigy to Prodigy between their second and third albums. However, Howlett says the title has always been The Prodigy, out of respect for rapper Albert Johnson, nicknamed Prodigy of the Mobb Deep group; this change would have had only a marketing purpose to insert the name into the logo, according to Howlett>. In addition, on the album cover Invaders Must Die, the name displayed on the album becomes The Prodigy.
