[Shaun]

The Prodigy have been named the most influential act of their genre in a new poll.

The electronic dance music group - whose hits include Breathe, Firestarter and Voodoo People - topped the survey by GlobalGathering.

The dance music festival, now in its tenth year, commissioned the research to find out which artist has shaped the dance music genre the most.

The Prodigy have sold more than 20 million records worldwide since 1990.

They topped the poll with 29% of the vote, ahead of French dance outfit Daft Punk, and Faithless who were in third place.

Other acts in the top 10 included Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers and Carl Cox.

GlobalGathering festival organiser James Algate said: "Dance music is constantly evolving but it's great to see The Prodigy getting the recognition they so richly deserve."

The festival sees around 50,000 electronic dance music lovers descend on Warwickshire each year.

Faithless and Dizzee Rascal are set to headline this year's event on 30 and 31 July.

*bops*

[MrGaryy]

Hmm. Fair enough but I'd put Daft Punk a very close second.

[LaLaLand]

Although The Prodigy were revolutionary with their house-based music, I think that Daft Punk or Faithless could be deemed more "influential" really, both of whom cover many different areas within music and venture away from their fundamental "genre" at times.

[lol]

Prodigy are awesome, but I have to admit I'm more into Daft Punk.

[BB_Eye]

Lol, Faithless. Whose idea was that?

[Ninastar]

Ohh I like this!

[Captain.Remy]

I'm not surprised both Prodigy and Daft Punk made top 2. I mean, the 90's were definitely the BEST period in music's history : they changed everything. Think about Radiohead, Massive Attack, Rage Against the Machine, Daft Punk, Flaming Lips, G'N'R, Queen, Chemical Brothers, Tricky, 2Pac, Soundgarden, Faithless, Eminem, Nirvana, Blur, Lenny Kravitz, Prodigy, Seal.

Music used to be pure art.

[BB_Eye]

Originally Posted by Captain.Remy

I'm not surprised both Prodigy and Daft Punk made top 2. I mean, the 90's were definitely the BEST period in music's history : they changed everything. Think about Radiohead, Massive Attack, Rage Against the Machine, Daft Punk, Flaming Lips, G'N'R, Queen, Chemical Brothers, Tricky, 2Pac, Soundgarden, Faithless, Eminem, Nirvana, Blur, Lenny Kravitz, Prodigy, Seal.

Music used to be pure art.

The thing with dance music in the 2000's is that all of the mainstream stuff was stuck in the 90's anyway. By that I mean all of the pop crap like filter house and trance. Grime and dubstep was mostly underground and had a small following, but musically could easily hold its own against the above artists.

[Stu]

As much as I like The Prodigy they do not deserve this. They influenced the image and presentation of dance music, sure, but the music itself has rarely been innovative or cutting edge. People seem to think they are listening to something that is innovative and cutting edge, however, because The Prodigy are a chart friendly dance act who sound rather heavy and un-chartlike [they do have chart hooks, but that's the contradiction] and a lot of casual fans they have picked up don't know their arse from their elbow with regards to electronic music and think because they listen to The Prodigy they are doing something pretty unique and edgy when in fact it's incredibly mainstream.

The most influential dance act on the planet are in fact, of course, Kraftwerk. Who are not a dance act at all. Then you can throw in your Jean Michel Jarre's, your Brian Eno's, your Depeche Mode and other acts who either conciously or subconciously had a huge impact on dance, then you can lump in your Faithless, Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim ...

... then about a billion acts later you might get to The Prod.

Usually with electronic music someone unknown pushed the snowball down the hill, then your Daft Punk's come along and make the ball big for all to see. But the innovation and creation of a multitude of subgenres all starts deep, deep underground.

[Doc42]

Good to see another Dep Mode fan. And while I agree with what you say I think Global were looking for actual dance acts rather than electronic acts who influenced dance acts. If that is the case I have to ask... where the cocking hell are Orbital in that list?

[Stu]

Aye, it's Global's voters I suppose. I got a bit overexcited and looked at the bigger picture. Even amongst dance acts though ... like you said ... where the hell are Orbital?

These kids don't know anything. Tiesto my arse.

[Doc42]

Saw them for the first time since 96 at glastonbury the other week. Buggers me they were good. Still showing how dance can and should be done live.

[BB_Eye]

Autechre probably shaped what experimental techno is today so they would probably be my choice. Likewise Aphex Twin for experimental drum n' bass. Afrika Bambaata immediately spring to mind as a great 1980's electro act.

Of course there are countless obscure and no-name artists in the dance genre that pushed it forward and came up with new innovations, but I don't know enough about it for me to name them. What you often get are some very talented musicians whose material winds up on compilations.

Of course if we are going to talk about electronic music in general as Stu mentioned Kraftwerk and Brian Eno, you have to go back even further to 20th century composers who pioneered electronic music such as Stockhausen (someone Aphex Twin often cited as his hero although the feeling wasn't mutual), Varese, Ligeti and Xenakis and early Moog synthesiser music.

It goes without saying Faithless and Fatboy Slim are awful candidates. The Prodigy were probably not huge innovators, but they probably perfected late 80's rave music with their debut album released years after the rave movement died down.

[Stu]

Originally Posted by BB_Eye

Autechre probably shaped what experimental techno is today so they would probably be my choice. Likewise Aphex Twin for experimental drum n' bass. Afrika Bambaata immediately spring to mind as a great 1980's electro act.

Of course there are countless obscure and no-name artists in the dance genre that pushed it forward and came up with new innovations, but I don't know enough about it for me to name them. What you often get are some very talented musicians whose material winds up on compilations.

Of course if we are going to talk about electronic music in general as Stu mentioned Kraftwerk and Brian Eno, you have to go back even further to 20th century composers who pioneered electronic music such as Stockhausen (someone Aphex Twin often cited as his hero although the feeling wasn't mutual), Varese, Ligeti and Xenakis and early Moog synthesiser music.

It goes without saying Faithless and Fatboy Slim are awful candidates. The Prodigy were probably not huge innovators, but they probably perfected late 80's rave music with their debut album released years after the rave movement died down.

Afrika Bambaata is a great choice. He also had an enormous influence on Hip Hop.

I think Faithless and Fatboy Slim are fine candidates within their respective genres. Fatboy perfected big beat before The Prodigy ever lost their kiddie rave shackles. Ditto with The Crystal Method. I'm not putting him up with Kraftwerk for overall electronic inventiveness but within his genre, and perhaps as my reaction to The Prodigy being #1, he was somewhat of a pioneer. Moreso than Liam Howlett anyway.

Faithless are an incredibly unique act who do much to dispell the myth electrophobes regularly espouse that all dance music is repetetive, unmelodic, unemotive, easily made computerized drivel. You won't find much other acts with a synthstress master of creating catchy hooks and beats, a Buddhist rapper, and Dido's brother producing them. Faithless are probably the best thing to come out of the 90's dance explosion of bedroom producers. And the reaction they still get live is phenomenal and ever increasing. Still producing fresh material, too.

[Doc42]

And you can only get a hard copy of the album from Tesco. WTF. Went for lcd soundsystem over faithless at glastonbury. Bloody glad I did to.