I think it was Roger Ebert who said “pop songs are the soundtracks to our own lives.” Putting into cinematic terms how we experience things.
I didn’t know Keith Flint by name. I hadn’t thought about The Prodigy in years. But when they broke out in America, the rave scene was exploding and I had just come to Los Angeles. It influenced my life for a number of years. The look that Keith Flint showed off in 1997 was reused by Jared Leto (and costume designers) in 2016 as the Joker. One reason fans panned that look so much is because it was about 20 years old in terms of being shocking.
https://i.imgur.com/luqUrWi.jpg
The music was pretty groundbreaking at the time. And was maybe the first commercial version of rave music I heard. There could have been a couple songs that got radioplay literally a few weeks/months earlier, but it was very close. Even the videos were pretty wild and could be cutting edge even today.
As I said, I didn’t know much about the actual band members of The Prodigy and by the time the internet rolled around and became mainstream, I was not looking them up. But man, Keith Flint was only 49. All those members are within like 5-8 years of my age. So they were just babies when they blew up and stormed the planet.
Most people never get to choose or even achieve it, but if you had a choice, don’t peak early. Those who crest early in life seem to live forever after in remembrance, burn out, crash, or desperately attempt to recreate that high and are forever deemed to be inferior to their younger selves. Of the .001% who get breakout success, in whatever field, a miniscule fraction of that ever get to extend or repeat it. If you peak early, and you insulate and condition yourself enough to survive that turmoil, you might miss out on all the Life that prepares you for the ups and downs of everyday normal human existence.
Keith Flint apparently committed suicide today. He was into motorcycles and racing and whatever else rich, former music superstars did. I’m posting on it because he was part of the soundtrack of my life. While I was bumping around trying to understand how adult life worked, and what kind of socks to wear, he was touring the planet, rebranding a lifestyle.
We all get older. Unless we don’t.
