Daft Punk - Electronic Dance Music At Its Best

Daft Punk is a French electronic music duo consisting of musicians Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter.

Bangalter and de Homem-Christo were originally in a band called Darlin', which disbanded after a short period of time, leaving the two to experiment musically on their own. The duo became Daft Punk, releasing its debut album Homework in 1997 to highly positive reviews. The 2001 release of Discovery was even more successful, driven by the club singles "One More Time", "Digital Love", and "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger". In March 2005, the duo released the album Human After All to mixed reviews. However, the singles "Robot Rock" and "Technologic" achieved success in the United Kingdom.

Daft Punk toured throughout 2006 and 2007 and released the live album Alive 2007, which won a Grammy Award for Best Electronic/Dance Album. The duo composed the score of the film Tron: Legacy and in 2010 released the soundtrack album of the film. In January 2013, Daft Punk left EMI Recordsfor Sony Music Entertainment's subsidiary label Columbia, and released Random Access Memories in 2013 to worldwide critical acclaim. The lead single "Get Lucky" became an international success, peaking in the top 10 in 32 countries. Random Access Memories led to five Grammy wins in 2014 including Album of the Year, as well as Record of the Year for "Get Lucky".

The group is known for emphasising using visual and story components associated with their musical productions, and for using disguises while in public and/or performing; specifically ornate helmets and gloves to assume robot personas in most of their public appearances since 2001. The duo rarely grant interviews or appear on television.

1987–1993: Early years

Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo met in 1987 while attending the Lycée Carnot, a secondary school in Paris. Bangalter and de Homem-Christo formed Daft Punk and experimented with drum machines and synthesizers.

1993–1999: Homework

In 1993, Daft Punk attended a rave at EuroDisney, where they met Stuart Macmillan of Slam, co-founder of the label Soma Quality Recordings. The single also contained the final mix of "The New Wave" called "Alive", which was to be featured on Daft Punk's first album.
Daft Punk returned to the studio in May 1995 to record "Da Funk". It became the duo's first commercially successful single the same year. After the success of "Da Funk", Daft Punk looked to find a manager. The duo eventually settled on Pedro Winter, who regularly promoted it and other artists at his Hype night clubs. Bangalter spoke of the duo's decision to sign with Virgin:

“Many record companies offered us deals. They came from everywhere, but we decided to wait—partly because we didn't want to lose control of what we had created. We turned down many record companies. We weren't interested in the money, so we turned down labels that were looking for more control than we were willing to give up. In reality, we're more like partners with Virgin.”

With regard to the artistic control and freedom, Bangalter stated:

“We've got much more control than money. You can't get everything. We live in a society where money is what people want, so they can't get the control. We chose. Control is freedom. People say we're control freaks, but control is controlling your destiny without controlling other people. We're not trying to manipulate other people, just controlling what we do ourselves. Controlling what we do is being free. People should stop thinking that an artist that controls what he does is a bad thing. A lot of artists today are just victims, not having control, and they're not free. And that's pathetic. If you start being dependent on money, then money has to reach a point to fit your expenses.”

"Da Funk" and "Alive" were later included on Daft Punk's 1997 debut album Homework. In February of that year, the UK dance magazine Muzik published a Daft Punk cover feature and describedHomework as "one of the most hyped debut albums in a long long time." The most successful single from Homework was "Around the World", which is known for the repeating chant of the song's title. "Da Funk" was also included on The Saint film soundtrack. Daft Punk produced a series of music videos for Homework directed by Spike Jonze,Michel Gondry, Roman Coppola and Seb Janiak. The collection of videos was released in 1999 and titled D.A.F.T.: A Story About Dogs, Androids, Firemen and Tomatoes.

1999–2004: Discovery

By 1999, the duo was well into the recording sessions for its second album, which had begun a year earlier. The album Daft Club was also released to promote the film. It features a collection of remixes previously made available through an online membership service of the same name.

2004–2008: Human After All

Starting on 13 September and ending on 9 November 2004, Daft Punk devoted six weeks to the creation of new material. The duo released the albumHuman After All in March 2005. Reviews were mixed, mostly citing its overly repetitive nature and seemingly rushed recording. The singles taken from this album were "Robot Rock", "Technologic", "Human After All", and "The Prime Time of Your Life". The earliest official statement from Daft Punk concerning the album was "we believe that Human After All speaks for itself."

A Daft Punk anthology CD/DVD titled Musique Vol. 1 1993–2005 was released on 4 April 2006. It contains music videos for "Robot Rock (Maximum Overdrive)" and "The Prime Time of Your Life" directed by Daft Punk and Tony Gardner, respectively. Daft Punk also released a remix album of Human After All called Human After All: Remixes. A limited edition included two kubricks of Daft Punk as robots.

On 21 May 2006, Daft Punk premiered its first directed film, Daft Punk's Electroma, at the Cannes Film Festival sidebar Director's Fortnight.

Daft Punk released its second live album titled Alive 2007 on 19 November 2007. It contains the duo's performance in Paris from its Alive 2007 tour.

2008–2011: Tron: Legacy

Following the Alive 2007 tour, the duo focused on other projects. A 2008 interview with Pedro Winter revealed that Daft Punk returned to its Paris studio to work on new material. Winter also stepped down from managing the duo to focus attention on his Ed Banger Records label and his work as Busy P. On 8 February 2009, Daft Punk won Grammy Awards for Alive 2007 and its single "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger". Janet Jackson's song "So Much Betta" from her 2008 album Discipline features a sample of Daft Punk's song "Daftendirekt".

Daft Punk provided eleven new mixes featuring its music for the video game DJ Hero. The duo also appears in the game as a pair of playable characters, along with a unique venue. The duo appears wearing its Discovery-era helmets and Human After All-era leather attire. Daft Punk's playable likenesses are absent from the sequel DJ Hero 2, which includes a remixed version of the song "Human After All".
At the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con, it was announced that the duo composed 24 tracks for the film Tron: Legacy.

In 2010 Daft Punk were admitted into the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, an order of merit of France. Bangalter and de Homem-Christo were individually awarded the rank of Chevalier (knight).

2011–present: Random Access Memories

Soma Records released a previously unpublished Daft Punk track called "Drive" that was made while the duo was still with Soma Records and recording "Rollin' and Scratchin'" and "Da Funk". The track was included in a twentieth anniversary multi-artist compilation of the Soma label.

Daft Punk worked on their fourth studio album, Random Access Memories in collaboration with singer-songwriter Paul Williams and Chic frontman Nile Rodgers.

In October 2012, Daft Punk provided a fifteen-minute mix of songs by blues musician Junior Kimbrough for Hedi Slimane's Yves Saint Laurent fashion show.

In January 2013, de Homem-Christo revealed that Daft Punk was in the process of signing with Sony Music Entertainment through the Columbia Records label, and that the album would have a spring release.

For the 56th Annual Grammy Awards, Random Access Memories was awarded the Grammy for Best Dance/Electronica Album, Album of the Year and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical, while "Get Lucky" received the Grammy for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance and the Record of the Year. Daft Punk also performed a medley at the ceremony with Rodgers, Pharrell, and Stevie Wonderof "Get Lucky", "Le Freak", "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger", "Another Star", "Lose Yourself to Dance", and "Around the World".

On 10 March 2014, an unreleased Daft Punk song called "Computerized" surfaced on the Internet. The song features Jay-Z and appears to contain elements of “The Son of Flynn" from the Tron: Legacy soundtrack.

This article is based on the Wikipedia article "Daft Punk" and is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike 3.0 License.