Doin’ It Right: Daft Punk’s Influence in Today’s Music
It’s been almost two weeks since Daft Punk decided to put their helmets down. The French electronic duo announces their split by releasing a video entitled “Epilogue” on 22 February, which saw Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem Christo looking at each other for the last time in the middle of a desert before they close the chapter with a literal bang. The video ends with a picture of their metallic hands forming a triangle sign with “1997–2021” written under it, asserting the end of their journey. All hopes were lost for their fans who yearned for their fifth album, waiting for the duo to announce a new work since Random Access Memories was released eight years ago. With a career spanning from the 90s to the 2010s, Daft Punk has since played a pivotal role in changing the landscape of music through their groovy house beats, 70s music samples, robotic voice, and of course — their iconic helmets.
In the early 90s, electronic music started to flourish in Europe. Acid house just became a hot new thing in the UK, Techno music were blaring throughout German nightclubs, and raves in the Netherlands just recently gave birth to Gabber. In the meantime, French electronic DJs were still trying to conceive their dance movement by fiddling with American techno and house music. It was during this time, Thomas and Guy-Manuel who played in a rock band called Darlin’ began to form Daft Punk after they split with Laurent Brancowitz, who later would join the indie-pop band Phoenix with his brother.
In 1994, under the banner of Soma Records, the newly formed duo released “The New Wave” as their first single. The 7-minute techno jam introduced the foundation of the robotic sound that would later define Daft Punk as they are today.
A year later, DJ Ludovic Navarre under the moniker St. Germain released Boulevard, an album that features a mix of house and 70s jazz music, the sound which later would inspire other French DJs to incorporate 70s music into house beats.
At the same time, Daft Punk also released a new single called “Da Funk” which features two drum samples of 70s Soul/Funk/Disco music, namely “I’m Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby” by Barry White and “Bounce, Rock, Skate, Roll” by Vaughan Mason and Crew. The single laid the blueprint of French house music, which can be characterized by the mix of house beats with 70s music samples.
In the meantime, after having signed with Virgin Records in 1996, Daft Punk would record several projects over few months at their home. These projects eventually turned into a single album. The album was released in 1997 under the title Homework. At the same time, Daft Punk would begin to wear Halloween masks to turn the spotlight away from their identities. Soon after the release of Homework, the duo became an overnight sensation after the album appeared on 14 national music charts and sold for more than 2 million copies. Daft Punk’s blend of house beats with 70s music as well as vocal manipulations was proven to be strong enough to shock the dancefloors around the world (clearly no pun intended). The album’s lead single, “Around the World”, became a particular song that further catapults Daft Punk into worldwide stardom. Moreover, the song would later be covered, mixed, and sampled by various artists from multiple genres, such as Snoop Dogg, will.i.am (although Daft Punk did not permit the sample), Bootsy Collins, Madeon, and Jojo. Needless to say, many imitators of Daft Punk’s sound would appear soon after in the French electronic music scene.
Entering a new millennium, Daft Punk would record their second album which was driven by the nostalgia towards the music they listen to during their teenage years. The duo finally released Discovery in 2001. The album became a breakthrough in not only electronic music, but also music in general. First of all, The album was accompanied by a plastic membership card, allowing its owners to access Daft Club, a website providing fans a chance to snatch some of Daft Punk’s exclusive contents. A pretty bold move to be made, considering that this kind of marketing incentive was usually found solely on special edition packaging. The album was also accompanied by a one-hour and five minutes long animated film reminiscent of the duo’s favorite anime during their childhood. The film, entitled Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem, was made in collaboration with Leiji Matsumoto to provide a visual companion to every single track of Discovery, preceding the practice of providing a visualizer to every album track uploaded in YouTube. They also began to replace their mask with their iconic robotic helmets, influencing other electronic artists in the future to conceal their faces.
Music-wise, the album opener entitled “One More Time”, was also proven to be revolutionary. The song features an auto-tuned vocal provided by American DJ, Romanthony. Although Cher already introduced auto-tuned vocal in her bittersweet-yet-boppy hit “Believe” a few years before, most people were still put-off by the idea of auto-tune during this time. In an interview with Remix magazine shortly after the release of Discovery, Thomas Bangalter defends the use of auto-tune by saying that “What they didn’t see was that you could use those tools in a new way instead of just for replacing the instruments that came before.” He also adds that “People are often afraid of things that sound new.” Unbeknownst to us, auto-tune would be utilized by a lot of artists today, such as Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, Kanye West, and Travis Scott.
Furthermore, the fourth track on the album “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” would end up being sampled by Kanye West in “Stronger”, the second single from his third album Graduation, released in 2007. Moving away from the sound of soul and orchestra of the previous albums, Kanye decided to explore the realm of electronic music on Graduation. The inception of “Stronger” came when The Louis Vuitton Don heard Daft Punk’s “Technologic” (from their third album, Human After All) sample on Busta Rhymes’s “Touch It” in his tour bus. Eventually, Kanye would pick up and tweak the vocal sample of Daft Punk’s “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger”, turning it into a memorable loop that further develops into “Stronger”. Not long after Graduation’s release, “Stronger” became an immediate hit, making it Yeezy’s third number-one single. He also managed to add another Grammy to his collection (one of which he would urinate during a Twitter rant 12 years later) for Best Rap Solo Performance thanks to “Stronger”. As the anthem of Ye’s departure from the “old Kanye” became a heavy rotation, the song would encourage other rappers and producers alike to incorporate electronic music into their beats, something that is commonly heard these days. As a matter of fact, Daft Punk would end up working together with Kanye West as one of the producers on his sixth album Yeezus, released in 2013.
Later, Daft Punk would release Human After All in 2005, an album with a tone darker than their usual output. This time, Daft Punk decided to merge their sound with Rock music. The pop element from Discovery was reduced in favor of distorted riffs and noisy synths while still retaining their house, disco, and funk synergy. Afterward, the dark tone of Human After All would end up influence other French house DJs, to make their music sound a little bit harsher. The influence of Human After All can be heard in the works of multiple French house artists, such as Justice, Sebastian, and Mr. Oizo (basically most of the artists on Ed Banger Records).
The upcoming years would be kind to Daft Punk. They managed to win a Grammy Awards in 2007 for their performance at Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy (now AccorHotels Arena) in June, documented on Alive 2007. In 2010, they were chosen by director Joseph Kosinski to compose the soundtrack of Tron: Legacy (they also cameoed as DJs in the film).
Three years later, Daft Punk would left Virgin Records and sign with Columbia Records, prompting them to release Random Access Memories which features the upbeat hit “Get Lucky”. With the help of Pharell Williams on vocal and Nile Rodgers on guitar, the song became an instant hit garnering critical acclaim across media outlets as well as heavy rotation throughout radio stations all over the world. The groovy summer tune would eventually usher in the disco revival in mainstream music for the years to come. Many mainstream artists were caught in the disco fever, including, but not limited to, The Weeknd, Dua Lipa, and Lady Gaga. In fact, The Weeknd would collaborate with Daft Punk few years later in his single “I Feel It Coming”.
It is crazy to think how revolutionary Daft Punk was in terms; not only in musical composition but also in how they brand themselves. Not to mention how they manage to make their works be able to be appreciated by a lot of other artists spanning from various genres. Had Daft Punk didn’t record “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger”, there might be only a few rappers who would dare to adopt EDM in their music. And what about Deadmau5 and Marshmello, who built their persona around their helmets? What would happen with Ed Banger Records? Would any late 2010s pop artist even care about disco? As one of the most important driving forces in electronic music, the disbandment of Daft Punk was a great loss for sure. However, their legacy will lives on forever.
