Daft Punk Research

1. Daft Punk
Postmodernism – Nathan Beard

2. Homage
Daft Punk have paid homage to many different artists in their music, an example of this is in their track ‘One More
Time’ which sampled ‘More Spell on You’ by Eddie Johns (1979). ‘Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger’ sampled ‘Cola
Bottle Baby’ by Edwin Birdsong (1979), ‘Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger’ was latter sampled by
Kanye West with Stronger (2007), and by Black Eyed Peas with Boom Boom Pow (2009). The concept for the
album ‘Discovery’ was the single ‘Windowlicker’ by Aphex Twin, which cannot be categorised as either a club
track or relaxation track.
In the video series for their album ‘Discovery’ Daft Punk created a series of videos for every track, these tracks
paid homage to the anime genre of comics and TV, this potentially brought the anime genre to a new audience
since the techno type music fan would not ordinarily watch or read anime TV/Books.
Does your chosen artist use other people’s music in a respectful way? Are they bringing a potentially overlooked
or forgotten style to a new audience?

3. Parody
does your chosen artist use other people’s music in order to mock it and its fans? Are they
attempting to damage the ‘authority’ of a style of music?
Daft Punk don’t particularly parody anyone, as it doesn't fit with the image they are conveying, when they use
another artists material it is from a position of respect and not any other.

4. Bricolage
Does your chosen artist use music from different time periods or genres? Does this
change the ‘meaning’ of the original song?
In terms of bricolage, Daft Punk use music form various different periods and genres in order to make their songs,
examples of this are the use of electric light orchestra - Evil Woman from 1975 in Face to Face, this song is
primarily rock in terms of genre yet Daft Punk are producing dance music, therefore the sample is re-
contextualised. The same can be said for the use of the Black Sabbath - Iron Man in ‘The Brainwasher’, again the
song they sampled is primarily rock in genre and has been taken from one period and genre and put into another.
Another aspect of bricolage that Daft Punk have carried out is their use of the Apollo missions 16 and 17 sound
exerts in their song Contact, this means that they are effectively changing the meaning and purpose of these
samples and can be considered bricolage.

5. Intertextual References
does your artist reference other songs (lyrically, melodically, stylistically, visually) in their work?
Daft Punk has used intertextual references in its music on various occasions, but perhaps the most noteworthy is
the song and video ‘Derezzed’ which features many references to Tron, starting with the name which is a way in
the Tron universe to describe a digital death, then the opening scene of the video which references flynn’s arcade
where he is trying to make a living. The video then proceeds to follow snippets of the storyline form the 1982 film
Tron. The visuals and concepts are also explored like the light cycles for example which feature in the 1982 and
2010 interpretation of the film Tron.
referred

6. Simulacrum
Is your artist ‘real’ or merely playing a ‘character’? For many ‘mainstream’ artists,
their image is just as important as their sound (if not more so), postmodern artists play with ideas of image in the
way they re represent themselves.
In many ways, Daft Punk represent the pinnacle in artists playing characters, as they are never seen in their
capacity as Daft Punk without their robot helmets, this is their image that makes them ‘exciting’ to fans and does
in fact add to their sound and their music and arguably is what some fans like. When interviews by the Rolling
Stone, Thomas Bangalter said "We're interested in the line between fiction and reality, creating these fictional
personas that exist in real life,” in order to explain their use of the helmets. And Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo
added: "We're not performers, we're not models” which really confirms the fact that they want the
differentiation between them and their characters as such, he then added:“ it would not be enjoyable for
humanity to see our features, but the robots are exciting to people.” Backing up the fact that the robot helmets
are critical to their success as artists.

7. Consumption
How does your chosen artist wish their music to be consumed? Is there an artefact (object) that accompanies
their music?
Daft Punk, releases their music through a wide variety of different platforms, like digital steaming and download,
CD’s, Video and in some cases Vinyl. There is no clear preference on Daft Punk’s part over how they would want
you to consume their music however given their videos normally include a lot of added value to the song it could
be interpreted that they would prefer it to be consumed that way.

8. Creation
how does your artist create their music, are they a musician, a songwriter, a composer
Daft punk is a duo who create mostly electronic music, they perform multiple roles, as a lot of their songs are
instrumental they could be considered musicians, however more recently they are more likely to be considered
producers as they have worked with a number of high profile artists to sing in their album ‘Random Access
Memories’ while they have produced the backing music and the voice editing.
Daft Punk differentiate themselves by using older equipment to make their music as they are not a fan of the
more modern electronic equipment and don't recognise them as instruments, instead classifying them as
computers.

9. Performance
Does your artist play ‘live’? Is there a ‘show’ to accompany? Is there a ‘style’ to their
videos? What if any interaction is there with their audience? [No strong sense of history or the future. Alienation
is abolished by saying, 'Utopia is now' as in raves or music festivals. Even a critic of postmodernism like Hans
Magnus Enzensburger has observed, 'consumption as spectacle is in parody form the anticipation of a utopian
situation' (1974).
Daft punk have a specific style to their music videos, where they are never meaningless, like some of the other
artists have, instead every video has a carefully considered purpose or underling story/concept.
The perfect example of this is this video for ‘around the world’ in which each group of characters represent an
instrument that was used to create the song.
Daft punks live shows also feature a specific style as they aren't prone to dance around the stage like some other
artists instead staying close by to their synthesisers and equipment.

10. Influence
Has your artist influenced the wider world of music (are other artists keen to collaborate, have mainstream artists
appropriated their sound)?
The duo has been recognized as the most influential musical group to permanently change the way French house
music is performed. After the release of their first album, Homework, it was certain that Euro pop was around to
stay. While both members of the band were inspired by all types of musical musicians, Daft Punk has made such a
staple in the music industry that they have also inspired other musicians.
One band that rose to fame after Daft Punk released their first album was Air. For around 10 years, Air has been a
leader in electronic sound, much to the thanks of Daft Punk. Other musical groups tried to recreate the sounds of
Daft Punk and the style of Air, but have not been quite as successful.