Daft Punk started as a band called Darlin' in the 1980s before disbanding and reforming as an electronic music duo. They are signed to Virgin Records, which they view as more of a partnership. Daft Punk values control over money and fame, turning down record deals that demanded too much control. They have released several successful albums including Homework, Discovery, Human After All, and Tron Legacy soundtrack. They are known for wearing robot costumes and helmets to avoid celebrity status and focus on their music.

1. Daft Punk

2. History Daft Punk started their career as three friends in a band named Darlin’ Darlin’, a new band under the rock genre, soon disbanded after it was ill received by audiences As the group disbanded, both Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo stuck together and experimented with synthesizers and drum machines This formed the basis of their first release, ‘The New Wave’, which was a limited release in 1994 ‘The New Wave’ moved on to form their first commercially successful hit ‘Da Funk’ A negative review in the magazine Melody Maker described Darlin’ as ‘ a bunch of daft punk’, inspiring the duo’s stage name

3. Virgin Records Daft Punk are signed to the Virgin Records label Virgin is a large label created by the merger of Virgin Records and Capitol Records in 2007 The record label was bought by Thorn EMI to become part of the EMI group, comprising of several record labels and hundreds of artists Virgin Records is described as a label for ‘New Wave Outposts’, so a label for new and inventive music Virgin Records has also signed artists such as 30 Seconds to Mars, Gorillaz and You Me At Six

4. Partnership with Virgin Daft Punk took their time finding a label to sign with, they turned down many offers and eventually settled on an offer by virgin which they stated: “In reality, we're more like partners with Virgin” Daft Punk licensed their tracks to Virgin via their own production company Daft Trax To further justify their decision Bangalter has said: “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”

5. Control Within the Industry Another quote giving their view on the capitalist society in which the music industry resides is: “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”

6. Discography Homework The image shown is a patch on an item of clothing, relating to the duo’s costumes known from their early live performances. Their name is fairly well known due to the success of ‘Da Funk’ on the club scene Daft Punk’s debut album, ‘Homework’, was released in 1997, it contained their first hit, ‘Da Funk’ as well as their most succesful track from the album ‘Around the World’

7. Discography – Continued.. Discovery The album artwork follows the same style in terms of layout as homework, but with a distinctly more modern and slicker looking typeface, following the change of music style within the album Discovery was released in 2001, and is known for the slicker, synthpop oriented style The album was very well received by fans, who were originally stunned by the change of style from the rougher style of ‘Homework’ The single ‘One More Time’ was extremely successful in the UK, within the mainstream and mainly within clubs

8. Discography – Continued… Human After All The album artwork once again follows the same style as the previous two releases, simply presenting Daft Punk’s logo, but this time on a television screen ‘Human After All’ was received by fans with mixed views, some claiming the album seemed rushed due to it’s repetitive nature The songs ‘Robot Rock’, ‘Human After All’, ‘The Brainwasher’ and ‘Technologic’ were well received ‘Technologic’ received particular success within the UK

9. Discography – Continued… TRON Legacy The album artwork is completely different to Daft Punk’s style due to influences from Disney to create a cover within the style and theme of the film. This will have been done to link the album to fans of the film to increase sales Daft Punk were approached by Disney to help create a soundtrack for their film ‘TRON Legacy’ The album got mixed reviews, as it is in a much different style from Daft Punk’s normal style, due to it’s form of being a film soundtrack The Duo released one single of their own style from the soundtrack entitled ‘Derezzed’

10. Image Since their first live performances the duo were seen to wear masks on stage, Thomas Bangalter stated that the masks and costumes were originally a result of shyness In the era of the duo’s album ‘Discovery’ the two donned complex robot helmets fitted with LED lights for use in promotional photos and later live performances Bangalter once stated: "We did not choose to become robots. There was an accident in our studio. We were working on our sampler, and at exactly 9:09 a.m. on September 9, 1999, it exploded. When we regained consciousness, we discovered that we had become robots.“

11. Capitalism In interviews and the way that they have chosen their record label, Daft Punk have made it clear that they are against capitalism and are not just in it for the money In an interview about fame and stardom Thomas Bangalter said: “We don't believe in the star system. We want the focus to be on the music. If we have to create an image, it must be an artificial image. That combination hides our physicality and also shows our view of the star system. It is not a compromise.” More quotes that demonstrate this are: “The playing with masks is just to make it funnier. Pictures can be boring. We don't want all the rock n' roll poses and attitudes—they are completely stupid and ridiculous today” and “We don't want to run into people who are the same age as us, shaking our hand and saying, 'Can I have your autograph?' because we think we're exactly like them”