Daft Punk is an electronic music duo consisting of French musicians Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter. Daft Punk reached significant popularity in the late 1990s house movement in France and met with continued success in the years following, combining elements of house with synthpop.
The name 'Daft Punk' was inspired by a depreciative article published in a british magazine Melody Maker. The magazine had rated the first work of the duo, recorded in 1992 - at that time, the duo was called 'Darlin' - as a bunch of daft punk.
The debut recording of the duo as 'Daft Punk' was The New Wave, released by Soma Records in 1993. After this, followed their first commercial hit, the single Da Funk (1995). The debut album of the duo, Homework (1997) was considered an innovative mix of techno, house music, acid house and electro, and one of the most influent e-music albums of the '90s.
In September of 1999, they cease to exist, and become robots. 'No one really knows what happened', said Bangalter. 'I think there was a big explosion, and first thing we note is that we become robots. It was a good thing, given that allows us to do what we really love: perform in an anti-conventional way. We don't need to show our faces to be stamped in a magazine cover, or to sell a bunch of CDs.' The robot outfit are still used today in performances, therefore concealing their true identity. In interviews, the duo has been interviewed with a black bag in their head .
The album Discovery, from 2001, was more commercial, something that let some Homework fans down. Nevertheless, it succeeded in sales, and the One More Time track, released in 2000, reached the #2 position in the UK tops.
