ENTERTAINMENTFrench Electronic Music Duo Daft Punk Officially Break Up
Daft Punk, the popular French electronic music duo, has split up after 28 years together.
The musicians, widely considered one of the most influential acts in dance music history, broke the news to their fans via an eight minute video titled “Epilogue,” using clips from their 2006 film Electroma. Their publicist confirmed the split on Monday.
Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo formed Daft Punk in Paris in 1993 as part of the French house movement and gained popularity for combining elements of house music with funk, techno, disco, rock and synthpop.
They were known for wearing ornate helmets and gloves to assume robot personas in most public appearances and rarely granted interviews or appeared on television.
Their debut studio album Homework was released by Virgin Records in 1997 to positive reviews, and was backed by singles "Around the World" and "Da Funk". Their second album, Discovery, had further success, supported by hit singles "One More Time", "Digital Love" and "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger".
Their live album Alive 2007 won a Grammy Award for Best Electronic/Dance Album. They also composed the score for the film Tron: Legacy, which was released in 2010 alongside its soundtrack album.
In 2013, Daft Punk released their fourth album, Random Access Memories with the lead single "Get Lucky" with Pharrell Williams, reaching the top 10 in the charts of 32 countries. The album won five Grammy Awards in 2014, including Album of the Year and Record of the Year.
Daft Punk were also credited with co-production on several tracks from Kanye West’s Yeezus, and gained their first number one on the Billboard Hot 100 with the song "Starboy", a collaboration with The Weeknd. —as well as a second hit, “I Feel It Coming.”
