For 28 years, the EDM robot duo from France is officially calling it quits.
It was uploaded on YouTube last Monday and it reached 18 million views. The video was from their 2006 movie Electroma shows their trademark helmets and their race suit with leather jackets as they slowly walk through a windy desert scape. Thomas was walking slowly at first, while Guy-Manuel looks back and went to his partner. He looks at Thomas as he takes off his leather jacket, turns around there is a switch in his back to initiate a self-destruct sequence. Guy-Manuel opens it and sets the timer to 1 minute. Thomas walks away while the whirling sound of the wind around them, then Thomas explodes. It ends on a sunset while one of their hit singles from their album Random Access Memories plays Touch featuring Paul Williams on the background, and showing the duo's gold & silver plated gloves in the form of a triangle as a setting sun blazes over the years 1993 - 2021.
Kathryn Frazier, Daft Punk's longtime publicist confirms that the video is meant to announce the group's statement at the end of their collaboration for nearly 3 decades. As of this time, there's no specific reason why they split up. Fans around the world, even myself, were shocked about their breakup. The moment they met in school as they formed the indie rock band Darling, turned to one of the pioneers of Electronic Dance Music with memorable songs like Da Funk, Around the World, Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger, Digital Love, Robot Rock, Derezzed, Get Lucky, and their collaboration with The Weeknd's Starboy & I Feel It Coming.
Whatever the reason might be, I'm hoping for the best of the French duo. Merci, Daft Punk. Thank you for sharing your music during my college days.
Sources:
Lead Image from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuDX6wNfjqc
https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/dance/9529272/daft-punk-break-up/