1987–1992: Early career and Darlin' Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and
Thomas Bangalter met in 1987 while attending the
Lycée Carnot secondary school in Paris. The two became friends and recorded demos with others from the school. In 1992, they formed the band Darlin', with Bangalter on bass, Homem-Christo on guitar, Brancowitz formed another band,
Phoenix. Their name was taken from a negative review of Darlin' in
Melody Maker by Dave Jennings, who dubbed their music "a daft punky thrash". The band found the review amusing.
1993–1996: First performances and singles In September 1993, Daft Punk attended a rave at
EuroDisney organised by the
DJ Nicky Holloway, where they met Stuart Macmillan of
Slam, the co-founder of the Scottish label
Soma Quality Recordings. They gave him a demo tape, which formed the basis for Daft Punk's debut single, "The New Wave", a limited release in 1994. Daft Punk returned to the studio in May 1995 to record "
Da Funk". After it became their first commercially successful single, they hired a manager,
Pedro Winter, who regularly promoted them and other artists at his Hype nightclubs. In the mid-to-late nineties, Daft Punk performed live at various events, without the costumes they later became known for. In 1996, they made their first performance in the United States, at an Even Furthur event in
Wisconsin. In addition to live original performances, they performed in clubs using vinyl records from their collection. They were known for incorporating numerous styles of music into their DJ sets.
1997–1999: Homework Daft Punk released their debut album,
Homework, on 20 January 1997. According to
The Village Voice, the album revived
house music and departed from the
Eurodance formula. The critic Alex Rayner wrote that it combined established club styles and the "burgeoning eclecticism" of
big beat. In 1997, Daft Punk embarked on an international concert tour,
Daftendirektour, using their home equipment for the live stage. The most successful single from
Homework was "
Around the World". "Da Funk" was also included on the
Saint film soundtrack. Daft Punk produced a series of music videos for
Homework directed by
Spike Jonze,
Michel Gondry,
Roman Coppola and Seb Janiak. The videos were collected in 1999 as
D.A.F.T.: A Story About Dogs, Androids, Firemen and Tomatoes. After the release of
Homework, Bangalter and Homem-Christo created their own record labels,
Roulé and
Crydamoure, and released side projects and records by their friends. Homem-Christo released music as a member of Le Knight Club with Eric Chedeville. Bangalter released music as a member of
Together with
DJ Falcon and founded the group Stardust with
Alan Braxe and Benjamin Diamond. In 1998, Stardust released their only song, the hit "
Music Sounds Better With You".
1999–2003: Discovery Daft Punk's second album,
Discovery, was released in 2001. They said it was an attempt to reconnect with the playful, open-minded attitude associated with the discovery phase of childhood. The album reached No. 2 in the UK, and its lead single, "
One More Time", was a hit. The singles "
Digital Love" and "
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" were also successful in the UK and on the US Dance Chart, and "
Face to Face" hit number one on the US club play charts.
Discovery created a new generation of Daft Punk fans. It also saw Daft Punk debut their distinctive robot costumes; they had previously worn Halloween masks or bags for promotional appearances. and
Resident Advisor. In 2020,
Rolling Stone included it at number 236 in its list of the "
500 Greatest Albums of All Time". In 2021,
Pitchfork cited
Discovery as the centrepiece of Daft Punk's career, "an album that transcended the robots' club roots and rippled through the decades that followed". Daft Punk partnered with the Japanese
manga artist
Leiji Matsumoto to create
Interstella 5555, a feature-length animation set to
Discovery. The first four episodes were shown on
Toonami in 2001, and the finished film was released on DVD in 2003. That December, Daft Punk released
Daft Club, a compilation of
Discovery remixes. In 2001, Daft Punk released a 45-minute excerpt from a Daftendirektour performance as
Alive 1997.
2004–2007: Human After All and Alive 2007 In March 2005, Daft Punk released their third album,
Human After All, the result of six weeks of writing and recording. Reviews were mixed, with criticism for its repetitiveness and darker mood. "
Robot Rock", "
Technologic", "
Human After All" and "
The Prime Time of Your Life" were released as singles. A Daft Punk anthology CD/DVD,
Musique Vol. 1 1993–2005, was released on 4 April 2006. Daft Punk also released a
remix album,
Human After All: Remixes. On 21 May 2006, Daft Punk premiered a film, ''
Daft Punk's Electroma'', at the
Cannes Film Festival sidebar Director's Fortnight. The film does not include Daft Punk's music. Midnight screenings were held in Paris theatres from March 2007. For 48 dates across 2006 and 2007, Daft Punk performed the Alive 2006/2007 world tour, performing a "megamix" of their music from a large LED-fronted pyramid. The tour was acclaimed and is credited for bringing dance music to a wider audience, especially in North America. The
Guardian journalist Gabriel Szatan likened it to how
the Beatles' 1964 performance on
The Ed Sullivan Show had
brought British rock and roll to the American mainstream. The live version of "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" was released as a single, with a video by Olivier Gondry comprising audience footage of their performance in
Brooklyn. In 2009, Daft Punk won
Grammy Awards for
Alive 2007 and its single "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger".
2008–2011: Tron: Legacy In 2007,
Kanye West sampled "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" in his single "
Stronger". Daft Punk made a surprise appearance at the
50th Grammy Awards on 10 February 2008, and performed a reworked version of "Stronger" with West at the
Staples Center in Los Angeles. It was the first televised Daft Punk live performance. He said later that Daft Punk were working with an unspecified management company in Los Angeles. Daft Punk held their Daft Arts production office at the
Jim Henson Studios complex in Hollywood. Daft Punk provided new mixes for the 2009 video game
DJ Hero, and appeared as playable characters. At the 2009
San Diego Comic-Con, it was announced that Daft Punk had composed 24 tracks for the film
Tron: Legacy. Daft Punk's score was arranged and orchestrated by
Joseph Trapanese. The band collaborated with him for two years on the score, from pre-production to completion. The score features an 85-piece orchestra, recorded at AIR Lyndhurst Studios in London.
Joseph Kosinski, director of the film, referred to the score as a mixture of orchestral and electronic elements. Daft Punk also made a cameo as DJs in the film wearing their robot helmets. The
soundtrack album was released on 6 December 2010. A music video for "Derezzed" premiered on the
MTV Networks on the same day the album was released. The video, which features
Olivia Wilde as the character Quorra in specially shot footage, along with images of Daft Punk in Flynn's Arcade, was later made available for purchase from the
iTunes Store and included in the DVD and Blu-ray releases of the film.
Walt Disney Records released a remix album,
Tron: Legacy Reconfigured, on 5 April 2011. In 2010, Daft Punk were admitted into the , an order of merit of France. Bangalter and Homem-Christo were individually awarded the rank of
Chevalier (knight). On October of that year, Daft Punk made a surprise guest appearance during the encore of
Phoenix's show at
Madison Square Garden in New York City. They played a medley of "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" and "Around the World" before the song segued into Phoenix's song "1901". They also included elements of their tracks "Rock'n Roll", "Human After All", and "
Together", one of Bangalter's releases as a member of
Together. They produced
N.E.R.D.'s 2010 song "Hypnotize U".
2011–2015: Random Access Memories Shibuya promoting
Random Access Memories in May 2013 In 2011,
Soma Records released a previously unpublished Daft Punk track, "Drive", recorded while they were signed to Soma in the 1990s. It was included in a 20th-anniversary compilation of the Soma label. In October 2012, Daft Punk provided a 15-minute mix of songs by blues musician
Junior Kimbrough for
Hedi Slimane's
Yves Saint Laurent fashion show. Daft Punk recorded their fourth studio album,
Random Access Memories, with musicians including
Julian Casablancas,
Todd Edwards,
DJ Falcon,
Panda Bear,
Chilly Gonzales,
Paul Williams,
Pharrell Williams,
Chic frontman
Nile Rodgers and
Giorgio Moroder. Daft Punk left Virgin for
Sony Music Entertainment through the
Columbia Records label.
Random Access Memories was released on 17 May 2013. The lead single, "
Get Lucky", became Daft Punk's first UK number-one single and the most-streamed new song in the history of
Spotify. At the
2013 MTV Video Music Awards, Daft Punk debuted a trailer for their single "
Lose Yourself to Dance" and presented the award for "Best Female Video" alongside Rodgers and Pharrell. In December, they revealed a music video for the song "
Instant Crush", directed by
Warren Fu and featuring Casablancas. At the
56th Annual Grammy Awards,
Random Access Memories won the Grammy for
Best Dance/Electronica Album,
Album of the Year and
Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical, while "Get Lucky" received the Grammy for
Best Pop Duo/Group Performance and
Record of the Year. Daft Punk performed at the ceremony with
Stevie Wonder, Rodgers, Pharrell, and the
Random Access Memories rhythm players
Nathan East,
Omar Hakim,
Paul Jackson, Jr. and Chris Caswell. That night, Daft Punk hosted a large Grammys afterparty at the
Park Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, with many celebrities and no photography allowed. Daft Punk co-produced
Kanye West's sixth studio album,
Yeezus (2013), creating the tracks "
On Sight", "
Black Skinhead", "
I Am a God" and "
Send It Up" with West. They provided additional vocals for Pharrell's 2014 single "
Gust of Wind". On 10 March 2014, an unreleased Daft Punk song, "Computerized", leaked online. It features
Jay-Z and contains "The Son of Flynn" from the
Tron: Legacy soundtrack; it was once intended to be a single promoting
Tron: Legacy or to serve as the end credits. The song was never used in the final version of the film. In April 2015, Daft Punk appeared in a short tribute to Rodgers as part of a documentary on his life,
Nile Rodgers: From Disco to Daft Punk. In June, a documentary,
Daft Punk Unchained, was released.
2016–2020: Final projects and appearances Daft Punk appeared on the 2016 singles "
Starboy" and "
I Feel It Coming" by Canadian R&B singer
the Weeknd; "Starboy" topped the
Billboard Hot 100, becoming Daft Punk's only US number-one song, and "I Feel It Coming" reached number four. In 2017,
Soma Records released a remix of "Drive" by
Slam as part of a compilation featuring various artists. In February 2017, Daft Punk launched a
pop-up shop in Hollywood, California, featuring memorabilia, artwork, and a display of their costumes. They also performed with the Weeknd at the
59th Annual Grammy Awards on 12 February 2017. In the years following the
Starboy collaborations, Bangalter and Homem-Christo worked solo as producers appearing on several projects. On 21 June 2017, the Australian band
Parcels released the song "
Overnight", produced and co-written by Daft Punk. It was written after Daft Punk saw Parcels perform and invited the members to their studio. This became Daft Punk's final production together. Between 9 April and 11 August 2019, an electronic exhibition based on Daft Punk's song "Technologic" was displayed at the
Philharmonie de Paris, featuring costumes, guitars and other elements. In early 2024, W. F. Quinn Smith, who played percussion on
Random Access Memories, said he had participated in experimental recording sessions for a new Daft Punk album in early 2018, but that the project was in limbo.
2021–present: Disbandment and separate projects On 22 February 2021, Daft Punk released a video on their YouTube channel titled "Epilogue". The video features a scene from their 2006 film
Electroma, in which one robot explodes and the other walks away into the sunset; a title card created with
Warren Fu reads "1993–2021" while an excerpt of Daft Punk's song "
Touch" plays, indicating their disbandment. Later that day, Daft Punk's longtime publicist, Kathryn Frazier, confirmed that they had split, but did not give a reason. Their friend and collaborator
Todd Edwards confirmed that Bangalter and Homem-Christo remained active separately. He later said they were "going in different directions", and that Homem-Christo was more drawn to hip-hop and Bangalter was interested in film. As of 2023, Bangalter and Homem-Christo still share a studio and equipment. On 12 May 2023, Daft Punk released a
10th-anniversary edition of Random Access Memories, with 35 minutes of previously unreleased outtakes and demos. Songs include "Horizon" (included in the Japanese and Deluxe editions in 2013), and the version of "Touch" used for the "Epilogue" YouTube video in 2021. "
Infinity Repeating (2013 Demo)", featuring Casablancas and
the Voidz, was released as a single with a music video. It was called Daft Punk's "last song ever" in press releases. Ahead of the album’s release, Daft Punk unveiled a preview of several previously unreleased tracks from the anniversary album on their YouTube channel and major digital distribution platforms, including "The Writing of Fragments of Time", a studio session with Todd Edwards, on 22 March, and "GLBTM (Studio Outtakes)", an early version of "Give Life Back to Music", on 20 April. On 17 November, Daft Punk released a version of
Random Access Memories with no drums or percussion. In April 2023, Bangalter released a solo work, the orchestral ballet score
Mythologies. The press release of
Mythologies included a drawing of his unmasked face, and in interviews about the project, he allowed himself to be photographed without a mask. He cited concerns about the
progress of artificial intelligence and other technology as to why Daft Punk split, saying: "As much as I love this character, the last thing I would want to be, in the world we live in, in 2023, is a robot." Bangalter said Daft Punk had wanted to not "spoil the narrative" while they were active, but now felt more comfortable revealing parts of their creative process. Reflecting on the split, Bangalter said he was "relieved and happy to look back and say: 'Okay, we didn't mess it up too much. In February 2024, Daft Punk announced a Twitch broadcast of
Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem. A vinyl repress of the
Discovery single "
Something About Us" was released on
Record Store Day in April 2024. A 4K AI upscale of
Interstella 5555 premiered in June at
Tribeca Festival. The remaster was shown in global theatres for one weekend in December. In September 2025, the online video game
Fortnite revealed the virtual "Daft Punk Experience", adding interactive activities, Daft Punk outfits, and other accessories. Billed as the biggest
Fortnite musical event so far, it was made in collaboration with Daft Life.
Cédric Hervet, Daft Punk's creative director, said the event focused on Daft Punk's legacy. The
Epic Games executive
Alex Rigopulos described the project as a "love letter" to Daft Punk. On 15 October 2025, in celebration of the 20th anniversary of
Human After All, Daft Punk announced the first vinyl release of
Human After All: Remixes, released on 28 November. On 20 October, Daft Punk shared a recording of the Phoenix concert at Madison Square Garden in New York, at which Daft Punk had performed 15 years earlier. On 7 November, Daft Punk released a music video for "Contact" on YouTube. It was created by Epic Games and Magnopus, based on the opening sequence of the Daft Punk Experience game mode in
Fortnite. In February 2026, Daft Punk released a video for their 2005 song "
Human After All" based on footage from
Electroma. A 4K restoration of
Electroma will premiere at
Tribeca Festival for its 20th anniversary in June 2026. ==Artistry==