Daft Punk

Daft Punk, the French electronic duo of Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, emerged from Paris in 1993 and spent two decades redefining dance music's possibilities. Their debut Homework (1997) filtered house and techno through a distinctly Gallic sensibility, while Discovery (2001) became a blueprint for 21st-century pop with its gleaming synth hooks and vocoders. The robots were never merely gimmick: their helmets and anonymity interrogated celebrity culture whilst allowing the music to exist as pure artefact.

Their technical precision, drawing from Moroder's disco architecture and Kraftwerk's machine aesthetics, made them architects rather than mere producers. Random Access Memories (2013) won five Grammys, including Album of the Year, and spawned the inescapable "Get Lucky". They dissolved the project in 2021 with characteristic ceremony. Their influence saturates contemporary pop production, from The Weeknd to Kanye West, proving that French touch became the global vernacular. Few acts have so thoroughly shaped how mainstream music sounds whilst remaining so deliberately distant from its centre.