After 28 years, the popular musical duo Daft Punk announced that the two will go their separate ways, breaking the news with an 8-minute video titled “Epilogue” excerpted from their 2006 film “Electroma.” Publicist Kathryn Frazier confirmed the news to Pitchfork but gave no reason for the breakup. Students share their reactions upon hearing the news last week.
Daft Punk were a French electronic music duo formed in 1993 in Paris by Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter. Daft Punk’s fourth studio album “Random Access Memories” received Grammys for Album of the Year, Best Dance/Electronica Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards.
Claire Loughry, a senior psychology major, found the news to be unexpected. She said she found out about the split of Daft Punk through social media. Despite not being a huge fan of the group, she said she was aware of their music, like “Get Lucky.”
“I remember feeling surprised, mostly because I had not heard about the group in a few years,” Loughry said.
The breakup is a particularly tough loss for Gregori Presinal, a freshman computer science major. He praised the duo’s quality of music as he said that it was impactful, and they used “their energy and ability to create landscapes with synths.”
Presinal said their voice and unique talent put the group a cut above the rest, “You could tell hundreds of artists to make a song with drums and a bass, but they could never replicate the bounciness of ‘Around The World.’”
Joachim Mikel Icasiano, a freshman political science major, said he was also disappointed by the split, but the announcement did not come as a complete surprise.
“I was definitely saddened by it but not shocked,” Icasiano said. “Artists as reclusive as Daft Punk don’t really give much information about what they do in between albums and the actual people behind Daft Punk are pretty private people.”
Icasiano said he felt that Daft Punk’s music was remarkable because of how accessible and beautiful it was given its often heterodox song structure, that anything but conventional. Icasiano said he was so affected by the news he still had yet to actually watch the announcement himself. He said he found the group to have a major influence on the music industry and are some of the most incredible artists of our generation.
“I haven’t yet watched the Epilogue video they released as a farewell because I know it will wreck me,” Icasiano said. “A reunion is unlikely in my opinion. But they deserve the break. Their influence in music will forever be felt.”
Dana Fialkowski can be reached at dana.fialkowski@student.shu.edu. Liam Brucker-Casey can be reached at liam.bruckercasy@student.shu.edu.
