(trance music)
- [Narrator] In 2001, when
the French electronic duo
Daft Punk released Discovery,
few who fell in love with it could imagine
the thread it would lace through
pop music and pop culture.
("Harder, Better, Faster,
Stronger" by Daft Punk)
- [Narrator] From providing Kanye West
with one of his greatest samples,
to foreseeing the new wave of futurist pop
that would arrive within a decade,
from Janelle Monáe to Robyn,
Discovery's sleek grooves
and sly song craft
made Daft Punk into dance
music and pop icons.
Not to mention, robots.
♪ Work it harder ♪
♪ Make it better ♪
♪ Do it faster ♪
♪ Makes us stronger ♪
("One More Time" by Daft Punk)
- [Narrator] One More
Time, released as a single
four months prior to Discovery,
and a global dance hit,
was the album's startling opener.
Sung by the New Jersey house music
singer-songwriter Romanthony,
Daft Punk had wanted
him on their debut album
but couldn't make a deal.
When they met at the 1996
Winter Music Conference,
they discovered their fandom was mutual.
Inviting him to sing, quote,
"because he makes emotional music,"
said Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo.
Romanthony also sings the album's closer,
the deep house homage, Too Long.
("Too Long" by Daft Punk)
♪ At last the long wait is over ♪
♪ The weight is off my shoulder ♪
♪ I'm taking all control ♪
- [Narrator] Superheroes,
with it's classical arpeggios,
exemplifies the album's epic feel.
"We wanted to make something
that sounded like Queen's
music for Flash Gordan,
or like what you would
hear when you're watching
an old science-fiction
cartoon like Wizards,"
Thomas Bangalter said of the track.
In turn, the duo dressed,
not in the relatively simple face masks
of their previous album, 1997's Homework,
but as actual robots.
"Being a robot is much more
simple," Guy-Manuel said.
(cameras clicking)
("Digital Love" by Daft Punk)
- [Narrator] Digital Love
featured a sample of jazz-funk
keyboardist, George Duke,
that sounded like Giorgio Moroder
rewriting the rift from Layla
by Derek and the Dominoes.
It was the album's colorful triumph;
a cheesy love song that dazzled
like a fireworks display.
("Face To Face" by Daft Punk)
For many fans, the album's
peak is Face To Face,
co-produced and sung by Todd Edwards,
a key architect of the
London-bred speed garage style,
later redubbed UK garage.
Todd's extraordinary production signature,
using dozens of micro-samples
to make up bursting patterns of sound,
is displayed brilliantly on this track,
also sung by Todd without
any alterations to his voice.
♪ Could this be my understanding ♪
♪ It's not your fault, I
was being too demanding ♪
- [Narrator] Maybe the most
important thing about Discovery
is the way Daft Punk took
the deeply uncool styles
of their 70s and 80s youth,
hair metal guitar solos,
disco, arena rock,
and irradiated them with a
gleeful and earnest touch.
Quote, "electronic and
house music has shown
"how it's possible to
destroy the old rules,
"so it comes from an open-minded approach
"in the first place," Bangalter said,
"but it has started to
set it's own new rules.
"We wanted to destroy the new rules."
Mission accomplished.
(energetic music)
