New Daft Punk book, After Daft, will explore the duo’s career and cultural impact
A new Daft Punk book, ‘After Daft’, has been announced, exploring the iconic duo’s 28-year legacy, and wider cultural impact.
Vast in scope, fans can dive into sections from the pair’s origins to their increasingly elusive public personas in the wake of the global number one, platinum-certified final album, ‘Random Access Memories’, and their eventual split earlier this year. Other chapters focus on the pair’s landmark Alive 2006-7 World Tour, which set benchmarks for dance performances, in terms of production and audience reach, opening the act and electronic music up to new demographics, particularly in the US.
The book also moves beyond Daft Punk themselves, including a look at the influence of the predominantly Black and Latin artists cited as ‘Teachers’ in the 1997 ‘Homework’ album track of the same name. For example, the late Paul Johnson, Lil’ Louis, and K-Alexi. Elsewhere, the rise and fall of EDM (which Daft Punk’s ‘Discovery‘ album helped pave the way for), and the emergence of numerous 2000s sub-genres like blog house and hyperpop are also explored. ‘After Daft’ is written by UK-based author, journalist and DJ Mag contributor Gabriel Szatan, and will be published by John Murray Press/Hachette UK in 2023.
“Daft Punk sit in the pantheon of pop alongside Prince, Talking Heads, Kate Bush, Stevie Wonder, Kraftwerk, Missy Elliott, David Bowie, or any visionary you’d care to name,” Szatan said. “Beyond making joyous records, there are countless compelling sub-narratives which flow in and out of their career: Alive 2006-07 was as consequential for dance music as The Beatles’ 1964 appearance on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ was for rock ’n’ roll — what changed about the way we respond to concerts in the aftermath? Were the ‘Teachers’ sufficiently recognised for their contributions? And how did Daft Punk retain anonymity at a time when the internet erased privacy for everyone else? I’m excited to bring it all to light — as well as making the case for how, over 28 years, music really did sound better with them.”
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