Daft Punk Homework - Review

BY GABRIEL MATIAS CASTILHO

In 1997, Daft Punk, a.k.a the French kings of the dancefloor, surprised the entire world with their January 20 release of “Homework,” a compilation of the most groundbreaking dance songs, forever changing the face of Electronic Dance Music. The album charted in 14 different countries, and by February 2001, it had sold more than two million copies worldwide and received several platinum and gold certifications. Two songs went on to become U.S. Billboard Hot Dance/Club Play number-one singles. Everybody knows “Around the World,” the catchy and repetitive song that will get you movin’ while driving your consciousness haywire—the vocal sample is literally repeated 144 times throughout the song. “Da Funk” is the other song that made it to the U.S. Billboard charts. With its funky beat and acid synths, the song breaks with the pattern created by trendy Eurodance songs that dominated the late 90s to bring a new facet to the dancefloors around the world. My absolute favorite from the album is “Revolution 909,” a Garage-style song that just flows wonderfully and describes the underground disco world of the late 90s. A very close second for me is the hit “Oh Yeah,” a breakbeat-style song that screams “PARTY.” So iconic. In fact, songs from this album would go on to become absolute references for future artists. Big names like Skrillex, Lorde and Disclosure have already publicly cited Daft Punk as being an influential part of their personal works. From here, Daft Punk would go on to become one of the biggest names of the EDM genre, recording Platinum and gold certified songs like “One More Time”, “Harder Better Faster Stronger” and “Get Lucky” and kickstarting a whole new phase of music making…around the world.