10 Music Artists Who Quit In Their Prime
6. Daft Punk
Like some kind of 21st Century update on Kraftwerk’s Man Machine aesthetic, Daft Punk are almost as well known for their robot outfits as their groundbreaking music. Nonetheless, the French duo remain one of dance music’s most successful and influential proponents.
Released in 2013, the pair’s fourth album, Random Access Memories, was their most successful yet. This was an impressive achievement given the acclaim and popularity already achieved by their earlier work. Lead single Get Lucky, featuring Pharrell Williams, became the most streamed new song in the history of Spotify and Daft Punk won five Grammys including album of the year.
The same year Daft Punk Co-produced Kanye West’s Yeezus and looked set to go from strength to strength. However, with fans eager for new material, no new album emerged. Instead the band have focused on projects such as documentaries, a pop-up shop selling the band’s memorabilia and an art exhibition.
The only new music from the band being two 2017 tracks in collaboration with The Weeknd. One of those tracks, Starboy, topped the Billboard Hot 100, giving the band their only US number one and confirming the remaining appetite for Daft Punk music.
Sadly, February of last year saw the band release a cryptic video featuring one robot exploding and the other walking away. Later the same day their publicist confirmed the pair had split. The reason behind the split remains as mysterious as the men behind the robot masks.