Rant: Think You're Down With Daft Punk?

Once upon a time, I was a dancer. Tap, jazz, ballet; I moved in whirlwinds. I can remember the first time Daft Punk reached into my ten year-old pop culture-oriented bubble with the song “One More Time” and I was hooked. Daft Punk taught me to feel idealistic and high before I was aware these things existed. And, God, the music made me dance, smiling all the while because the rhythms were so perfect they didn’t require thought, only spontaneity, only desire. I come from a world that survives in its own bubble of blue-collar work and country music. To be deviant there is to listen to heavy metal. It’s as if the anger in the metal and the inauthentic sadness in the country kept people in their pointless place. The first time music had me feeling free from this dejected state was with Daft Punk and, man, was the release incredible.

You like Daft Punk? Saw them at Lollapalooza last year, did you? I bet it was awesome, like so cool, way better even than a Dave Mathews band concert and maybe even the Incubus concert you attended in seventh grade. You may have taken ecstasy; you may have danced; someone may have handed you a copy of Alive 2007 and you may have played it for your friends.

Fuck that noise. I remember back in the fall, after I’d missed Daft Punk’s U.S. tour, after the summer closed and the few remaining leaves dallied in the treetops, I finally bought a copy of Alive 2007 . The energy was just as I’d remembered; quicker paced maybe, but the world is growing more quickly paced all the time. I’d wake up in the morning and throw the album on and the music would release energy just as efficient as a shot of caffeine. But I hadn’t been at Lollapalooza and the music was not nearly as awe-inspiring or like a life-reaffirming orgasm as Discovery and Homework had been.

At this point, I lost interest in Daft Punk, right around the same time the whole wide world seemed to find them again. Soon, I noticed people getting fratty to Alive 2007 . My younger sister and her friends were even down with the album. Then, Kanye West fucking wrote a song featuring Daft Punk. It's hard to explain exactly how this made me feel. Alright, sometimes when I listen to music, I’ll play something repeatedly in one sitting or in one day or over a period of several months—until it becomes nearly impossible to play further. Alive 2007 became like this. Everywhere I went, someone irritating was talking about how fucking cool he or she found Alive 2007 . As quickly as it takes to bong a beer, Daft Punk became the “it” of the party scene, alongside such staples as “Crank Dat” or “Doin Time.” It made me feel as if half of the universe went to see them this past summer.

Yeah, I get it. I missed the concert of a lifetime, bä, bä, bä. But don’t tell me how “fun” Daft Punk is or how “cool” they were live. Their music is so much more than a go-big-or-go-home party. Daft Punk is about being ten and wearing a tutu to the grocery store because it’s your favorite piece of clothing. Daft Punk is about taking your first shot of everclear and making out with someone in the back of a pick-up truck. Daft punk is spinning on merry-go-rounds, running along the highway, lighting firecrackers, sleeping under the stars, burning bridges and building new ones, drinking soda pop from a glass bottle, and dancing under spotlights for the first time. Daft Punk is perfect for packing a bowl the first time since high school, lighting it slowly and falling in love with the world all over again. I’m tired of something so incendiary being played off as a commonplace trend. Maybe it’s great that Daft Punk’s music is again finding its way into everyone’s repertoire; but, it doesn’t feel fucking great. It feels like Cinderella was allowed to dress up, go to the ball, and even lose her glass slipper—all in order for the shoe to fit her ugly stepsister instead.