Around the time of the Super Bowl this year, Daft Punk fans everywhere anxiously awaited the robotic duo’s chromatic helmets to emerge on-stage alongside The Weeknd—one of the world’s most influential musicians at the moment. 

Considering the Weeknd’s tracks “Starboy” and “I Feel It Coming” were produced by and featured Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo (the two men behind Daft Punk), many thought there couldn’t have been a more perfect time for the duo to perform live for the first time in nearly a decade.

Not only did this vision for a cameo fizzle out, but a little over a week ago, the musicians uploaded “The Epilogue” to their Youtube channel. This is the first time in five years since they have uploaded a video.

Daft Punk is made up of talented and influential artists who have helped shape the EDM genre and subgenres for nearly three decades. One would hope the break of their radio silence meant a new EP or an announcement that would give hope for the future of the duo. Instead, the video ushered in the end of an era. It has stirred speculations about what caused the split and feelings of mourning from around the world. 

“It’s not very often that a band can be 28 years old and have literally everyone be able to name a multitude of songs from an artist,” said Burk CaHow, a music production major and EDM enthusiast in the Denver area. “It’s not often artists that old can influence and work with newer ones [artists] like The Weeknd and Kanye West.”

In addition to collaborating with newer artists, Daft Punk’s stellar final album “Random Access Memories” intertwined the musical genius of modern collaborators like Julian Casablancas of The Strokes and Pharrell Williams. It also included older music legends like Nile Rodgers and Giorgio Moroder. Very few electronic artists, even the notoriously influential, can boast the same. 

Pop-culturally, the duo recorded the “Tron Legacy” soundtrack, had an anime film backed exclusively by tracks off their album “Discovery” and took the charts by storm with the track “Get Lucky.”

Do a quick Google search, and one finds even more artists who felt personally and musically-inspired by Daft Punk expressing their sadness of the split. Tame Impala’s own frontman Kevin Parker, Porter Robinson, Skrillex, Justice and so many other artists in the electronic/EDM scenes were either directly or indirectly influenced by the performances and philosophy of Daft Punk. 

“Most electronic musicians are only relevant for a few years…Daft Punk always has and always will be at the top of the game,” said Burk CaHow. 

In addition to influencing synthwave, electropop and the like, the duo is also revered for their commitment to remaining relevant and anonymous. The duo didn’t give an acceptance speech or take off their helmets when receiving their Grammy awards. Instead, they relished in an embrace and the present moment of their accomplishment. Thomas Bangalter and Guy de-Manuel de Homem-Christo removed themselves and let their art do the talking, something that is becoming rarer by the day.

“If you look into the musical process, most artists don’t even make any of their songs. If they do, [the songs] are transformed by corporate executives into something that can make more money,” adds CaHow. “There’s a reason why Daft Punk would have gaps in between all of their work. They are passionate, and they don’t want to drop an album if it isn’t going to resonate with people.”

In a way, Daft Punk’s exit from the music scene was inevitable, but not simply because they took lots of time between releasing music or hardly ever went on tour. Every icon in a genre knows when their time has come. Instead of becoming machines that pump out an album every two years hoping for commercial and monetary gain, Daft Punk was determined to use their musical genius at the right moment for the purpose of putting something spectacular into the world. 

The legacy that Daft Punk leaves behind is one that entails not only ground-breaking and genre-shattering contributions, but also one that is pop-culturally significant because of the duo’s commitment to passion over profit.