Daft Punk – Da Funk
Daft Punk – Da Funk (1995)
Directed by: Spike Jonze
“Da Funk” is an instrumental track by Daft Punk initially released as a single in 1995 and later included on their debut album Homework. “Da Funk” and its accompanying video directed by Spike Jonze are considered classics of 1990s house music. A reversed clip of “Da Funk” was also released on Homework as “Funk Ad”, which is the final track on the album.
“Da Funk” was initially released as a 12 inch single in 1995 under the Soma Quality Recordings label, with the B-side “Rollin’ & Scratchin'”. The pressing was limited to 2,000 copies and was “virtually ignored” according to a Muzik magazine feature at the time. The single received a boost in popularity when The Chemical Brothers incorporated it into their live shows. Subsequently the British duo’s song “Life Is Sweet” was remixed by Daft Punk for a single release in August 1995.
Daft Punk eventually signed with Virgin Records in late 1996 after a bidding war amongst several labels. “Da Funk” was re-released by Virgin with the B-side “Musique”, a track that later appeared in the album Musique Vol. 1 1993-2005. The duo’s debut album Homework features “Da Funk” as well as a reversed excerpt titled “Funk Ad”. Daft Punk expressed that they wanted to make the album balanced by distributing tracks evenly across each of the four vinyl sides.
“Da Funk” went on to sell 30,000 copies in 1997. The prominent French club magazine Coda named it the number one single with 33 percent of the vote. In September 2010 Pitchfork Media included the song at number 18 on their Top 200 Tracks of the 90s. In 2011, the song was featured in the video game Top Spin 4.
The track’s music video was directed by Spike Jonze and entitled Big City Nights. It focuses on the character Charles (Tony Maxwell), an anthropomorphic dog in a leg cast with a crutch wearing urban clothing. Charles, who has lived in New York City for only one month, is shown walking around with a boombox blasting “Da Funk” at a high volume. His hobbled walk is made fun of by a pair of children. He is turned down when he attempts to participate in a public survey. His boombox annoys a bookseller on the sidewalk from whom Charles buys a paperback novel entitled Big City Nights. Charles meets a woman named Beatrice (Catherine Kellner), who was once his childhood neighbor. They agree to have dinner together at her home, traveling by way of a city bus. Beatrice boards the bus, but Charles is startled by a sign stating “NO RADIOS”. As he is unable to turn off his boombox (which is earlier indicated to have a broken/missing volume button) he reluctantly remains at the bus stop, as the bus drives off with Beatrice.
Although the video has drawn several interpretations, Thomas Bangalter has stated:
There’s no story. It is just a man-dog walking with a ghetto-blaster in New York. The rest is not meant to say anything. People are trying to explain it: Is it about human tolerance? Integration? Urbanism? There’s really no message. There will be a sequel someday.
