The duo of Bangalter and de Honem-Cristo first met at the Lycée Carnot, a secondary school in Paris. Together with Laurent Brancowitz, they formed the band Darlin' in 1992. That year, the band was invited to play an opening act for a Duophonic Records show in the UK. Later, the Melody Maker magazine gave a negative review of the band, in which they labeled the music "a bunch of daft punk." In 1993, Brancowitz departed to join the band Phoenix, and Bangalter and de Honem-Cristo renamed the band Daft Punk.
In 1994, Daft Punk released their debut single "The New Wave/Alive" under the label Soma Quality Recordings. Their second single, "Da Funk," was released in 1995 and proved to be the band's first big hit, and in 1996 the band signed with Virgin Records. The band's full length debut, Homework, arrived in 1997, and was hailed as a innovative mixture of electro, house and techno styles.
In 1999, the band returned to the studio to record their follow-up to 1997's Homework. The release of their second album, Discovery, in 2001 shocked some fans, as the music was oriented more towards a slick synthpop style. Featuring many samples from songs of the 1970s and '80s, Daft Punk has publicly stated that the album was conceived as an attempt to reconnect with the feeling of childhood discovery. Four singles from the album made their way into the U.K. and U.S. dance music charts, including "Face to Face," which reached No. 1 in the US.
In late 2004, Daft Punk returned to the studio to begin recording for their third album, Human After All. The album was met with mixed reviews, with some critics claiming that it felt rushed and repetitive. Their first anthology release, Musique Vol. 1 1993-2006, was released in 2006. That year, Daft Punk directed their first film, "Daft Punk's Electroma," which was premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2007, the band released the Alive 2007 album, which featured live performances from a 2007 performance in Paris and would become the group's first Grammy-winning album.
Although Daft Punk has not released an album since Alive 2007, they have worked on 11 new mixes of their songs for the game DJ Hero. At the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con, the band announced that they had composed the soundtrack for the film Tron: Legacy. The soundtrack, which features an 85-piece orchestra, is a mixture of electronic and orchestral music. In the film, Daft Punk makes an animated cameo appearance, with the members wearing their trademark on-stage robot helmets.