Daft Punk Split Up, and Fans Are Devastated

The helmeted EDM artists known as Daft Punk have broken up after 28 years of collaboration, their publicist revealed on February 22.

Per Variety, their publicist confirmed a “split” but didn’t provide any other details, like whether or not the duo might collaborate under a different name in the future. Variety‘s article speculates that the “contrarian” musicians might not be retiring in the traditional sense, as they’ve long rebuked the conventional music industry standards.

As one producer mused online, “If there’s one thing that art always wants to do, it’s to embrace change. Maybe Daft Punk want to do something 100% different with their creativity, or maybe the music industry changed so much in these 28 years that they don’t like it anymore. It’s up to us to carry the torch now.”

The French DJs, whose real names are Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, announced their “split” in an eight-minute video called “Epilogue,” which was posted to YouTube. In the video, two figures walk through a desert. A figure in a silver helmet presses a button on a pack the figure in the gold helmet is wearing, then walks away. The man in the gold helmet explodes, and the sun rises as the duo’s song “Touch” plays. If you have questions, well, love is the answer…

Daft Punk’s most recent album was 2013’s Grammy-winning Random Access Memories. Since then, they’ve collaborated a bit with The Weeknd. But given that it’s been a while, some are suggesting that this split might not be so out of the blue…

On Twitter, fans mourned the end of a beloved act.

They also joked about the band’s iconic helmets, posting pictures of other pairs with their faces covered to accompany their “RIP” sentiments:

BRB, listening to “Get Lucky” and ordering a metallic helmet online to cover our tears as we process these emotions.