Daft Punk - Around The World

What this video is

Released April 1997 as the second single from Daft Punk's debut album Homework, 'Around the World' arrived at the apex of the French House movement's global breakthrough. The video crystallised a distinctly European approach to electronic music visual culture: theatrical, choreographically rigorous, and structured around musical formalism rather than narrative or artist persona. Its circular stage and…

Why it matters

A canonical text of the French House and electronica music video genre. Establishes the concept-choreography format as a legitimate alternative to performance and narrative modes. Gondry's insistence on wide-frame, slow-cut presentation of dance set a counter-precedent to the fast-editing MTV norm…

The director

French filmmaker and producer born 8 May 1963 in Versailles, France. Began career directing music videos for French rock band Oui Oui (of which he was drummer), before Björk commissioned him to direct 'Human Behaviour' (1993). Known for inventive visual…