Baauer Breaks Down Daft Punk’s Iconic Single ‘Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger’

Watch Baauer break down some of Daft Punk’s most iconic songs including their hit single, “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.’

Grammy-nominated DJ and producer Baauer has posted yet another in-depth breakdown of Daft Punk’s music. In the video, Baauer highlights the structure of ‘Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger‘ and talks about the original sample that inspired the iconic track. 

‘Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger’ was initially sampled from funk musician Edwin Birdsong on his song ‘Cola Bottle Baby’ made in 1979. The beloved French DJ’s take snippets from the song at 0:00 and 4:51. Baauer explains that the duo “didn’t do much” to the sample besides chopping and speeding up some of the lyrics and adding a kick drum to the track. 

Baauer exposes Daft Punk’s simplicity by playing the two songs back-to-back. He claimed that he was surprised when he heard the similarity of the two tracks when first hearing the sample. 

This actually isn’t the first time Baauer has posted a video breakdown of Daft Punk’s music. In November, Baauer posted a video to TikTok about Daft Punk’s single ‘Face to Face.” By using AI, Baauer was able to break the samples for ‘Face to Face,’ uncovering that 6 songs were used to produce Draft Punk’s tune. 

A month later, Baauer released another installment of this breakdown series to Daft Punk’s song, “Superheroes.” Baauer dissects the single and how it sampled Barry Manilow’s, ‘Who’s Been Sleeping In My Bed.”

After explaining that the song comes from one of his favorite albums of all time, ‘Discovery,’ he uncovers that the song is inspired by a single verse that is then chopped up and looped from beginning to end. Appearing at 0:21 of Barry Manilow’s disco banger, the sample is repeated over and over again. With the success of Daft Punk and their meteoric rise in the 2000s, it is evident that using samples to create new tunes is a favorable way to produce music.

Kathryn Allyn

My favorite thing in the whole world is music and after hearing “One” by Swedish House Mafia for the first time in 2014, I was hooked on EDM. Dance music has been a large part of who I am and will always be searching for new ways to incorporate it in my life. The pure bliss that I feel from live shows is a feeling I never want to stop chasing (iykyk). Some of my favorite artists are Flume, Rüfüs Du Sol, Mindchatter, Disclosure, Dom Dolla and Fred Again.. 🙂

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