The Discovery Era ( 2001 – 2005 )

In the first circa, Daft Punk wore various kind of helmets (they were simple and a bit complex). Then the LED company called LED FX worked with their helmets and created some mould breaking variations which made the helmets capable to display texts and sync the texts (effects) to the music.
Features :
•    Displayed LEDs and effects
•    The gauntlets had buttons which could control some stored animations to be displayed.
•    The helmets had a pin-hole size that would help them to see it through.
•    Thomas’s helmet had ventilation holes just below his visor.

Transition Helmets

People used to misrecognize this as the Discovery Era’s helmets, but if you look closely, you’ll see some differences on them. The transtition helmets were sharper that the old ones but the new ones didn’t provide many LED’s displays since the backpacks (used for the batteries) were not used anymore. And yes, this helped Thomas and Guy-Man to do more moves and make them more flexible.
Features :
•    A brand new sculpt of the helmets including smaller size and sharper details.
•    New but smaller LED displays.
o    Thomas’ display is comprised of a single row of red LEDs.
o    Guy-Man’s display appears to be limited to just two greed LED eyes (although not commonly used).
•    Thomas’ visor is tinted red, Guy-Man’s is mirror gold.
•    The helmets separate into two halves.
•    The back of Guy-Mans helmet is now permanently present, and the gap is filled with fake green, white and red wires.

The Human After All Era ( 2005 – 2010 )

For the Human After All Era (HAAE), Daft Punk made a whole differences on their helmets (as well their music went to another dimension) which reflected to their image. The HAEE’s helmets were modified to smaller shape and size. From the various effects that the helmets could produce, they went to the simpler feature and tend to the millennium colours (the visors are black). If you observe on Thomas’ helmet smile, it’s not a smile anymore, but a just a  lit. On the gloves, they got the same gloves not like the previous one they got different gloves. In the HAEE, they had two kinds of their helmets’ stock. First, they have the backup helmets and second, they have the encore helmets.
Features :
•    The gloves were made of lycra/spandex which helped them more in using their instruments.
•    The ribbed neck covers were not used anymore.
•    Their encore helmets’ suit had wired on them that would turned red.

The Tron Era ( 2010 – Present )

As Daft Punk appeared as cameors in Tron Legacy (2010), their helmets were produced by Ironhead Studios, which was a company that worked for the film’s special effects. The helmets featured a dull metal finish and white/light blue LEDs. The looks of the helmets have turned edgier than the previous ones.
Features :
•    Guy-Man’s helmet now lacks:
o    The false wires on the back.
o    The false LEDs and audio jack at the bottom of the ear
o    The black/dark green circle in the cone of the ear
•    In general, Guy-Man’s helmet has been streamlined, and many gaps have been filled in.
•    Thomas’ helmet now has a black mesh behind his mouth
•    Their gloves seem all new, including the currently unidentified fabric.

We surely can’t wait to listen to Daft Punk’s newest album, Random Access Memories, that will be released on May 20th 2013. To sneak on how the album will most likely sound, let’s check on the crowd’s recorded video of Daft Punk’s teaser at Coachella 2013.

Source : The Daft Club

But, Who is actually the mastermind behind this harlem shake wave? It’s all started by Baauer, a 23 year old man who has been dedicating himself for hip-hop ever since he was 13. He was born in West Philadelphia with a name Harry Rodrigues. His life as a boy wasn’t surrounded by a hip-hop culture, he spent his early age in Germany. And it didn’t stop there, after spending from age 4 to 7 in Germany, he moved to London until he turned 13 then to Connecticut for the next four years. His nomads life happened due to his father employment as a financial consultant for an international company. His father is not even a hip-hop person, he often played jazz and classic rock, meanwhile the young Baauer discovered a hip-hop life in a suburb side in Connecticut. Baauer’s influence was just being the 180 degrees view to his father’s music idol. His father is pretty much into Led Zeppelin and Baauer digs into Dr. Octagon, Madlib, and MF Doom.

His way in becoming a DJ was caused over a night when he surfed on Youtube, checked out amount of videos of  The DMC World DJ Champions, and by that moment, the seed of his DJ’s life began. His debut gig was at the local place in Connecticut, at Toquet Hall Teen Center. In 2007, he moved to New York and continue his study in Audio technology at City College. If you think his journey to the stardom was a cakewalk, they you are wrong. Baauer went to a bunch of unsuccessful projects in producing dance music. Then he took a different side of it, became more influenced by hip-hop, and he decided to change his name into Baauer. That name was not inspired by Jack Bauer or even a iced hockey company called Bauer, but he took that name from his middle name, Bauer, then later he added more “A” to make some differences. There it came the name, Baauer.

As he said to The Daily Beast “This time last year, I had just started the Baauer project and I told myself I was going to really commit to this one thing and pursue it full-time. So I just started practicing all the time making beats. I’d start a beat and make myself finish it by the end of the day.”.

The Birth of Harlem Shake

To Baauer, Harlem shake was not born because of the swiveling shoulder move in 1982, but originally the track’s sample, Philadelphia rapper Plastic Little’s “Miller Time”. He stated “A friend had shown me that track where he says, then do the Harlem shake, and it just got stuck in my head for a while, so I used it,” . Then people started posting some crazy viral videos to his facebook page. The underwater one is one his favourite works.

Azealia Banks even put her harlem shake version, which apparently pretty much has become an issue for Baauer. Previously, Baauer has warned Banks to not releasing it because he and his partners don’t like how her version works. After a couple of warnings from his side, Azealia Banks dropped a bomb, she released her own Harlem Shake online. It’s actually not a huge surprise to Baauer, because some people have said that Banks likes to put a beef with some music producers.

AZEALIA BANKS – HARLEM SHAKE REMIX from Rony Alwin on Vimeo.

Baauer doesn’t want to put more spices into his beef with Azealia Banks and decided to be more focus in his future career. He has done some meeting with Columbia Records and f upcoming festivals, including SXSW in Austin, WMC in Miami, and Coachella in Indio, plus will be a co-headliner with a rapper Danny Brown in Australia and Europe. Harlem Shake itself has hit 175 million views on YouTube and this song peaks on the chart in US, Australia, and New Zealand.

Well, hope we will see some great works from Mr.Baauer in the future. And his career doesn’t end up as a fever which will be gone in the next few moments. So, Let’s do the harlem shake!