Get lucky: The song that has swept the nation

On Friday 19th April at 5.01am GMT Daft Punk released ‘Get Lucky’ off their long-awaited album Random Access Memories (RAM) and changed the course of history. No, not really but they did improve my weekend.

Producer and Daft Punk teammate Todd Edwards had anticipated that the French electronic duo would ‘intoxicate and infect everyone’ with their new funky sound and he wasn’t wrong. In collaboration with Pharrell Williams and with guitar work from disco mastermind Nile Rodgers, yesterday the track broke the Spotify record in the UK and US, to become the most listened to track over a 24 hour period in the history of the service – overtaking Bastille’s ‘Pompeii’ in the UK and Macklemore’s ‘Thrift Shop’ in the US. It has also reached Number One in the iTunes chart in 14 countries and, according to THR, stirred up more Twitter buzz on Friday than Coachella headliner, Blur.

This morning I woke up to the 70’s inspired disco track wafting up from the basement flat below me, and showered to its resonation through my neighbour’s bedroom wall. Everyone bloody loves it: from Justin Beliebers to Eliphino (who emphatically defended the track on Saturday night at the Under Canvas after party). Somehow these two French robots have brought soul back to music. They’ve delved into the past to propel into the future and good on them I say.

However – and without detracting too much from their success – I can’t help but wonder whether the track would have generated the same worldwide buzz without leaning on a highly intelligent and financially unrestrained marketing campaign. Above and beyond the usual billboard posters, Daft Punk have indulged in TV trailers, behind the scene features, extensive track previews, and have shown exemplary management of social media. (Just yesterday the track listings for the upcoming RAM were released, of all places, on video sharing app Vine.)

In a shrewd collaboration with Saint Laurent (the newly branded YSL) the French duo strategically sport glittery Le Smoking jackets created exclusively by creative director Heidi Slimane in their ‘Get Lucky’ video and have also signed up to interviews with the ‘Creators Project’ – an unlikely and wildly successful collaboration between snarky hipster turned worldwide media empire, Vice, and the technology buffs at Intel (Vice does the culture, Intel does the funding). The Daft Punk team also showed face at Coachella in California last week with a two-minute ‘Get Lucky’ preview teaser for fans.

They did nearly stab themselves in the back after fake versions proliferated online, and were forced to bring forward their release date – but arguably this only generated more hype.

This all considered, it would be unfair to give all the credit to bang-on marketing. We must remember that if a product is bad, it will not sell regardless of how beautifully it is curated. We must remember that ‘Get Lucky’ is not a bad product; quite the opposite. ‘Get Lucky’ is a good product that has been fantastically positioned to become a great product. ‘Get Lucky’ stayed up all night to make her own luck, and is a worthy recipient of all her funky glory.

Whether the hype will hold out until the album release on 20th May remains to be seen, but I have a sneaky suspicion that it might.