Songfacts®:

• Much of the Discovery album is rooted in the '70s, but with a synth-pop beat and electronic vocals. On this track, Daft Punk sample the 1979 song "Cola Bottle Baby" by Edwin Birdsong. They also appropriate a famous line from the '70s TV show The Six Million Dollar Man, which states in the intro, "We can rebuild him... better, stronger, faster."
• Kanye West sampled this for his 2007 song "Stronger." West paid homage to Daft Punk by including their characters (they dress in robotic costumes) in the video for his song, and having the duo perform with him at the 2008 Grammy Awards.
• The music video features Japanese animation and was directed by Kazuhisa Takenouchi. It was later used as part of the movie Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem, which is a Japanese film based on the Discovery album. >>>

  Suggestion credit:
  Donovan Berry - El Dorado, AR, for above 3
• In 2007, a clever YouTube video surfaced called "Daft Hands," which shows a set of hands rendering the lyrics to this song. This led to many variations, including the inevitable "Daft Bodies."
• "Harder Better Faster Stronger" is, for the most part, a very typical Daft Punk track: a four-to-the-floor beat; funky-style guitars and bass sample (Edwin Birdsong's Cola Bottle Baby); and the common heavily processed vocals. The first half is clearly in a House style, unsurprising for the duo, yet the whole track is arranged in an overall ABC structure, which is unusual in EDM (it's normally ABAB). The C section is particularly interesting in its sudden change to a half-time rhythm, turning to a more hip-hop/R&B style, drawing on influences from urban American music instrumentally. This is unexpected due to the tendency of EDM to reach a breakdown section (heard here at 2:02) before climaxing for a second time with a variation of the original theme. Instead, however, the violation of this expectancy by the half-time change and refusal to return to the main theme takes Harder Better Faster Stronger away from being a straight-up EDM track.
  
  The solo featured in the second and third sections using the vocal sample (possibly achieved by loading the vocal clips into a sampler and improvising using a synthesizer) also links strongly to the jazz tradition, again an urban American music style originally.
• The vocals could be argued to draw similarities to Radiohead's "Fitter Happier" in both their computerized sound and their lyrical content. However, while Daft Punk's vocals are set to a positive, upbeat, melodic backing, Radiohead's lack any sort of melody and continue on a series of melancholic metaphors for the comfortable yet passionless existence of humans in modern, technologically aided society. While these two could be coincidental, the fact that Radiohead's version came four years before Daft Punk's could suggest an influence on the duo and potentially an alternative meaning to "Harder Better Faster Stronger."
• Wondering what this song sounds like with a female vocalist and some French lyrics thrown in? Check out the 2019 cover by Pomplamoose, which has over 10 million views on YouTube.
• Want to hear "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" played by an orchestra of electric toothbrushes? Check out this video.