The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation announced its 2025 nominees for the Hall of Fame! In the list as one nominee is Joy Division/New Order. This is a bittersweet moment in musical history that not everyone knows about. In Gen X Watch, columnist Jeremy Ritch has written about the importance of not being a Gatekeeper of Joy. Musical discovery happens in the now, but it also happens in then. Why 2 bands in one listing?
The Line Up and the Pact
The line-up for Joy Division included Ian Curtis, Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, and Stephen Morris. The line-up for New Order includes Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris, and Gillian Gilbert.
At 23 years old, front man Ian Curtis committed suicide on May 18th of 1980. The surviving members of Joy Division started the band New Order with the addition of Gillian Gilbert.
Joy Division is not the only band to lose a member to tragedy. The Rolling Stones, Queen, Metallica, Def Leppard, Stone Temple Pilots, Depeche Mode and the Foo Fighters are just a few who have lost key members and still perform without changing the band’s name. Why New Order instead of Joy Division?
According to RadioX, there was a pact made by the band before Ian died. If for any reason someone left the band, they would quit performing under the Joy Division name and retire those songs. The band held to it’s principals. At the funeral they knew they had to start over. At that moment they had no singer, no songs, and no name. But they were still a band.
What New Order Left Behind With Joy Division
Joy Division was known for their haunting melodies, stark lyrics, and raw energy. Their sound and style influenced many other bands, including The Cure, Radiohead, and Interpol.
More than any other band they ushered in the era of post punk refining the chaos of 1970’s punk. They formed shortly after seeing a Sex Pistols concert in 1976. By 1978 they truly had their own sound that, though founded on punk, had developed a unique sparse vibe that captured not only Manchester, but the world. John Bush of AllMusic said Joy Division “became the first band in the post-punk movement by emphasizing not anger and energy but mood and expression, pointing ahead to the rise of melancholy alternative music in the ’80s.”
As a band they only released 2 studio albums while Ian was still alive, Unknown Pleasures and Closer (Still released in 1981 posthumously). In that short time the mark was made. Music was changing and new genres were born from their haunting melodies.
Could they continue that energy or would they lose momentum? That which we call Joy Division, by any other name, would it sound as sweet?
New Order
New Order not only continued their momentum as a band, but continued to innovate and grow. In AllMusic’s biography on New Order, Jason Ankeny said their fusion of post-punk, electronic and dance music made them one of the most acclaimed and influential bands of the 1980s.
With more than 30 nominations and 15 industry awards won and over 3,790,000 albums, including 1,500,000 in the United States and 1,740,000 in the United Kingdom (Substance alone sold over 1,100,000 copies) they ruled the 80s and continued to change the face and sound of music.
It is hard to believe they only have hit the Billboard Hot 100 six times. Songs like Bizarre Love Triangle and Blue Monday are iconic, beloved, and often covered.
They continued to inspire. Coldcave, Chromatics, Xx, CHVRCHES, the Killers, Moby and many others in techno, dance, electronic, synth wave, and countless others have entered music to create, innovate and inspire as well.
One Band? Two Bands?
Is Joy Division/New Order one band or two distinct bands connected by a complex legacy and three artists in both line ups?
It is a complex, unique, and beautiful era of music that is unlike any of the other bands who have lost members. In the midst of the beauty is a tragic loss. Ian was haunted by depression, epilepsy, and a broken marriage he wanted to mend.
Ian Curtis’ loss and Joy Division is spoken of in the upcoming book Hearts of Glass Living in the Real World. It is a subtle foreshadowing of things to come in books 2 and 3. The real life people two of the characters were based on were affected by suicide. Ian’s end would represent something to them both, and like Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, and Stephen Morris, those who lose a loved one have a felt duty to stay true to promises and move on beautifully with a bit of the lost loved one still within them.
There are amazing artists up for nominations to the Hall of Fame this year. Some of them have been written about in Gen X Watch.
Joy Division/New Order changed the face of music twice and the concentric circles of beauty from tragedy still ripple today.
In the wake of Ian’s passing the Joy Division songs Atmosphere and Love Will Tear Us Apart are bittersweet tragic beautiful. While no one should have to die young, if something beautiful can be made by the friends in a New Order, that is hall of fame worthy.
Honor the one you lost with something beautiful today.
Stay Totally Awesome!
Stay True to You!
Help Hearts of Glass Living in the Real World and Get a Free Book!
Ford is a traumatized former child model. Cassie is the epitome of DIY punk with a life full of poverty and pain serving smoothies at the Orange Julius. Finally there is Jenny, a young preppy with talent and dreams held back by a society not designed for women like her.
As their lives intersect in the late 1980’s at the Fox Valley Mall in Aurora, Illinois, there will be love, confusion, and dangerous adversaries with wealth and power. Ford, Cassie and Jenny just have each other. Will it be enough? How do they survive as Hearts of Glass Living in the Real World?
By going to the indiegogo, you can not only secure yourself advance copies of the book, special merch, and experiences, but you get to help provide copies to teens that live in shelters and seek resources in community centers. You also provide opportunities for ASL translators at our speaking events about this wonderful book. Go to the link, get your copy, and help others!
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/be-part-of-the-hearts-of-glass-story-and-mission/x/38415051#
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