History Music / JoyDivision

+Influenced: Music/{{The Cure|Band}}, Music/TheSmiths, Music/TalkingHeads, Music/{{U2}}, Music/{{Radiohead}}, Music/PetShopBoys, Music/DepecheMode, Music/TheJesusAndMaryChain, Music/TheBirthdayParty, Music/NickCave, Music/{{Moby}}, Music/TenThousandManiacs, Music/ArcadeFire, Music/JanesAddiction, Music/TheSmashingPumpkins, Music/TVOnTheRadio, Music/HenryRollins

The band are portrayed by actors in the movies: ''Film/TwentyFourHourPartyPeople'' and ''Film/{{Control}}.'' The former is a {{biopic}} of Factory Records head Tony Wilson, with Joy Division playing a major role, along with their manager Rob Gretton, in the first part of the film, with some remaining members throughout the second act as New Order personnel. The latter is a biopic of Ian Curtis himself, directed by photographer Creator/AntonCorbijn, who often worked with the band during their early years, and directed the music video for "Atmosphere".

** ''Unknown Pleasures'' has "This is the way / Step inside" (lyric from "The Atrocity Exhibition")

** "Atmosphere" 12": "Here are the young men / But where have they been" (lyric from "Decades")
** ''Still'' has "The chicken won't stop / (chicken tracks) / (chicken tracks) / The chicken stops here"

** Music/TalkingHeads composed their song "The Overload" (from ''Music/RemainInLight'') as a pastiche of Joy Division, albeit [[HalfRememberedHomage based entirely on press descriptions]] due to the fact that none of the band members had actually heard Joy Division's music at the time. The end result was actually fairly similar to Joy Division's slower material, such as "I Remember Nothing" or the "In a Lonely Place" demo.

* LeadBassist: Peter Hook carried the melody on a Rickenbacker bass, not unlike [[{{Music/Yes}} Chris Squire]] or [[{{Music/Rush}} Geddy Lee]]. His tendency to play basslines rather high up on the bass came about because in the early days of the band, it was the only way he could be heard with a weak amplifier. Hook's playing inspired many subsequent indie rock bassists to use the upper register of the instrument. In fact, Bernard Sumner once said he's more into "rhythm and chords" than melody.

* RefrainFromAssuming: No, the song is not called "Remember When We Were Young". It's called "Insight".

+Influences: Music/DavidBowie, Music/TheDoors, Music/SexPistols, Music/TheStooges, Music/IggyPop, Music/{{MC5}}, Music/VelvetUnderground, Music/{{Can}}, Music/MarcBolan, Music/VanDerGraafGenerator, Music/{{Kraftwerk}}, Music/RoxyMusic, Music/TalkingHeads

-> ''And resentment rides high but emotions won't grow''
And we're changing our ways, taking different road
Then love, love will tear us apart."''

->''"When routine bites hard and ambitions are low//
And resentment rides high but emotions won't grow//
And we're changing our ways, taking different roads//

->''"Love will tear us apart again."''

+Influenced: Music/{{The Cure|Band}}, Music/TheSmiths, Music/TalkingHeads, Music/{{U2}}, Music/{{Radiohead}}, Music/PetShopBoys, Music/DepecheMode, Music/TheJesusAndMaryChain, Music/TheBirthdayParty, Music/NickCave, Music/{{Moby}}, Music/TenThousandManiacs, Music/ArcadeFire, Music/JanesAddiction, Music/TheSmashingPumpkins, Music/TVOnTheRadio

* RepurposedPopSong: "New Dawn Fades" from ''Unknown Pleasures'' was used in a trailer for the survival MMO game ''VideoGame/MemoriesOfMars''.

+Influenced: Music/TheCure, Music/TheSmiths, Music/TalkingHeads, Music/{{U2}}, Music/{{Radiohead}}, Music/PetShopBoys, Music/DepecheMode, Music/TheJesusAndMaryChain, Music/TheBirthdayParty, Music/NickCave, Music/{{Moby}}, Music/TenThousandManiacs, Music/ArcadeFire, Music/JanesAddiction, Music/TheSmashingPumpkins, Music/TVOnTheRadio

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}:
** Producer Martin Hannett. Various legends state that Hannett forced drummer Stephen Morris to take apart his drum-kit and re-assemble it with toilet parts, made Morris continue recording for an hour after the rest of the band finished a song, set up his drum-kit on the studio's first-floor roof, and once went on a hill to record "silence" for an extended period of time.
** This was such a defining trait of Hannett's that Music/JelloBiafra of Music/DeadKennedys actually [[TakeThat made a jab]] at him in the StudioChatter at the beginning of the Kennedys' track "Nazi Punks Fuck Off":
--->'''Biafra:''' "Nazi Punks Fuck Off", overproduced by Martin Hannett, Take 4.
** Yet, despite all the weird things he did and the legends that accumulated about him, Hannett was [[BunnyEarsLawyer a master producer]] whose oddball experiments were pioneering in their use of space in sound recording. His use of delay circuits set to the lowest possible setting (i.e. the wrong way to use a delay circuit) created a sparse, eerie sound that's just as instrumental in inventing GothRock as Joy Division themselves were.
** Hannett's heroin addiction is often cited as either [[ArtisticStimulation crucial to his signature sound]], or [[ImmuneToDrugs mysteriously irrelevant]]. Joy Division's legend nurtures profuse [[EpilepticTrees theories]]: Among the more popular is that epilepsy somehow kindled Ian Curtis' song-writing prowess (in this instance, the Trope Name might seem apropos, until you give it a bit more thought and realize it's irrelevant). Even before he started seriously using heroin in the early '80s, Hannett was known to [[EruditeStoner indulge in large quantities of hash]], though his stoned behaviour was pretty much identical to his sober behaviour.

* DeadArtistsAreBetter: There are way more Music/NewOrder albums, but there is a morbid reason why the band was such a critical favorite on both sides of the Atlantic in the wake of Ian Curtis' suicide.

* MohsScaleOfLyricalHardness: Usually 6-7, sometimes up to an 8. Their songs pretty much all had lyrics that were... Less than happy, but the level varied somewhat. However, a general lack of profanity or explicit references to sex or violence (not to mention the poetic nature of the lyrics) keeps them from reaching the highest end of the scale.
* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Averaged around 3-5, with some that drop down to a 2 and a few that arguably go up to a 6. Their music is very haunting, but for the most part it isn't really that harsh.

* ScaryMusicianHarmlessMusic: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] with Stephen Morris. His drumming (aided by Martin Hannett's production) is one of the biggest contributing factors to the eeriness of Joy Division's music, but he's a goofball who loves World War II history and ''Series/DoctorWho.''

+Influences: Music/DavidBowie, Music/TheDoors, Music/SexPistols, Music/TheStooges, Music/IggyPop, Music/{{MC5}}, Music/VelvetUnderground, Music/{{Can}}, Music/MarcBolan, Music/VanDerGraafGenerator, Music/{{Kraftwerk}}, Music/RoxyMusic

+Influenced: Music/TheCure, Music/TheSmiths, Music/TalkingHeads, Music/{{U2}}, Music/{{Radiohead}}, Music/PetShopBoys, Music/DepecheMode, Music/TheJesusAndMaryChain, Music/TheBirthdayParty, Music/NickCave, Music/{{Moby}}, Music/TenThousandManiacs, Music/ArcadeFire

+Influences: Music/DavidBowie, Music/TheDoors, Music/SexPistols, Music/TheStooges, Music/IggyPop, Music/{{MC5}}, Music/VelvetUnderground, Music/{{Can}}, Music/MarcBolan, Music/VanDerGraafGenerator, Music/{{Kraftwerk}}

----

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Music Tropes]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Misc. Tropes]]
* AllPartOfTheShow: Curtis' on-stage seizures were mistaken for his frenetic dancing style at first. After it was known he had epilepsy, fans would show up sometimes ''hoping'' he would go into a seizure during shows, which Ian alludes to in the opening lines of "The Atrocity Exhibition": "''For entertainment they watch his body twist / Behind his eyes he says, 'I still exist.'''"
* BadassBeard: One of Peter Hook's visual trademarks.
* {{Bookworm}}: Ian Curtis was an avid reader. His lyrics were influenced by authors like JG Ballard and Creator/FranzKafka. Curtis also expressed a wish to someday own a bookstore.
* BrokenBird: ''Ian Curtis'', who suffered from depression and epilepsy issues. Add in a collapsing marriage and the stress of becoming a big band ''and'' toppled with people just wanting to see you dance despite it being caused by said epilepsy issues and you have a man who didn't live past 30.
* CassandraTruth: Annik Honoré tried to warn Tony Wilson that Ian Curtis was suicidal but he brushed her off, saying that Ian's dark lyrics were just poetic license. Come May 18, 1980, and Curtis would be found dead by his own hand.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}:
** Producer Martin Hannett. Various legends state that Hannett forced drummer Stephen Morris to take apart his drum-kit and re-assemble it with toilet parts, made Morris continue recording for an hour after the rest of the band finished a song, set up his drum-kit on the studio's first-floor roof, and once went on a hill to record "silence" for an extended period of time.
** This was such a defining trait of Hannett's that Music/JelloBiafra of Music/DeadKennedys actually [[TakeThat made a jab]] at him in the StudioChatter at the beginning of the Kennedys' track "Nazi Punks Fuck Off":
--->'''Biafra:''' "Nazi Punks Fuck Off", overproduced by Martin Hannett, Take 4.
** Yet, despite all the weird things he did and the legends that accumulated about him, Hannett was [[BunnyEarsLawyer a master producer]] whose oddball experiments were pioneering in their use of space in sound recording. His use of delay circuits set to the lowest possible setting (i.e. the wrong way to use a delay circuit) created a sparse, eerie sound that's just as instrumental in inventing GothRock as Joy Division themselves were.
** Hannett's heroin addiction is often cited as either [[ArtisticStimulation crucial to his signature sound]], or [[ImmuneToDrugs mysteriously irrelevant]]. Joy Division's legend nurtures profuse [[EpilepticTrees theories]]: Among the more popular is that epilepsy somehow kindled Ian Curtis' song-writing prowess (in this instance, the Trope Name might seem apropos, until you give it a bit more thought and realize it's irrelevant). Even before he started seriously using heroin in the early '80s, Hannett was known to [[EruditeStoner indulge in large quantities of hash]], though his stoned behaviour was pretty much identical to his sober behaviour.
* DeathSeeker: According to Deborah Curtis, Ian told her when they were teenagers that he didn't plan to live beyond his mid-20s.
* DeliberatelyMonochrome: All of the band's official photos were taken by photographer Anton Corbjin, who is so fond of this trope that it can be surprising to see a picture of Ian in ''colour''. This even extends to Ian's [[Film/{{Control}} 2007 biopic]], which Corbjin directed.
* DespairEventHorizon: Curtis. ''Film/{{Control}}'' hypothesizes that after having a verbal altercation with his wife (chasing her out of the house) and watching TV, Curtis suffered another grand mal seizure and collapsed. When he came to again, he crossed the horizon -- and was DrivenToSuicide as a result.
* EveryoneWentToSchoolTogether: Ian Curtis and Stephen Morris attended King's School in Macclesfield.
* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Ian Curtis (Melancholic), Peter Hook (Choleric), Stephen Morris (Sanguine), Bernard Sumner (Phlegmatic).
* GadgeteerGenius: Bernard Sumner was an electronics hobbyist in the band's early days to keep himself occupied at night while suffering from insomnia. He built the band's first synthesizer.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: If ''24 Hour Party People'' and ''Control'' are any indication, the band's manager Rob Gretton seemed to have been one of these. He had an abrasive, aggressive personality, but also had his bands' / record labels' best interests at heart.
* {{Jerkass}}: According to his widow, Ian Curtis was one. The rest of the band members tend to disagree. He may well have been a JerkassWoobie, if his mental and physical illnesses are anything to go by. The biopic on his life, ''Control'' seems to endorse this viewpoint. Could also range into BrokenBird: Depression and the (at the time) unknown treatments that furthered his epilepsy didn't make him the best person ever and lead to his untimely suicide.
* MarriedTooYoung: Ian Curtis married Deborah Woodruff at the age of 19, and felt increasingly constrained by the marriage as the band's career started to take off. This led to his affair with Annik Honoré and the breakdown of Curtis' marriage, one of the contributing factors to his suicide.
* MyGreatestFailure: The band members and Tony Wilson mentioned in interviews that they deeply regretted not noticing that Ian Curtis was suicidal or doing anything to help him.
* SmokingIsCool: Ian Curtis was often seen with a cigarette in photos.
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: The band's original deal with Factory meant that Joy Division owned the recordings, not the label. This arrangement carried over to Music/NewOrder and was the reason a deal with London Records to acquire Factory fell through years after Joy Division's demise, bankrupting the label.
* WorstAid: Allegedly a contributing factor in Curtis' demise. Sumner has stated that he thinks the inadequate treatment given to Ian for his epilepsy was a significant factor in his suicide, plus the scenes of Ian being dragged back stage while having a fit in ''24 Hour Party People'' aren't far from the truth. However, adequate treatment would have entailed Ian refraining from live performance. He must have felt obligated to continue, regardless of whether he'd been explicitly pressured. For the still developing band, not touring was not an option. Also, much less was known about epilepsy back in TheSeventies. All taken into account, Ian was probably lucky to a certain extent. ''Control'' endorses this view as well, showing Ian being given ''phenobarbital'' for his epilepsy, which even by the 1970's was considered less than ideal as a treatment option. Natalie Curtis, Ian's daughter, has said that she blames the NHS for her father's death.
[[/folder]]

!! '''''Dead Tropes''''':

* AllPartOfTheShow: Curtis' on-stage seizures were mistaken for his frenetic dancing style at first. After it was known he had epilepsy, fans would show up sometimes ''hoping'' he would go into a seizure during shows, which Ian alludes to in the opening lines of "The Atrocity Exhibition": "''For entertainment they watch his body twist / Behind his eyes he says, 'I still exist.'''"

* BadassBeard: One of Peter Hook's visual trademarks.

* {{Bookworm}}: Ian Curtis was an avid reader. His lyrics were influenced by authors like JG Ballard and Creator/FranzKafka. Curtis also expressed a wish to someday own a bookstore.

* BreatherEpisode: “Transmission” is easily their lightest song. It’s up-tempo, jaunty, and doesn’t have any LyricalDissonance.
* BrokenBird: ''Ian Curtis'', who suffered from depression and epilepsy issues. Add in a collapsing marriage and the stress of becoming a big band ''and'' toppled with people just wanting to see you dance despite it being caused by said epilepsy issues and you have a man who didn't live past 30.
* BrownNote: The band stopped using strobe lighting due to Curtis' epilepsy, but Stephen Morris' drumming was enough to trigger seizures.
* CassandraTruth: Annik Honoré tried to warn Tony Wilson that Ian Curtis was suicidal but he brushed her off, saying that Ian's dark lyrics were just poetic license. Come May 18, 1980, and Curtis would be found dead by his own hand.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Producer Martin Hannett. Various legends state that Hannett forced drummer Stephen Morris to take apart his drum-kit and re-assemble it with toilet parts, made Morris continue recording for an hour after the rest of the band finished a song, set up his drum-kit on the studio's first-floor roof, and once went on a hill to record "silence" for an extended period of time.
** This was such a defining trait of Hannett's that Music/JelloBiafra of Music/DeadKennedys actually [[TakeThat made a jab]] at him in the StudioChatter at the beginning of the Kennedys' track "Nazi Punks Fuck Off":
--->'''Biafra:''' "Nazi Punks Fuck Off", overproduced by Martin Hannett, Take 4.
** Yet, despite all the weird things he did and the legends that accumulated about him, Hannett was [[BunnyEarsLawyer a master producer]] whose oddball experiments were pioneering in their use of space in sound recording. His use of delay circuits set to the lowest possible setting (i.e. the wrong way to use a delay circuit) created a sparse, eerie sound that's just as instrumental in inventing GothRock as Joy Division themselves were.
** Hannett's heroin addiction is often cited as either [[ArtisticStimulation crucial to his signature sound]], or [[ImmuneToDrugs mysteriously irrelevant]]. Joy Division's legend nurtures profuse [[EpilepticTrees theories]]: Among the more popular is that epilepsy somehow kindled Ian Curtis' song-writing prowess (in this instance, the Trope Name might seem apropos, until you give it a bit more thought and realize it's irrelevant).
*** Even before he started seriously using heroin in the early '80s, Hannett was known to [[EruditeStoner indulge in large quantities of hash]], though his stoned behaviour was pretty much identical to his sober behaviour.

* DeadArtistsAreBetter: There are way more Music/NewOrder albums, but look which band got a page first on this wiki... Mostly because it'd be silly to discuss New Order without Joy Division. That's like discussing Music/FooFighters without mentioning Music/{{Nirvana}}. This is also a morbid reason that the band was such a critical favorite on both sides of the Atlantic in the wake of Ian Curtis' suicide.
* DeathSeeker: According to Deborah Curtis, Ian told her when they were teenagers that he didn't plan to live beyond his mid-20s.
* DeliberatelyMonochrome: All of the band's official photos were taken by photographer Anton Corbjin, who is so fond of this trope that it can be surprising to see a picture of Ian in ''colour''. This even extends to Ian's [[Film/{{Control}} 2007 biopic]], which Corbjin directed.

* DespairEventHorizon: Curtis. ''Film/{{Control}}'' hypothesizes that after having a verbal altercation with his wife (chasing her out of the house) and watching TV, Curtis suffered another grand mal seizure and collapsed. When he came to again, he crossed the horizon -- and was DrivenToSuicide as a result.

* DreadfulMusician: Bernard Sumner admitted that the band members were these in the early days. Peter Hook noted in his book "Unknown Pleasures" that he played bass out of key on more than one occasion, but that fans accepted it. Somewhat averted with Steve Morris, who the band recruited on the basis of him being trained as a jazz drummer (and indeed, his parts on songs like "Transmission" are widely celebrated).

* EveryoneWentToSchoolTogether: Ian Curtis and Stephen Morris attended King's School in Macclesfield.

* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Ian Curtis (Melancholic), Peter Hook (Choleric), Stephen Morris (Sanguine), Bernard Sumner (Phlegmatic).
* GadgeteerGenius: Bernard Sumner was an electronics hobbyist in the band's early days to keep himself occupied at night while suffering from insomnia. He built the band's first synthesizer.

** '''Digital''':
-->Feel it closing in
-->Feel it closing in
-->Day in, day out, day in, day out
-->''Day in, day out'', [+''day in, day out''+]
** '''Dead Souls''':
-->Calling me... Calling me...
-->They keep calling me
-->They keep calling me.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: If ''24 Hour Party People'' and ''Control'' are any indication, the band's manager ''Rob Gretton'' seemed to have been one of these. He had an abrasive, aggressive personality, but also had his bands' / record labels' best interests at heart.
* {{Jerkass}}: According to his widow, Ian Curtis was a huge one. The rest of the band members tend to disagree.
** He may well have been a JerkassWoobie, if his mental and physical illnesses are anything to go by. The biopic on his life, ''Control'' seems to endorse this viewpoint.
** Could also range into BrokenBird: Depression and the (at the time) unknown treatments that furthered his epilepsy didn't make him the best person ever and lead to his untimely suicide.

* MarriedTooYoung: Ian Curtis married Deborah Woodruff at the age of 19, and felt increasingly constrained by the marriage as the band's career started to take off. This led to his affair with Annik Honoré and the breakdown of Curtis' marriage, one of the contributing factors to his suicide.

* MohsScaleOfLyricalHardness: Usually 6-7, sometimes up to an 8. Their songs pretty much all had lyrics that were... Less than happy, but the level varied somewhat. However, a general lack of profanity or EXPLICIT references to sex or violence (not to mention the poetic nature of the lyrics) keeps them from reaching the highest end of the scale.

* MyGreatestFailure: The band members and Tony Wilson mentioned in interviews that they deeply regretted not noticing that Ian Curtis was suicidal or doing anything to help him.

* RunningGag: The band name "New Order" has a fascist subtext, also, though the band claims this was unintentional.
** It's possible that after the initial controversy the name "Joy Division" inspired, Sumner, Hook, and Morris were {{troll}}ing people by deliberately choosing a fascist sounding name.

* SmokingIsCool: Ian Curtis was often seen with a cigarette in photos.

* ThoseWackyNazis: An ''Ideal for Living'''s artwork, deliberately intended to create controversy over whether the band was a Nazi band, which they weren't (this is referenced in 24 Hour Party People as well). Also, "Warsaw," one of the songs from this EP, is about Rudolf Hess.
* TransatlanticEquivalent: A band influenced by punk hailing from an economically depressed (at the time) northern city, with a depressed lead singer who commits suicide, leaving behind a wife and a young daughter. The drummer forms a new band that turns out to be a LongRunner. We could easily be talking about Joy Division or Music/{{Nirvana}}.
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: The band's original deal with Factory meant that Joy Division owned the recordings, not the label. This arrangement carried over to Music/NewOrder and was the reason a deal with London Records to acquire Factory fell through years after Joy Division's demise, bankrupting the label.

* WorstAid: Allegedly a contributing factor in Curtis' demise. Sumner has stated that he thinks the inadequate treatment given to Ian for his epilepsy was a significant factor in his suicide. Plus the scenes of Ian being dragged back stage while having a fit in ''24 Hour Party People'' aren't far from the truth.
** Adequate treatment would have entailed Ian refraining from live performance. He must have felt obligated to continue, regardless of whether he'd been explicitly pressured. For the still developing band, not touring was not an option.
** Also, much less was known about epilepsy back in TheSeventies. All taken into account, Ian was probably lucky to a certain extent.
** ''Control'' endorses this view as well, showing Ian being given ''phenobarbital'' for his epilepsy, which even by the 1970's was considered less than ideal as a treatment option.
** Natalie Curtis, Ian's daughter, has said that she blames the NHS for her father's death.

* TalentDouble: Averted by the actors in ''Control''; they played the songs themselves, helped by there being plenty of ThreeChordsAndTheTruth songs. Sam Riley (who portrayed Curtis) having been the lead singer of a rock band once beforehand may have helped also.

* {{Bookworm}}: Ian Curtis was an avid reader. His lyrics were influenced by authors like JG Ballard and Creator/FranzKafka.

* VocalEvolution: Compare Ian's voice on the ''Ideal for Living'' EP to when the band starting recording with Martin Hannett. Ian's voice lowers dramatically.

* DreadfulMusician: Bernard Sumner admitted that the band members were these in the early days.