3 Bands From the 2000s That Were Inspired by Joy Division

Joy Division’s influence far outweighs its commercial success as the band’s only two studio albums, Unknown Pleasures (1979) and Closer (1980), have influenced everyone from U2 to The Cure.

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Much of the allure revolves around singer Ian Curtis and his suicide on the eve of Joy Division’s first North American tour in 1980. He had epilepsy, suffered from depression, a broken marriage, and discomfort with his band’s rising fame. The music Joy Division produced also reflected the economic gloom of working-class England in the late 1970s, overlayed with Curtis’s private struggles.

However, the rock mythology around Curtis almost feels predetermined and parallels one of his heroes, Jim Morrison. The myth of Curtis helped create a cult fan base, and the hard edges of Joy Division’s songs birthed a new generation of post-punk bands.

This list highlights three bands from the 2000s inspired by Joy Division.

Interpol

Interpol borrows heavily from Joy Division and the angular melodies of “Disorder” (from Unknown Pleasures). Singer Paul Banks does his best Ian Curtis impression on Interpol’s critically acclaimed debut Turn On The Bright Lights. But the album’s bleakness feels more like an aesthetic than the real-life trauma that tormented Curtis. Interpol’s second album Antics displays a more evolved sound, and its pop hooks and modern production helped the band chart in the U.K.

The Killers

The remaining members of Joy Division carried on as New Order following Ian Curtis’s death. And The Killers’ combination of dance music and synthesizers is probably closer to New Order than Joy Division. Nevertheless, on “Mr. Brightside”, Brandon Flowers expresses his despair in the talk-singing style of Curtis. Beneath the synthesizers and dance grooves, you can hear Peter Hook’s high melodic bass influence, a sound he developed because of the limitations of the shoddy amp he used in the early days of Joy Division. When The Strokes dropped Is This It in 2001, the album sent The Killers back to the drawing board. They recycled from similar bands and returned in 2004 with a global hit debut, Hot Fuss.

LCD Soundsystem

LCD Soundsystem recorded a sped-up version of Joy Division’s “No Love Lost” as the B-side to “All My Friends”. It showcases the post-punk origins of James Murphy’s dance-punk project. Joy Division’s music always felt electronic in its strictness, even before Bernard Sumner started building synthesizers. And Curtis’s rigid vocal delivery had a lot to do with it. With LCD Soundsystem, Murphy also sings with detachment. It’s distant, aloof, cool. His records pick up where Joy Division left off on Closer, the critically enshrined final album that pushed post-punk into its next phase.

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