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Joy Division: Punk for the Artsy
Within the confines of rock and roll lies a genre of
music that is referred to as “post-punk.” This genre is defined as the style of
music that derived from the punk scene and is categorized by its slower tempo
and mixture of ambient sounds and perhaps some poppy hooks. Think the Smiths or
Echo and the Bunnymen.
Joy Division fits the bill as well; however, they’re
punk mentality is grossly underrated in the music scene, especially when you
consider that the child of Joy Division, New Order, blazed the trail of the
upcoming New Wave scene, making heavy use of synths. In actuality, Joy Division
falls more under the punk side, rather than the post-punk scene that was
starting to develop.
First let’s look into the mentality of the punk scene.
Punk is sort of hard to pinpoint. To boil it down to a simplistic entity seems
to do the music injustice, but for the purpose of my point, allow me to
continue. Essentially, punk centers around the anti-establishment (from the
government to one’s parents) and how the angst-ridden teenager finds it hard to
cope in life. Such rage and angst explodes into a musical genre that prides
itself on lashing-out, destruction, anger, and rebellion. The reason why it
became popular was it spoke to the kids who felt lost and had no idea how to
deal in a world of uncertainty.
Joy Division deals with the same sort of confusion and
feeling of being lost as punk does, they just say it in a different way. Joy
Division, instead of lashing-out, decides to become introverted. Instead of
blaming everyone for their problems, Joy Division blames itself for their own
short-comings. Prime example: in the song “Shadowplay” on the debut album, Unknown Pleasures, Ian Curtis writes, “I
did everything, everything I wanted to / I let them use you for their own
ends.” Curtis admits that his own selfishness caused pain for others.
It’s important to note where this self-loathing,
ever-declining despair stems from. Firstly, being English contributes to the
idea that they are full of guilt and they are messed up people. Pink Floyd said
it best on Dark Side of the Moon with
the lyric “[h]anging on in quiet desperation is the English way.” What adds to
the gloom that hangs over the band is their roots from Manchester, which
famously produced Black Sabbath. Being in a blue-collar society overrun with
the sharp, angular buildings and the effects of the long past Industrial
Revolution had to have produced some sort of angst that welled up in the band
members, especially in both Ian Curtis and Peter Hook.
Punk especially prides itself on the idea of being
abrasive, going against the seemingly mundane and nonsensical norm that is
known as the machine. While the abrasiveness may come from the distorted
guitars, which sound like razor blades being shaken up in a glass jar, and the
archetypical vocalist, who sounds like he’s trying to rip his own voicebox out
of his throat just to prove how angry he is, Joy Division revels in this
abrasiveness, however a bit more minor 3rd. The band features the
distorted guitars, but the abrasiveness comes more from the clashing of
instruments, much like the clash of ideal and reality. A prime example is
“She’s Lost Control,” where the bass and guitar are seemingly in a battle to
overcome each other. The bass keeps thumping the melody of the verse while the
guitar climbs up ever-so violently.
Also one of the great stereotypes is the idea that the
band members of a punk band are complete amateurs with their instruments. This
is evident from Sid Vicious, perhaps the most well known punk rocker in the
genre. Joy Division in completely in the same boat as other punk rock
musicians. The band members even got inspired to start a band after seeing the Sex Pistols in Manchester. While they developed a different style of playing than the usual
thrashing about, they definitely started from the ground up and were still
developing their style as the band progressed.
Their punk influence is
completely evident as seen in their early Warsaw days up until the release of
their first EP, An Ideal for Living.
Even Ian’s voice is completely different than the more developed Joy Division,
relying more on a punk, higher pitched, Johnny Rotten-esque voice than the
baritone range he developed later in the band’s sound. This approach of
learning musical instruments was also incredibly influential in the band’s
unique use of bass and guitar. In Joy Division, the bass carries most of the
songs, even maintaining the melody, while the guitar bangs away at the chords.
This interesting switch in instrument role-reversal was a direct result in the
band’s sound and style.
Even though Joy Division is one of the pioneers in the blooming post-punk scene (a large part of the sound being a result of Unknown Pleasures producer Martin Hannett), Joy Division blurs the lines between post-punk and punk. The band does not fit neatly into either or. To say Joy Division is purely punk gives the complexity and the dark sound injustice, while saying they are purely post-punk takes away from the spirit of punk rock each of the members had (particularly bassist Peter Hook).
