The Hall of Fame will tear us apart again. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has announced its new members. And reveal that New order was rejected this year. The Hall nominated Joy Division And New Order as a band. Which meant that the Hall voters had the chance to get two legendary bands with one voice. Both Joy Division and New Order are ridiculously overqualified as individual units for the Hall of Fame. They are two of the most influential bands of the past 50 years. But you don’t even come in together? How could that happen?
Influence on post-punk, synth pop and dance music: the importance of the bands
As far as history is concerned, this is one of the biggest mistakes the reverb has ever made. The pioneers of the Artpunk Goth disco of the 1980s have not been included in the Hall for 20 years. Although they have come into question since Olivia Rodrigo’s year of birth and despite their enormous influence on post-punk, synth pop and dance music. One of the best songs from New Order is “Confusion”. One of Joy Division’s best songs is “Disorder”. And that is exactly what seems to be the case here. How to sing Ian Curtis: Where will IT want Ennnnd? Where will it want Ennnnd?
Why the rejection for fans and critics is a shock
Joy Division/New Order were nominated in 2023 and did not make it into the final selection at that time. This time, however, the surprise is even greater. Because they looked like a safe candidate on this year’s, extremely weak list of candidates. This week you are guaranteed to see the cover of the album “Unknown Pleasures” on a T-shirt. Unfortunately, this will not be the case with Chubby Checker.
Historical importance of Joy Division and New Order for the music landscape
How The Smithsthe pixies or The replacements Are you an iconic band of the eighties, which is even more influential and more popular today than then. I call that cultural resistance. But as far as the Hall of Fame is concerned, these bands are all below the Chubby line. For years, the Hall voters closed the door to the eighties, especially the British New Wave of the eighties, which has always been one of their most loved ones.
But in 2019 they gave in when the Cure were recorded and the best Reception interview all time. (Question: “Are you as excited as I?” Robert Smith: “As it sounds, no.”) Depeche Mode came next year. Followed by the Eurythmics and Duran Duran. The Hall voters were wide open to finally record New Order. Too early, I think. Was your timing so bad?
Joy Division: Dystopian sound from the north of England
New Order were the ultimate band of the eighties. Four anti-social kids, which risen from the ruins of the punk rock, tried to go to Electro beats and then accidentally became worldwide innovators of the dance floor. If they had stopped after the death of their original front man Ian Curtis in 1980, they would still have remembered as a Joy Division, for “Love wants Tear Us Apart”.
New Order: From shock to Ian Curtis’ death to the worldwide breakthrough
If you had stopped after the single “Tempation” from 1982, you would have remembered the most emotional 9-minute New Wave Synth-Disco-12-inch single of all time. If they had “Low-life” and “Brotherhood“Separated in 1986, they would have been remembered as the most innovative electro vampire-goth-twit-ogs of the 1980s. But nothing seems to be able to stop New Order. A phenomenal live band to this day. Since Peter Hook has come-we are still-are even two phenomenal live bands.
The influence of “Unknown Pleasures”, “Blue Monday” and other classics
Joy Division came from Manchester’s industrial intermediate zone in the northern England at the end of the 1970s and found a dystopian sound for the bleak urbanity of its surroundings. With the dark size of their debut “Unknown Pleasures” they shocked the world – especially themselves. The tortured Poet Ian Curtis converted his nightmares into screams from the bottom of the heart, from “Disorder” to “New Dawn Fades” to “She’s Lost Control”. Then there is the classic album cover, which from the Rolling Stone best of all times was chosen. An urgent image of a pulsar, lonely in space, 978 light years away.
Her sound has been copied countless times since then. Bernard Sumner’s stakkato -like guitar, Stephen Morris’ robotic twitching drums and the leading instrument, Peter Hook’s elastic bass. “Love Will Tear Us Apart” was her big hit in Great Britain in 1980 – but tragically a posthumous success. Ian Curtis committed suicide on the night before her first US tour. The band left classics such as “Dead Souls”, “Atmosphere” and “Transmission”, in which Curtis sings “Dance Dance Dance Dance to the Radio” as well as after redemption.
How New Order searched for her goal
His bandmates could have given up. But they held together. Called themselves New Order. Giris’ girlfriend Gillian Gilbert got it as a keyboardist. And started playing from the front, refusing to play Joy Division songs. None of them could sing. So Sumner remained on this task. Under shock from the loss of their friend, they began to experiment with primitive synthesizers and drum computers. But somehow her silly experiments became worldwide club hits such as “Blue Monday”, “True Faith” and the eternal dance floor filler “Bizarre Love Triangle “. The bigger they became, the stranger they became. “The Perfect Kiss” is pure nightly club. Sumner speaks for generations of lonely kids when he sings: “Tonight I should have stayed at home/playing with my Pleasure Zone.”
Even their disasters are legendary. They founded the Hacienda Club in Manchester, a famous fiasco of the Acid House era. (Hook’s hilarious book about it is entitled “How not to Run a Club”.) With the designer Peter Saville, she published “Blue Monday” in 1983. In a 12-inch packaging that was so expensive that you lost money with every copy sold. But of course it became the best-selling 12-inch plate in history and has been influencing dance music since then. I have at least one friend who owes her life to the fact that her parents met on a dance floor in Miami when “Blue Monday” was played in the club. But in a way we are all children of “Blue Monday”.
“Up, Down, Turn Around, please don’t let me hit the ground!”
My favorite plate from New Order will always remain the EP “Factus 1981-1982”. A half-hour groove ride with postpoint guitar riffs, synth-whooshes and pressing drums, on which five of their best songs can be found. You have never surpassed your original 9-minute “tempation”, your disco anthem on social fears with the chorus “Up, Down, Turn Around, please let me hit the ground!”. Exactly at 5:36 there is a breathtaking moment when Hookys bass jumps an octave higher and plays a few hyper-emotional blows, immediately after Barney screams: “Myll always try to break the circle That be’s been placed around me.” The fraternal reputation and answer is so moving. Especially from two men who were known to have hated themselves. The moment takes only a few seconds. But once you hear it, he stays in the soul forever.
Her best album is “Brotherhood” with the open -hearted songs “Weirdo” and “Broken Promise”. Then come “Power, corruption, and Lies“(Especially page 2),”Low-life“(Especially page 1),”Technique“(Especially” all the way “),”Movement“(Especially” Chosen Time “) and”Waiting for the Siren’s Call“. In the nineties, they rode on a post-Ibiza acid house-club wave that would not have been possible without them. Her entire career is full of moments that earn a place in the Hall of Fame. The scratchy guitar break, which explodes in the middle of“ Age of Consent ”. The playful harmonica in “Love Vigilantes”. Gillian Gilbert’s sparkling synthesizer sounds in “Thieves Like Us”. The huge highlight of “Disorder”, in which Ian Curti’s “Feeling Feeling Feeeeee-Liiiiing“Screams while Stephen Morris sets the end point with three gigantic pelvic strokes.
Bernard sang terrible lines and brilliant lines
Okay, the texts. I had hoped you wouldn’t address that. You caught me there. I cannot deny that New Order belongs to the Hall of Fame for texts such as “I would like a place i Can Call My Own/Have a conversation on the telephones”. Bernard sang terrible lines and brilliant lines. Often in one and the same song. But part of his boyish charm is that he could never see the difference. “I feel so low, i feel so humble, sometimes in life we take a tumble”. If you would ever sing these words into a microphone, you would not only delete the cassette. But also light the studio and execute all witnesses.
But New Order indulged in such things. It became part of her mysticism. The ‘did he really say that?’ Factor never stops. “Every time i see you falling, i get down on my knees and pray” is a brilliant chorus; ‘Oh, God, Johnny, please don’t point that gun at me’ is a terrible one. There are no signs that anyone in the band would have been interested.
Conflicts within New Order: How band disputes could make a recording difficult
If you will ever be included in the Hall of Fame together, there will be a top -class drama on stage. Hook and the other three have not been talking to each other for years.
The break between Peter Hook and the other band members
When he went, he founded his own band to play these songs: The Light. Sumner and Hook wrote both memoirs in which they describe in detail why they despise each other. When they were nominated for the first time, Hook said: “Maybe that’s the olive branch we need.” But that probably needs more than one olive branch. Probably a miracle. Nevertheless, we hope that one day it will be added. Maybe you will play “No Love Lost”.
Persistent problems of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with the music of the eighties
Joy Division/New Order are definitely one of the biggest failures of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. But they are not the only ones. The voters have long been afraid of the “other” of the 1980s. Especially when it comes to synthesizers, large hairstyles or British accents.
The neglect of the British New Wave
And forget the nineties, whose greatest rock stars were usually not even nominated. An era that tries to avoid the Hall desperately, although it represents the climax for rock artists in terms of cultural and commercial influence.
Why artists of the eighties and nineties are often ignored
For the voters of the Hall of Fame, every rock is still bad company after 1980, and the Hall of Fame has no desire for love. The Hall of Fame will look for mediocre artists from the 1960s and seventies for as long as possible, and why not? Everyone loves to complain about the Hall of Fame. After all, she is there. (Luther Vandross? Never nominated! Seriously! Fiona Apple? Ditto!)
But it is only a matter of time before the voters recognize the inevitable legacy of Joy Division/New Order. Really, the entire history of pop music is included in its development. They are the band that fought out from the seventies from the ruins. And finally invented the eighties.