Every Televised and Filmed Joy Division Performance
One hour and twenty-five minutes. That’s apparently all of the footage that exists of Joy Division playing their music on TV and in concert. Open Culture’s Colin Marshall writes:
Brian Eno once said of the Velvet Underground that their first album sold only 30,000 copies, but everyone who bought one started a band. Joy Division’s debut Unknown Pleasures sold only 20,000 copies in its initial period of release, but the T‑shirt emblazoned with its cover art — an image of radio waves emanating from a pulsar taken from an astronomy encyclopedia — has long since constituted a commercial-semiotic empire unto itself. That speaks to the vast subcultural influence of the band, despite their only having been active from 1976 to 1980. When we speak of the genre of post-punk, we speak, in large part, of Joy Division and the artists they influenced.
(via open culture)
Comments 2
Every few years I put on Unknown Pleasures in search of this, but I only ever find an average album blessed with bottled-lightning cover art and a tale of tragedy.
Unknown Pleasures is undeniably one of the most iconic albums, renowned for Peter Saville's legendary cover art and the unique sound created by producer Martin Hannett. Listening to New Dawn Fades reveals how ahead of their time they were. This album has profoundly influenced many and inspired countless bands.
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