Why These Artists?
New Order emerged from the wreckage of Joy Division and invented a new genre by fusing post-punk guitar with electronic dance music. Blue Monday is the best-selling 12-inch single in history, and their influence on everything from house to indie to emo is incalculable.
New Order\'s genius was the synthesis — guitars that feel like electronics, synthesizers that feel emotional, dance music that feels sad. The bands below inherited different aspects of that formula.
Artists Like New Order
Depeche Mode emerged at the same moment as New Order and pursued a parallel path — synthesizers, darkness, and enormous commercial success. Violator is their masterpiece.
Personal JesusLCD Soundsystem are the greatest New Order heirs. Sound of Silver and American Dream have the same dance-sadness synthesis, updated for the 2000s.
All My FriendsPet Shop Boys combine electronic production with literate, ironic lyrics. Actually and Behaviour are their New Order-adjacent peaks.
West End GirlsThe Cure and New Order emerged from the same post-punk moment. Disintegration has the atmospheric sadness of New Order\'s slow tracks; Mixed Up remixes are for the dancefloor.
LovesongInterpol are the great Joy Division/New Order heirs of the 2000s revival. Turn on the Bright Lights is a direct update of Unknown Pleasures energy.
Obstacle 1OMD made some of the most emotionally devastating synth-pop of the early 1980s. Architecture and Morality is one of the great early electronic albums.
Enola GayThe Killers took the New Order aesthetic and made it stadium-sized. Mr. Brightside has Blue Monday\'s synthesis of danceable sadness.
Mr. BrightsideHurts make dramatic, melancholic synth-pop in direct lineage from New Order. Happiness is the album that could have come out on Factory Records in 1983.
Wonderful LifeHot Chip make dance music for people who think too much. The Warning and One Life Stand have New Order\'s combination of irresistible rhythm and emotional yearning.
Ready for the FloorFactory Floor make relentless industrial dance music that strips New Order\'s formula down to its mechanical core. Their self-titled debut is 25 Hours for the 2010s.
Turn It UpSoulwax make electronic rock that owes as much to New Order as to Daft Punk. From Deewee and Essential document their range.
E TalkingFrequently Asked Questions
Who are the best artists similar to New Order?
Depeche Mode are the obvious parallel — synth-pop with post-punk darkness. LCD Soundsystem are the clearest contemporary heirs. Pet Shop Boys share their dance-pop intelligence. For the Joy Division roots, try The Cure and Interpol.
What is New Order\'s best album?
Power, Corruption and Lies (1983) is the artistic peak. Substance (1987) collects the singles and is the essential overview. Technique (1989) is their most purely danceable record.
What happened to Joy Division?
Joy Division\'s lead singer Ian Curtis died by suicide on May 18, 1980, the night before the band\'s first American tour. The remaining members reformed as New Order, adding keyboard player Gillian Gilbert.
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