Joy Division were a rock music band formed in 1977 in Manchester. The band dissolved in May 1980 after the suicide of its lead singer Ian Curtis. The remaining members reformed as New Order a couple of months later.

Though they found only modest success during their career, Joy Division have since been acclaimed as one of the most inventive, evocative and influential groups of their era. Joy Division were labelled by many as a dark and depressive band due to the bleakness of their music and the suicide of Ian Curtis. The remaining members of Joy Division and people who knew the band have always denied this however.