Let's Dance to Joy Division

Joy Division:
Joy Division were an English rock band formed in 1976 in Salford, Greater Manchester.

Despite the band's growing success, lead vocalist Ian Curtis had depression and personal difficulties, including a dissolving marriage and his diagnosis with epilepsy. In May 1980, on the eve of the band's first American tour, Curtis, overwhelmed with depression, committed suicide. Joy Division then released their second album, Closer (1980), and the single “Love Will Tear Us Apart” which became the band's highest charting releases.
The lyrics are perceived to reflect the problems in Ian Curtis' marriage to Deborah Curtis, as well as his general frame of mind in the time leading up to his suicide in May 1980.



The Wombats:
The Wombats are an indie band from Liverpool, UK. The band consists of Matthew Murphy, Dan Haggis and Tord Øverland-Knudsen.
‘Let Dance to Joy Division’ is based on a drunken night when lead singer Matthew Murphy danced on a table with his girlfriend to ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ by Joy Division.

My Interpretation:
When I first listened to ‘Let’s Dance to Joy Division,’ my initial thoughts were that it was an upbeat song that gave the message that we should dance, be happy and enjoy ourselves. However after some research into the band ‘Joy Division,’ I discovered that the references to them actually represented quite a sad undertone to the song. With Ian Curtis’ suicide and references to Joy Division’s ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart,’ which reflected Curtis’ marriage breakdown, all implies that although the song has quite an upbeat tone, they are still acknowledging the bad things in life. I think the message that The Wombats are trying to portray is that we should ‘dance’ and ‘be happy’ even when we are depressed, and to ‘celebrate the irony’ that although all these terrible things have happened and are still taking place, we must still ‘dance’ and ‘celebrate.’ They place lots of emphasis on being ‘so happy,’ and encourage you to ‘go ask for Joy Division,’ ‘if you're ever feeling down,’ and ‘celebrate the irony,’ that even though ‘everything is going wrong,’ they’re still ‘so happy’ and can ‘dance to Joy Division.’

Treatment for the Music Video:
For the music video, I wanted to capture the band’s image and the idea that they’re trying to portray of being ‘so happy,’ whilst also reflecting the depressing side of Joy Division, as well as anything else bad that happens in life.

I therefore decided to use cross-cutting between the band performing and shots of depressed people or bad things happening. The shots of the band performing will begin quite slowly with dim lighting, in an empty room with not a particularly happy atmosphere. As the song begins to build up, the lights will gradually get brighter and their performance will become more energetic. We will start to see they’re image clearly which will reflect that of a typical indie band with colourful jeans and cardigans and the colours also immediately signify happiness. Gradually throughout the song as the camera continuously returns to their performance, more people will start to appear in the shot as they dance to the song, and the video will end on a high note with the successful band’s performance and a packed room full of happy, dancing people.

The cross-cuts will involve shots in black and white to contrast the shots of the band and will consist of shots that are quite depressing or not necessarily joyful. These will happen with the lyrics such as:
So if you're ever feeling down,
Grab your purse and take a taxi,
To the darker side of town,

And the repetition of:
Let it tear us apart,

let the love tear us apart,

Let it tear us apart, Let it tear us apart, Let it tear us apart.
Examples of shots could be couples arguing, someone looking depressed, lonely etc.

OR continuing from our group idea in class where we based the video in a house party, we could use the point of view shots to enter different rooms in the house where it's quite depressing (eg. shots of couples arguing, people vomiting, crying etc.), but along with that, it cuts constantly to the performance of the band in a room where they remain upbeat and lively (reflected in their performance, the bright room and their colourful clothes), despite everything going on around them. Gradually, throughout the video, people will enter the room and start to enjoy themselves, listening to the message of the song.