Joy Division - Transmission (Dance, Dance, Dance To The Radio)

There was always nervy energy to Joy Division’s music, an insistent pulse throughout their songs. Their first single, “Transmission,” is literally about electric signals: It opens with Ian Curtis chanting, “Radio, live transmission,” and its chorus advises letting radio waves propel your body into dance. At the end of the second verse, Curtis’ voice transmits directly into Bernard Sumner’s wiry guitar solo.

Curtis knew something about physical electricity: he suffered from epilepsy and frequent seizures, and the frenetic build of “Transmission” has the feel of an uncontrollable short circuit. But there’s a subtext about conformity under it: To Curtis, society is an army of drones that “go on as though nothing was wrong” and are “staying in the same place.” Viewed through that lens, the heady chorus of “Transmission” is not a celebration so much as a warning: all the people who “dance, dance, dance, dance to the radio” are powerless followers led by whatever they’re fed. That Curtis and his bandmates delivered such a bleak message through such a heart-quickening sound (the kind that, ironically enough, is impossible not to move your body too) shows just how much power Joy Division could generate.

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Joy Division; Transmission +

1.      Transmission

2.      Novelty

3.      Transmission (Rough Mix)

4.      Novelty (Rough Mix)

5.      Atrocity Exhibition (Piccadilly Radio)