Ian Curtis

Ian Kevin Curtis (15 July 1956 – 18 May 1980) was an English singer-songwriter and musician. He was the lead singer and lyricist of the post-punk band Joy Division and recorded two albums with the group: Unknown Pleasures (1979) and Closer (1980). Curtis was known for his bass-baritone voice, dance style, and songwriting typically filled with imagery of desolation, emptiness, and alienation. Musically, Curtis was influenced by a range of artists such as David Bowie, Kraftwerk, Sex Pistols, Jim Morrison, Iggy Pop, Roxy Music, Lou Reed and Neu!, as well as lyrically by writers like William Burroughs, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean-Paul Sartre, Franz Kafka, Hermann Hesse, T. S. Eliot and J. G. Ballard. Curtis was particularly influenced by Iggy Pop's stage persona.Curtis, who suffered from epilepsy and depression, died by suicide on the eve of Joy Division's first North American tour and shortly before the release of Closer. His suicide resulted in the band's dissolution and the subsequent formation of New Order. Despite their short career, Joy Division have exerted a wide-reaching influence. John Bush of AllMusic argues that Joy Division "became the first band in the post-punk movement by ... emphasizing not anger and energy but mood and expression, pointing ahead to the rise of melancholy alternative music in the '80s."Joy Division have influenced bands including their contemporaries U2 and the Cure to later acts such as Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, Neurosis, Interpol, Bloc Party, Editors and rap artists.