Right from the beginning, the Pistols became the center of a discussion that was regarded as fundamentally political, without real regard for the music itself, mostly fueled by the impact they had beyond the music industry.
But, as many soon found out, mimicking the Pistols was not an easy task, not only because the Pistols were much better than most would be ready to recognize, but also because there was a miscomprehension regarding what the Pistols were actually doing. In following these, Joy Division were not different from most of the British bands around the years of 1976-77. When Joy Division came together and were still known as Warsaw, they followed a simple set of rules described by bassist Peter Hook: “We decided to follow the rules of punk… Rule one: act like the Sex Pistols. There are two Joy Division songs I cannot listen to: “Atmosphere” and “Walked in Line.” The reasons why I cannot hear the first do not matter within the context of what I want to address here as to the latter, the reason is plainly that it is an example of the worst punk has to offer, not only within the context of 1970’s British punk, but also in all the political strains of punk thereafter.
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