New Order

New Order was an English rock group that formed in 1980 out of the ashes of the English post-punk group Joy Division, who disbanded after lead singer Ian Curtis's suicide in May of that year. Although reeling from the death of their frontman and friend, the remaining members of Joy Division-Peter Hook, Stephen Morris, and Bernard Sumner-formed New Order in November of 1980, along with keyboardist Gillian Gilbert (Morris' girlfriend and later wife). The band's debut album, 1981's Movement, was not unlike the dark, moody songs of their Joy Division days, and despite the similar sound, received relatively poor reviews from critics. In late 1981, however, New Order visited New York City where a wide range of electronic dance music was sweeping the city's nightclubs. Inspired by the sounds they heard on their American trip, New Order's follow-up record, 1983's Power, Corruption & Lies was a total departure from their previous work, incorporating synthesizers for a fuller, more electronic-infused dance sound. New Order would maintain that electronic sound for the subsequent albums it released in the '80s and early '90s. After the release of 1993's Republic, however, New Order disbanded so that the core members could focus on their burgeoning solo careers. After a five-year hiatus, the band reformed in 1998, and released their seventh studio album three years later with 2001's Get Ready. Unlike the synthesizer-heavy sound of their previous work, however, Get Ready featured a lot of guitars, giving the album more of a rock-based sound. Despite a brief four-year hiatus from 2007 to 2011, during which both Hook and Gilbert left the band, Sumner and Morris released two more New Order albums in the 2010s: 2013's Lost Sirens and 2015's Music Complete.