Joy Division and New Orders of Nostalgia: But We Remember When We Were Young

Academics are increasingly devoting attention to understanding, categorising and appraising the concept of nostalgia. However, "there is surprisingly little attempt to discuss the modes of representation involved in the communication of nostalgia," particularly in relation to the mass media (Pickering and Keightley, 2006: 930). This paper addresses this deficit by examining the memory work conducted on Manchester post-punk band Joy Division. Since the mid-2000s there has been a surge of material related to the band, including movies, documentaries, autobiographies and other books, as well as ambitious marketing campaigns associated with re-released songs. This paper assesses the extent to which this material can be considered nostalgic and the orders of nostalgia it conveys. We suggest that much of the material produced by "witnesses" present in the 1970s can be understood as contestation over authority to speak, rather than reflecting a nostalgic "mood". Some of the new material exhibits a nostalgic "mode" where styles from the past are drawn on to increase the band's audience. Collectively, these efforts form the basis for the "ersatz nostalgia" of those could not witness Joy Division. Exploring the relationship between nostalgia and authoritative witnesses provides greater insight into how popular culture (re)creates its own past.