A difficult thing to describe. Joy Division was a product of a man tortured by his internal demons. To me, their music was never really about the usual topics. It was about the a desire for a just (yet unattainable) world given the barbarism of everyday life. If you're fifty, it may be trite idealism but to a teenager in the 1980s who could see the shallowness of it all but could not express it, Joy Division was wonderful. And because of Ian Curtis' suicide, that added to the authenticity and romance of it. Of course suicide is never something to romanticize and is a painful tragedy that leaves family and friends with wounds that will never fully heal. The experience of an adult eventually override the idealism of youth.

I became a recent fan after catching a feature film [0] and a documentary [1] about the band. Worth a look and listen.

[0] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0421082/ [1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1097239/

Mind if I ask your age and nationality?

EDIT: Maybe a more interesting question, can you give a couple of examples of your favourite albums/songs/bands?