Introduction

Joy Division’s 1980 single “Love Will Tear Us Apart” refracts the traditional view of punk through the lens of Ian Curtis’ struggles with his disability to create the more tonally and textually diverse musical landscape of post-punk. Post-punk’s often somber subject matter and low, unpolished vocal delivery, contrasted with it’s fast-tempo/poppier instrumentation, portrays Curtis’ struggles with epilepsy. Curtis uses this music to connect the listener to his disability, an act opposed to the usually “othering” of disabled individuals.