Short-Lived Band’s Music Endures : Pop music: Joy Division never achieved more than a cult following, but its influence on rock has persisted. Now the group is receiving new exposure.

It’s been almost 20 years since Joy Division emerged from the grimy factory town of Manchester, England, with a form of punk so gracefully apocalyptic it seemed inevitable that the band would become not only one of rock’s most influential forces, but also one of its rarest flowers.

In its day, though, Joy Division remained largely unknown and underground, right up to the end of its three-year career, which ended in 1980 when singer Ian Curtis committed suicide on the eve of what would have been the band’s first American tour. Even with the larger pop presence achieved by the three surviving members in New Order, Joy Division’s position as a commercial force in rock history stands as little more than a cult footnote. But its impact among key alternative-rock figures is omnipresent.

Hundreds of artists have drawn from Joy Division’s legacy, including such rock pacesetters as U2 and R.E.M. Listening to Joy Division’s work now, it becomes clear how transcendental and timeless this short-lived band was. Curtis’ romantically shattered images and haunting tone depict a man struggling with the dulling aspects of reality, while the group’s minimal music ignored the stylistic boundaries constantly adhered to by most other rock bands.

Now, though, the same corporate music world that originally overlooked this morose music for more stable bets like Van Halen is behind a Joy Division resurgence of sorts. “Permanent: Joy Division 1995,” a satisfying compilation of the band’s most compelling works, is already in the stores and a tribute album is due out Tuesday. The latter collection will feature versions of Joy Division songs by such noteworthy contemporary artists as Moby, Billy Corgan and Kendra Smith.

In addition, part of the Joy Division story is chronicled in “Touching From a Distance,” a new biography by Ian Curtis’ widow, Deborah Curtis, that has been published in Europe.

The book is a bumpy ride through Ian Curtis’ life, following him from his bright childhood to a stormy adulthood, and finally depicting his spiral into an inescapable depression. Up until his death in 1980, Curtis proved almost too perceptive for his own good. Though rather plainly written, the book opens a window onto the flame that burned beneath his troubled surface.

Joy Division fans will certainly be interested in the book, but it’s anyone’s guess whether younger rock fans who missed the band the first time around will relate to Joy Division’s now relatively subtle and introverted music.

“My best-case scenario is that this album will open up Joy Division’s music to a new generation,” says Jim Swindel, president of Qwest Records, which released the “Permanent” retrospective. “I think younger listeners have heard Joy Division’s music, but up to now, it’s almost been an ephemeral, background thing to them. They haven’t really paid notice to what the band was about. Though Joy Division’s music may be removed from Generation X, it really is filled with sentiments that speak to that generation.”

It would seem logical to assume young, mainstream fans raised on Nirvana would probably connect more readily to Joy Division than the rock audience of the late-70s, which found the band’s stark and moody melodies alienating in an era dominated by decadent arena-rock. In those days it took the more daring punk world to appreciate the band’s often scary introspection, though Joy Division’s sound was nothing like the urgent rush of the Sex Pistols or the Damned.

But it’s hardly certain that the band’s songs will reach a higher level of popularity now than they did during the band’s lifetime. Though beautiful in its grayness, this music still proves as intense and oppressive as Curtis’ shifting moods.

“Joy Division colored my high school years and made teen-age angst seem sophisticated and beautiful at the same time,” says Moby, whose version of the song “New Dawn Fades” appears on the tribute album. “If you were lovelorn, felt lonely or lost, it was a really poetic way to deal with it. [Curtis] also pursued that angst to its natural end, which made him seem all the more real. It’s sad, but also added to the band’s appeal.”

Like Nirvana, tragedy is a huge part of this band’s legacy, but certainly not at the core of its allure. It was Curtis’ pure, unedited emotion and the band’s dark eloquence that made Joy Division great. That, at least, can be kept alive.