42 Years Ago: New Order invents the future with “Blue Monday”

How a song originally meant as a live stunt became the best-selling 12-inch single ever

Sleeve design by Peter Saville and Brett Wickens (Factory Records)

To this day, there is no easier way to get a roomful of aging ’80s club kids onto the dance floor than to cue up the stuttering electronic drumbeat that kicks off “Blue Monday” by New Order. Since its original UK release in March 1983, “Blue Monday” has become not only the band’s defining seven and a half minutes, but the pivot point between post-punk and dance culture. Acid house, Madchester, raves, Ibiza, all the way up to today’s hyperpop and mainstream superstars like Charli XCX: every bit of it can trace its roots to this one iconic 12-inch.

THE IDEA

Which is pretty cool, considering that the initial concept behind “Blue Monday” was basically a joke. Since the days of their previous incarnation as Joy Division, the band had always refused to play encores, thinking they were a tired old rock tradition. The rise of sequencers, however, had given the band an idea: what if they…