Disclaimer - I have not voted yet, and will not until I am clear as to whom I think is the better choice.
However, since X and the Capt. have both extolled why they feel Joy Division is the obvious choice, I want to go the Devil's Advocate route and explain why I may potentially go with Billy Idol.
For starters, looks at longevity. Joy Division was around for 4 years before Ian Curtis's death. Billy Idol has been going strong for 35 years now, and still tours.
Longevity is a pretty ridiculious point to bring up when the lead singer of the band killed himself IC. That's just idiotic to compare. That's like comparing Nirvana to the Goo Goo Dolls and saying the Dolls are better because they've been around longer. Well no shit. But this isn't a "Who lived the longest?" competition, it's the "Who made the better music?" competition, which Joy Division easily beats Billy Idol in.
Joy Division only released two studio albums, one of which was a posthumous release after Curtis's suicide. Idol released 8 original studio albums and 3 greatest hits albums.
You say "posthumous release" as though it was just a bunch of B-sides and demo tapes strung together. That entire album was recorded before Ian killed himself.
And since we're apparently counting greatest hits albums, Joy Division has 4 greatest hits albums, one more then Billy Idol. Besides, again, this isn't "Who's made the most albums?", it's "Who's made the best music?".
Both of Joy Division's original studio albums are five-star classics of rock and roll and punk. It's up there with Nirvana and the Sex Pistols in terms of sheer influence on a generation of rock music.
Besides, how many of those Billy Idol albums were actually
good? He had two good albums, both of which don't measure up to any of Joy Division's work. Not to mention Billy Idol released what I can quite positively say is the single worst rock record ever created in "Cyberpunk". I'm pretty sure it's renowned as the biggest critical and commercial flop in the history of rock music.
As great of a song as "Love Will Tear Us Apart" is, that was technically Joy Division's only single. Billy Idol's singles reads like a Who's Who of 80's New Wave and Rock hits: Dancing with Myself, Mony Mony, White Wedding, Rebel Yell, Eyes Without a Face, Flesh for Fantasy, Sweet Sixteen, Cradle of Love, etc.
First off, "Love Will Tear Us Apart" was Joy Division's
third single, not their first. Second, again: Ian Curtis killed himself. Hard to release singles when your lead singer is dead. What's ironic though is that Joy Division released several posthumous singles in the later 80s that did very well on the British charts.
Everything you listed after Rebel Yell was crap in my opinion, but I won't take away from Billy Idol's popularity. He still isn't even half as influential as Joy Division. Name me one modern popular artist that you can say was clearly influenced by Billy Idol. Because I could name you dozens of current bands who were clearly influenced by Joy Division.
Joy Division were a staple of the start of the post-punk movement, I get that. Idol was part of the reason the MTV craze occured in the early 80's and was the vision of "Sexy Punk Rock" as Steve Stevens termed it.
Please, Michael Jackson was and is the artist that put MTV on the map. Trying to claim it was anyone else is foolish. No one's videos were requested more then Michael's. And considering that Joy Division had already ended before MTV was created, that's a rather foolish thing to compare them with.
Both bands were influenced largely by The Sex Pistols. Joy Division has been claimed as a major influence by bands such as U2 (Bono claims that U2 worships Joy Division) and John Frusciante. Billy Idol doesn't have the impressive influence that Joy Division can claim, I concede that point. Joy Division, however, doesn't even approach the actual success that Idol has had in music.
There, in a short, terse nutshell, is why Billy Idol is a worthy choice over Joy Division. I welcome rebuttles to convince me otherwise, as I am not 100% set on my vote yet.
As always I find myself stating this: How again does popularity equal quality? Why aren't Britney Spears, NSync, and the Backstreet Boys in this contest? Since we're judging the quality of music on record sales, I guess the Backstreet Boys are a way better band then the Allman Brothers or Cream or Van Halen right? I mean, they've sold a lot more records.
Joy Division > Billy Idol. All night long in the words of Lionel Richie.
