The first part of the movie focuses on the band Joy Division and the history of Factory Records. While the movie featured several JD songs, we have the meat here: "Transmission" is their first great song, "New Dawn Fades" is them at their heaviest, "Atmosphere" is their most transcendent (although maybe some members were only concerned with the human sphere), "She's Lost Control" is their first great single and defined Manchester early on, and "Love Will Tear Us Apart" is their most famous song, and their only really positive song, since it contains emotion and the concept of love.

Manchester is known for its cold humor and lack of sentimentality. Right after lead singer Ian Curtis killed himself, they formed New Order, which became one of the most popular bands of the time. His death is the end of chapter one of the story. Soon Ecstasy and dance took hold. Where punk gave us a bleak vision of the world, almost post-nuclear, the rave scene, "Madchester" as it was called, combined rock, drugs and dance. This blueprint has survived to cyber raves down the road from you with Sasha & Digweed. The inclusion of New Order tracks that were more danceable, and A Guy Called Gerald, Happy Mondays, and 808 State are reminders who are the originators. I was 15 years old when Joy Division started and about 27 when "Pacific State" came out and when Happy Mondays collapsed, so this is like the soundtrack to my youth. There are some obscure bands like The Duritti Column represented, but lost are Magazine, The Fall, and A Certain Ratio, who figure more in the movie. But most of that is nit-picking. The movie is great. The soundtrack to the movie is better.