Blue Monday: The enduring legacy of New Order’s era-defining anthem

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‘Blue Monday’ is arguably the most famous sleeve in the Factory Records story, not to mention popular culture.

Released in 1983 through Factory Records, the record ‘Blue Monday’ and its cultural legacy and importance lie in several aspects, including its innovative use of electronic music, its impact on popular culture, and its influence on subsequent music genres.

Blue Monday was a ground-breaking song for its time, and its trailblazing use of electronic music helped to shape the sound of dance music and techno for years to come. The song featured a distinctive drum machine pattern and a synthesized bassline that became one of the most recognizable sounds in popular music.

The distinctive beat has soundtracked numerous films, TV shows, and commercials, and its iconic sleeve design, which was designed by Peter Saville to resemble a 5.25-inch floppy disk has become a pop culture icon in its own right. The sleeve made no mention of the band’s name or even the name of the song anywhere, instead Saville created a code using a series of colour blocks to impart the title. The production cost of this sleeve was so high that the single sold at a loss and was rumoured to have cost New Order a fortune.

Nevertheless, Blue Monday helped to pave the way for subsequent music genres, particularly in the dance and electronic music world. The song’s influence can be heard in many later electronic music genres, including techno, house, and trance, and it is often cited as one of the most important and influential dance tracks of all time.

Listen: Blue Monday by New Order, released as a 12-inch single on 7 March 1983 through Factory Records.

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Each season, our dedicated Colour Studio within our Atelier selects premium acetate colours which are woven into the collection to complement the theme of each collection.

Both glasses and sunglasses in the collection are crafted from a single run of specially selected acetate, once this run has been used in full, the colourway will not be reissued.

Spring Summer 2023 Colour Studio exclusives ‘Blue Crystal’ and ‘Solid Light Blue’ offer a celebratory nod to ‘Blue Monday’ – an era-defining anthem that sparked a shift in the music scene.

9797 Sunglass as featured in the Spring Summer 23 campaign, shot by Rankin

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