Objectless melancholia distinguishes depression from sadness in pop music

Evidence

What separated Joy Division from any of their predecessors, even the bleakest, was the lack of any apparent object-cause for their melancholia. (That’s what made it melancholia rather than melancholy, which has always been an acceptable, subtly sublime, delectation for men to relish.) From its very beginnings, (Robert Johnson, Sinatra) 20th-century Pop has been more to do with male (and female) sadness than elation. Yet, in the case of both the bluesman and the crooner, there is, at least ostensibly, a reason for the sorrow. Because Joy Division’s bleakness was without any specific cause, they crossed the line from the blue of sadness into the black of depression, passing into the ‘desert and wastelands’ where nothing brings either joy or sorrow. Zero affect. — Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life, 137

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines melancholia (objectless) versus melancholy (culturally sanctioned sorrow with a cause) via Joy Division’s contrast with earlier pop sadness.
• recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source
• XREF: connects to: Depression is a philosophical disposition, not merely sadness or a state of mind — Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life: Writings on…, 141; Melancholia is a conscious refusal to adjust while depression is accommodation to decline — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 2289; Depression differs from melancholy by lacking all relation and attachment — Byung-Chul Han, The Burnout Society, 115 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Melancholia is a conscious refusal to adjust while depression is accommodation to decline #expands (0.85) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 2289
• Depression differs from melancholy by lacking all relation and attachment #expands (0.80) — Byung-Chul Han, The Burnout Society, 115
• Digital club-pop euphoria masks rather than relieves depression #qualifies (0.75) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1305