The band made mainly two albums but also a few EPs. After the death of Ian Curtis, a few best of and live sets were edited in the 1980's, 90's and 00's.

Joy Division took a while to develop their sound. As Warsaw, the band played "fairly undistinguished punk-inflected hard-rock". Music critic Simon Reynolds asserted that "Joy Division's originality really became apparent as the songs got slower." The group's music took on a "sparse" quality; Reynolds detailed that "Peter Hook's bass carried the melody, Bernard Sumner's guitar left gaps rather than filling up the group's sound with dense riffage, and Steve Morris' drums seemed to circle the rim of a crater."Sumner described the band's characteristic sound in 1994: "It came out naturally: I'm more rhythm and chords, and Hooky was melody. He used to play high lead bass because I liked my guitar to sound distorted, and the amplifier I had would only work when it was at full volume. When Hooky played low, he couldn't hear himself. Steve has his own style which is different to other drummers. To me, a drummer in the band is the clock, but Steve wouldn't be the clock, because he's passive: he would follow the rhythm of the band, which gave us our own edge."Over time, Ian Curtis began to sing in a low, baritone voice, which often drew comparisons to Jim Morrison of The Doors (a group which was in fact one of Curtis' favourite bands).During the recording sessions for Closer, Sumner began using self-built synthesizers and Hook used a six-string bass for more melody.