Would the boys go synth pop in the 80s had Ian stayed alive?

You are forgetting the most important, after the split Ian would start a solo project with Morrissey !!

El Jarvo wrote: Does every post have to be qualified with a 'smilie' to get sarcasm across to you hapless North Americans?

Mine was actually qualified with a but I guess you missed that?

I've been called many things in my time but a 'whiny immature kid'?

For the record, what exactly is synthpopish or indeed 'alternative dance' about records like, off the top of my head, Sunrise, Love Vigilantes, Confusion, Blue Monday, Fine Time, Working Overtime or Shellshock?

To be more accurate you could qualify these as Rock, Country, Electro, Hi-NRG, Acid, Rockabilly and just plain shit, so I don't see where synthpop or alternatice dance fits into any of those.

Yeah, well, carry on.

Sarcasm or not, you still don't get the labelling. Yeah New Order songs vary a lot I'll give you that, but for the sake of categorizing, I'll put some of their songs into alternative dance and others into alternative or indie or something to that nature. Now if you don't like that, fine, but you don't have to make such a big deal out of it because using sarcasm is a way to put down people. I actually use labelling to tag my mp3 and FYI, I just put alternative for New Order. That way, it covers everything they've done.

If you want to know exactly what is synthpop and alternative dance, do a search on Google for crying out loud. It's not like I took these terms out of my arse.