Genre
R&B, new wave, and art pop. A concept album subtitled "a biography" in the liner notes, Slave to the Rhythm is built on eight variations of a single song, interspersed with spoken-word excerpts from a journalist interview read by actor Ian McShane.
Release
Released on October 28, 1985, by Island Records. It was Jones's seventh studio album, marking her return to recording after a three-year hiatus during which she pursued a film career - most notably playing the villain May Day in the James Bond film 'A View to a Kill' (1985).
Production
Produced by Trevor Horn, founder of ZTT Records and widely described as "the Man Who Invented the Eighties." Under Horn's direction, Jones entered the studio weekly to record a new version of the song within predefined thematic and lyrical parameters, weaving a cohesive narrative across the album's eight tracks. Recorded at Power Station Studios, New York City.
Reception
The album sold 150,000 copies in the United States and one million worldwide. It reached number twelve on the UK Albums Chart, the top ten in Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands, and remains Jones's second highest-charting album on the US Billboard 200. The title single reached number twelve on the UK Singles Chart and number one on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart. The music video was directed by Jean-Paul Goude. AllMusic described the album as "a surprisingly epic statement of purpose."
Grace Jones
Grace Beverly Jones (born May 19, 1948, Spanish Town, Saint Catherine, Jamaica) is a Jamaican-American singer, songwriter, model, and actress, one of the defining figures of the post-disco era. Raised in a strict Pentecostal household, she moved with her family to Syracuse, New York, at thirteen, studied theatre, and launched a modelling career in Paris in the early 1970s, working for Yves Saint Laurent and Kenzo, sharing an apartment with Jerry Hall and Jessica Lange. She signed with Island Records in 1974, building her reputation through three disco albums before pivoting to new wave with Warm Leatherette (1980) and Nightclubbing (1981), the latter her greatest commercial breakthrough. Her visual identity — profoundly shaped by her long collaboration with photographer and partner Jean-Paul Goude — made her one of the most influential aesthetic figures of the 1980s. She was a muse of Andy Warhol and a regular presence at Studio 54. In 2018 she received the Order of Jamaica.
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