Some pop stars control every note that appears on their albums, and a producer acts as their spokesperson by ensuring that each desired sound is exactly in place. Some hand over the entire vision and process to their producers, and simply show up to record their parts before calling it a day. But every once in a while, an artist teams up with a producer to create his most indelible work, combining both his producer's vision and his specialized skills with his own. With Trevor Horn behind the boards, Grace Jones accomplished this on her legendary 1985 album, Slave to the rhythm.
Slave to the rhythm It's not just an album. It is an experience, a biography, a meditation on Grace Jones as a rhythmic deity. It's eight versions of a single song that showcase every facet of Jones' limitless artistry. Maybe except the effervescent nightclubswhich made Jones a global phenomenon upon its release in 1981, Slave to the rhythm It is his most complete and ambitious experiment.
It also represents the greatest artistry of producer Trevor Horn, who worked tirelessly alongside Bruce Woolley, Steven Lipson and Simon Darlow to achieve the album's concept. Together, they created a mythologized presentation of Grace Jones, whose evocative vision of pop music would influence the genre for years to come.
Here's something that may sound familiar: when Grace Jones launched Slave to the rhythm By 1985, the public had stopped listening to full albums. MTV dominated the pop culture debate, prioritizing singles for video distribution and emphasizing iconography. As Trevor Horn prophetically put it in his 1979 single with The Buggles, video was killing the radio star and, with it, the album.
But even with MTV's dominance, there will always be demand for immersion, not just for small offerings, but for a full experience. This is exactly what Jones and Horn had envisioned, and ultimately achieved, in Slave to the rhythm.
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