ABSTRACT
The fearful paradox of the technological age, that machines created as artificial slaves will somehow enslave and even mechanize human beings, is ritually enacted at the discotheque. It would seem that Grace Jones and, particularly, the album Slave to the Rhythm provide a clear focus for this social phenomenon. While the title of the album manages to draw attention to her ancestry and a racial cliche, it also suggests and encourages a more personal interpretation. Her background as a fashion model was both an enabling and a restricting influence on her subsequent career in pop music. There can be doubt that she presents a forceful and attractively androgynous image to her audience. It is possible to even suggest similarities between the cover image of Slave to the Rhythm and audio sampling techniques. An extreme example of the Synclavier used purely as a sampler is the track 'Operattack', which is entirely constructed from a few sampled phrases taken from other tracks.
