Happiness in Slavery Information & Happiness in Slavery Links at HealthHaven.com

"Happiness in Slavery"
Single by Nine Inch Nails
from the album Broken
Released	November 1992
Format	Promotional 12"
Recorded	1992
Genre	Industrial metal
Length	5 min 21 s
Label	TVT Records/Interscope
Producer	Trent Reznor, Flood
Nine Inch Nails singles chronology

"Happiness in Slavery" is a song by the American act Nine Inch Nails. The song takes its title and refrain from Jean Paulhan's preface to The Story of O^[1]. It is available on the Broken EP and was also released as a 12" promotional single in November 1992. The song peaked at number 13 on the U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart.

Nine Inch Nails' performance of "Happiness in Slavery" at Woodstock '94, included on the concert's compilation album, won the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in 1996.

[edit] Music video

Bob Flanagan being tortured in the video.

The music video for "Happiness in Slavery" features performance artist Bob Flanagan entering a large room. He places a flower and a candle on an altar and ritualistically removes all of his clothing and washes himself before becoming strapped into a machine with long robotic claws that arise from the machine and subsequently tear apart his skin and stimulate his genitalia. The man reacts in pleasure as this occurs. There are also drills that apparently drill into his skin in various places letting the man's blood drip on the floor, where there appears to be an unspecified garden that is fertilized by human blood.

Later on in the video, large grinders emerge from the machine and cause extreme damage to the man's skin. He continues to scream in pain and pleasure until he dies. The machine then engulfs the man's body and grinds it into a fertilizer for the garden below. In the conclusion, Trent Reznor, who had been singing the lyrics inside a cell, has now entered the room revealing to the viewer that he is next.

The video was almost universally banned once released.^{[citation needed]} It was later included in Closure and the Broken Movie. It was featured on Too Much 4 Much, MuchMusic's showcase of videos banned from their regular programming.

Reznor commented that the video was not created for shock value,^[2] but that "these were the most appropriate visuals for the song."^[3] It had to do with his artistic freedom at the time after his fallout with TVT Records.^[2]

[edit] Track listing for promotional single

A1 – "Happiness in Slavery" (Fixed version) – 6:09
A2 – "Happiness in Slavery" (Sherwood Slave remix) – 2:17
B1 – "Happiness in Slavery" (PK Slavery remix) – 5:41
B2 – "Happiness in Slavery" (Broken version) – 5:21

A promotional CD containing only the track as it appears on the Broken EP was also released during this same timeframe.

[edit] References

^ "Negating O"
^ ^a ^b Mark Blackwell (February 1995). "Revolution No. Nine". huH.
^ Deborah Russell (December 1992). "Reznor Nails Down Extreme Clip". Billboard.

[edit] External links

"Happiness in Slavery" promos at NIN Collector
"Happiness in Slavery" at the NinWiki

[0] "Negating O"

[huH-1] Mark Blackwell (February 1995). "Revolution No. Nine". huH.

[2] Deborah Russell (December 1992). "Reznor Nails Down Extreme Clip". Billboard.

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[2]

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Contents

[edit] Music video

[edit] Track listing for promotional single

[edit] References

[edit] External links