Happiness in Slavery
| "Happiness in Slavery" | |
|---|---|
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| Promotional single by Nine Inch Nails from the album Broken | |
| Released | November 1992 |
| Format | |
| Recorded | 1992 |
| Length | 5:21 |
| Label | |
| Writer(s) | Trent Reznor |
| Producer(s) |
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"Happiness in Slavery" is a song by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails from their debut extended play (EP), Broken (1992). It was released in November 1992 as a promotional single from the EP. The song takes its title and refrain from Jean Paulhan's preface to Pauline Réage's 1954 erotic novel Story of O. "Happiness in Slavery" peaked at number 13 on the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart.
Nine Inch Nails' performance of "Happiness in Slavery" at , included on , won the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in 1996. The song's music video was almost universally banned for its depiction of Bob Flanagan being tortured by a machine.
The track was sampled for "Centipede" by Canadian extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad, appearing on their 1997 live album No Sleep 'till Bedtime.
The music video for "Happiness in Slavery", directed by Jon Reiss, was inspired by the 1899 novel The Torture Garden by French author Octave Mirbeau. It features performance artist Bob Flanagan entering a large room, placing a flower and a candle on an altar and in a ritualistic style prepares for something; by washing himself before becoming strapped into a machine with long robotic claws that arise from the machine and subsequently tear apart his skin and impale his hands. The man reacts in pleasure as this occurs. There are also drills that drill into his skin in various places letting his blood drip onto the floor beneath, where there is a garden apparently being fertilized by human blood.
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