‘Nightclubbing’: How a Grace Jones masterpiece changed and challenged culture
“Feeling like a woman, looking like a man,” Grace Jones sings on the opening track to her 1981 masterpiece Nightclubbing. “Sounding like a no-no, mating when I can / Whistling in the darkness, shining in the night / Coming to conclusions / Right is night is tight.” By this point, Jones didn’t just rally together every reason to succumb to the nightlife; she captured the essence of the nocturnal by blurring the lines between masculine and feminine, infusing new wave and post-punk with boldness and defiance that forever changed racial and cultural barriers in music.
Every landmark album says something about the culture in which it thrived, reflecting one of the most important aspects of music: its impact on and reflection of its surrounding culture. As Nina Simone once said, “An artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times,” and Nightclubbing is an emboldened manifestation of its era, capturing the spirit of the times while also critiquing the shortcomings of music in a broader sense.
The early 1980s were a time of experimentation and genre-blending, and Jones’ seminal piece of work combined reggae, new wave, funk, and post-punk, reflecting the push towards breaking new musical ground. At the time, many artists were also striving to nail the concept of adopting both futuristic and traditional rhythms, but no one came closer to achieving such a monumental amalgamation than Jones’ efforts while tackling the burgeoning club culture of the time.
The concept of nightclubbing hinges on many 1980s-specific controversies, including hedonism, gender and sexual liberation, self-expression, second-wave feminism, global interconnectedness, and sound innovation. ‘Pull Up to the Bumper’, for instance, ended up becoming one of Jones’ most controversial hits due to the way it handled sexually suggestive lyrics, like, “Pull up to my bumper baby / In your long black limousine / Pull up to my bumper baby / And drive it in between.”
Jones’ take on androgyny and the avant-garde also meant other players in the field, like Annie Lennox and Laurie Anderson, were pushed to explore the limits of creative boundaries within their own work. Even today, artists like Lady Gaga regard Jones’ work as groundbreaking and a significant touchstone when it comes to challenging societal norms. As the ‘Monster’ star once said: “There’s nobody I love more than Grace Jones. She’s like my personal Jesus.”
Nightclubbing also defied racial stereotypes, pushing against the limitations often placed on Black artists by the music industry. The blending of various genres also transcended racial biases in music, while its themes, which criticised prejudiced views, conveyed resistance and resilience, with songs like ‘Pull Up to the Bumper’ and ‘I’ve Seen That Face Before (Libertango)’ tapping into various social anxieties and the cyclical nature of personal experiences.
In turn, it was Nightclubbing that lurked at the epicentre of the cultural movement, changing the face of both culture and modern pop, setting alight a path that would be filled by other trailblazing female musicians who value unique and oftentimes flamboyant aesthetics, including Róisín Murphy, Janelle Monáe, M.I.A., Stevie Nicks, and more. It also set a template for some of the most influential artists in indie and alternative music, including Gorillaz, Massive Attack, Björk, LCD Soundsystem, and others.
And this list continues to grow—if you ask any dance, electronic, pop, new wave or post-punk musician for one of their biggest influences of all time, the likelihood that they will point towards Jones’ exceptional 1981 opus is incredibly high. “Grace Jones is one the most important pop icons in music in the last century,” Hercules & Love Affair’s Kim Ann Foxman told The Vinyl Factory. “To me, she really is the last alien on Earth. Her presence is beyond…she is a reference and inspiration for so many artists today. Nightclubbing is my favourite album. There are so many great hits on that album.”
