FEATURE:
Spinning Around in Your Eyes
Kylie Minogue and the Evolution of the Pop Video
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THIS will be a rather long feature…
PHOTO CREDIT: Grant Matthews
that is not linked to any event or anniversary. I think there are very few artists recording today who have been around for decades. In terms of the pioneers and enduring legends, we have the likes of Paul McCartney and Madonna. Kylie Minogue can definitely be added to the list of icons and pioneers. Whilst her music and lyrics have been tackled by a number of writers and producers through the years – with Minogue’s voice very much at the centre; she has written some terrific tracks herself -, I feel the way she brings her songs to life through the videos separates her from other artists. My earliest memories of her music were the videos – Hand on Your Heart and Better the Devil You Know were my favourite. A captivating and compelling visual artist, she has definitely helped evolve the Pop promotional. As her albums became deeper, more sophisticated and varied, the videos match that in terms of concept and execution. To mark her music videos’ impact, I am going to select the twenty-one best. Having released ninety-five singles, it is hard to narrow it down to the best twenty-one! Before I get there, I am going to repeat the text I brought in when I featured Minogue in my Inspired By… feature a while back. This is AllMusic’s biography of the Australian Pop legend:
“Kylie Minogue started her career as an actress on an Australian soap, but her charisma and highly adaptable talents as a pop singer soon landed her on top of the music world. The ride was bumpy, with high highs (chart-topping singles and albums, a brilliant collaboration with Nick Cave) and low lows (cancer, being dropped by record labels), but through it all, Minogue's sunny relatability never flagged. During the 1980s, she released effervescent Stock, Aitken & Waterman-produced pop singles like "I Should Be So Lucky" and "The Loco-Motion" and cultivated a cheerful, cheeky persona.
Once she broke away from the SAW machine, she was free to explore music styles and seek out a new, more adult image. She dipped her toes into trip-hop with "Confide in Me," slick dance-pop on "Better the Devil You Know," and pop/rock with guitars on "Some Kind of Bliss." She struck gold in 2001 with the huge electro-pop single "Can't Get You Out of My Head"; the album it landed on, Fever, was her most cohesive yet and kicked off a string of sleekly quirky records that were inspired by synth pop and electronic music. By the 2010s, Kylie had become a major concert draw worldwide and her singles and albums reflected her new status, sounding huge and very poppy while never sacrificing artistic growth or stylistic restlessness. Along the way, she even recorded an album with an orchestra (2012's Abbey Road Sessions) and went pop-country (2018's Golden). In 2020, for her 15th set, she returned to the dancefloor to do what she does best on DISCO.
Born in Melbourne on May 28, 1968, Kylie Minogue began acting in television dramas at the age of 12. Although the small roles brought her a fair bit of exposure, it was her 1986 debut on the insanely popular soap Neighbours that catapulted her to stardom. In Australia, Minogue's role as the tomboy Charlene won her a number of awards, but in Britain, the exploits of that character and her love interest -- played by the actor Jason Donovan -- attracted record numbers of television viewers, and made the Aussie drama one of the most watched shows in the U.K. Understanding Minogue's megastar potential, as well as her ability to vamp and sing, Mushroom Records signed her to a contract in 1987. Her success was immediate, as her debut single, "The Loco-Motion" (a cover of the 1962 Little Eva hit) rocketed to number one and eventually took the globe by storm, hitting the upper reaches of the charts in many countries.
Minogue then headed to England and partnered with the production team of Stock, Aitken & Waterman. The first track the group released with her, "I Should Be So Lucky," dominated the Australian and U.K. charts, did well on a number of charts in Europe, and hit the Top 40 in the U.S. Her pop status was further consolidated with her debut album, 1988's Kylie, which topped the charts in the U.K. and did very well in many other places, including Australia. As the '80s drew to a close, Minogue's stature worldwide only grew. Her duet with Jason Donovan, "Especially for You," sold over a million copies in 1989, even while being critically panned. A second full-length, Enjoy Yourself, was also released that year, along with a handful of singles that managed to further dominate charts in both hemispheres. In the midst of this pop success, Minogue also appeared in her first feature film, The Delinquents.
Many things would change for her in the frenetic decade of the '90s. She began to trade in her cutesy, bubblegum pop image for a more mature one, and in turn, a more sexual one. Her relationship with the late frontman of INXS, Michael Hutchence, and her shedding of the near-virginal facade that dominated her first two albums began to have an effect, not only on how the press and her fans treated her, but in the evolution of her music. Released in 1990, Rhythm of Love, its worldwide hit single, "Better the Devil You Know," and its follow-up, "Shocked," took her out of the stifling world of teen pop and brought her into the more adult world of dance music and nightclubs.
Minogue's career was not without its ebbs, however. As she began to flex a bit more creative muscle, her relationship with Stock, Aitken & Waterman felt restrictive. Their sound had dominated music for a number of years on both sides of the Atlantic, but the scene was beginning to move on, and Kylie's fourth and final album with Mushroom and the production team, Let's Get to It, would sell disappointingly. Freed from the yoke of both a production team and a mainstream pop label, Minogue began a long trend of collaborating with up-and-coming and hot producers and songwriters, which not only allowed her to roll with cultural trends and stay current in an extremely fussy and fickle genre, but allowed her to branch out into new areas of performance unheard of by most pop singers of her style.
Now signed to the dance label Deconstruction, Minogue released a much more mature and stylish dance-pop record in 1994's Kylie Minogue. The singles "Confide in Me" and "Put Yourself in My Place" were slicker and more stylish than anything she had previously recorded. While the record sold well and Kylie made more movie appearances (1994's Street Fighter and 1996's Bio-Dome), the next couple of years were fairly quiet except for the hit single (and unlikely collaboration) with Nick Cave entitled "Where the Wild Roses Grow." A dark ballad about a murder (with a video based on the Millais painting Ophelia) -- the duet featured Cave as the murderer singing his point of view and Minogue as the victim singing hers -- the single was widely successful in Australia and the U.K, earning Kylie a new set of fans and a new sense of respect.
Her eagerness to expand on this collaboration led to the work that would make up her 1997 album, Impossible Princess. While the lead single, the more rock-tinged "Some Kind of Bliss," was the result of working with James Dean Bradfield and Sean Moore of Manic Street Preachers, the rest of the album (for the most part) consisted of further collaborations (with Brothers in Rhythm co-founder David Seaman, for instance) and efforts to expand on the dance-pop that was her bread and butter. The album, soon retitled Kylie Minogue in England due to the death of Princess Diana, was successful, but her attempt at developing her sound met firm resistance critically, with many radio stations and journalists writing her off, figuring her career had run its course. Obviously, this was not the case, as Minogue toured the world for the album, selling out stadiums (as usual) and appearing in a number of specialty concerts over the next two years.
In 1999, having been dropped from Deconstruction but signing to Parlophone, Minogue shed the indie influences that guided Impossible Princess and set about creating dance-pop that was more disco than anything in her catalog. The resulting album, Light Years, and its lead single, "Spinning Around," were huge successes, bringing her critical acclaim and winning a new generation of fans.
Her place in pop music history would be consolidated in 2001, and she would be reintroduced to America after more than a decade. That year's album, Fever, and its massively successful (and aptly titled) single "Can't Get You Out of My Head" were the first to be released in the U.S. since Enjoy Yourself, and the single managed to chart stateside at number three. Even the Grammys began to recognize Minogue, as the first of many nominations (eventually she would win for "Come Into My World" in 2002) finally happened that year. While her next album, 2003's Body Language, was not as big a seller as Fever, it was another successful attempt at broadening her sound, this time with electro and hip-hop influences. A greatest-hits package (her second), 2004's Ultimate Kylie, acted as a catalyst for her worldwide Showgirl tour, but that was to be set aside after her diagnosis with breast cancer.
In 2005, she underwent successful surgery and follow-up chemotherapy, and eventually made a full recovery. She started out slowly, but would eventually finish her Showgirl tour, and in 2007 she released her tenth album, X. It was well-received and sold enough to convince Minogue that 2009 was the time to undertake her first tour of the United States. Although limited to a few dates and select cities, the North American jaunt was a rousing success, and an Internet-exclusive album of the New York show was made available at the end of that year. As X was making waves in 2008, Minogue was also honored by Queen Elizabeth with an OBE (Order of the British Empire) for her services to music. She released her 11th full-length, Aphrodite (a set executive produced by Stuart Price), in 2010. That same year, she guested on songs by Hurts ("Devotion") and Taio Cruz ("Higher"), and released a holiday EP titled A Kylie Christmas.
In 2012, Minogue celebrated her 25th year in the music biz with a greatest-hits collection (The Best of Kylie Minogue), a new single ("Timebomb"), an exhaustive singles collection (K25), and an album of her hits reimagined for a small band and orchestra (The Abbey Road Sessions). She also found time to restart her acting career with an appearance in Jack & Diane and a leading role in the acclaimed Holy Motors. Not one to take a rest, Minogue spent a busy 2013 appearing on Laura Pausini's single "Limpido," signing with Jay-Z's Roc Nation management firm, and recording a new album. In early 2014, she began appearing as a coach on the U.K. version of The Voice. Her 12th album, Kiss Me Once, which featured songwriting and production from the likes of Pharrell, Sia, and MNDR, was released in early spring of 2014. Soon after, she hit the road on an ambitious concert tour that took her from Istanbul to Madrid to Perth, with many stops along the way. The tour was documented on the 2015 CD/DVD Kiss Me Once Live at the SSE Hydro.
Minogue kept up her breakneck pace for the rest of 2015, appearing on Giorgio Moroder's single "Right Here, Right Now" and hitting the top of the dance charts with a spot on Nervo's "The Other Boys." She had roles in the ABC Family show Young & Hungry and the film San Andreas, released an EP with producer Fernando Garibay titled Kylie + Garibay, and finally, in November, ended the year with her first full holiday album, Kylie Christmas. In the summer of 2016, Minogue returned with a contribution to the Absolutely Fabulous movie, the theme song "This Wheel's on Fire."
Minogue signed to BMG in 2017 and began working on a new album, her 14th. Recovering from heartbreak, she took the suggestion from one of her team to try writing and recording in Nashville. For the first time in her career, she co-wrote all the songs and teamed with writers and musicians there (and a team of producers in London including Biffco and Sky Adams) to craft a sound that was a hybrid of modern country and her more traditional dance-pop. The resulting record, Golden, was released in April 2018. The following year saw the arrival of Step Back in Time: The Definitive Collection, Minogue's fifth major greatest-hits album. The compilation featured 42 tracks, including the previously unreleased "New York City," which was recorded during the sessions for Golden.
In 2020, she returned with fresh material for her 15th official album, including the singles "Say Something" and "Magic." These nostalgic throwback tunes landed on the aptly titled DISCO, which returned the pop diva to the dancefloor in a major way. Primarily written and recorded at her London home during the COVID-19 lockdown, DISCO also marked the first time Minogue handled engineering duties herself. In 2021, she released an extended version of the album, Disco: Guest List Edition, which included new collaborations with Dua Lipa, Jessie Ware, Years & Years, and Gloria Gaynor”.
To illustrate not only the timelessness and watchability of Kylie Minogue’s best video, but to show how they have evolved as Minogue has grown as an artist, this is a tribute to an artist who is an extortionary visual presence. Bringing life and something magic to all of her videos, below are the twenty-one videos that I feel are the best – from the simpler earlier promotional to more recent ones. Instead of a ranking, I am taking them chronologically and, in each case, mentioning which album each video/single is from. Here are the best videos from the…
MAGNIFICENT Kylie Minogue.
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I Should Be So Lucky
From the Album: Kylie
Album Release Date: 4th July, 1988
Single Release Date: 29th December, 1987
Director: Chris Langman
Label: PWL
Chart Position (U.K.): 1
Producers: Mike Stock/Matt Aitken/Pete Waterman
Hand on Your Heart
From the Album: Enjoy Yourself
Album Release Date: 9th October, 1989
Single Release Date: 24th April, 1989
Director: Chris Langman
Labels: Mushroom/PWL
Chart Position (U.K.): 1
Producers: Stock Aitken Waterman
Step Back in Time
From the Album: Rhythm of Love
Album Release Date: 12th November, 1990
Single Release Date: 22nd October, 1990
Director: Nick Egan
Label: PWL
Chart Position (U.K.): 4
Producers: Stock Aitken Waterman
Confide in Me
From the Album: Kylie Minogue
Album Release Date: 19th September, 1994
Single Release Date: 29th August, 1994
Director: Paul Boyd
Labels: Deconstruction/Mushroom/Imago
Chart Position (U.K.): 2
Producers: Brothers in Rhythm
Breathe
From the Album: Impossible Princess
Album Release Date: 22nd October, 1997
Single Release Date: 16th March, 1998
Director: Kieran Evans
Labels: Deconstruction/Mushroom/BMG
Chart Position (U.K): 14
Producers: Dave Ball/Ingo Vauk
Spinning Around
From the Album: Light Years
Album Release Date: 22nd September, 2000
Single Release Date: 13th June, 2000
Director: Dawn Shadforth
Labels: Mushroom/Parlophone
Chart Position (U.K.): 1
Producer: Mike Spencer
On a Night Like This
From the Album: Light Years
Album Release Date: 22nd September, 2000
Single Release Date: 11th September, 2020
Director: Douglas Avery
Label: Parlophone
Chart Position (U.K.): 2
Producers: Graham Stack/Mark Taylor
Can't Get You Out of My Head
From the Album: Fever
Album Release Date: 1st October, 2001
Single Release Date: 8th September, 2001
Director: Dawn Shadforth
Label: Parlophone Records
Chart Position (U.K.): 1
Producers: Cathy Dennis/Rob Davis
In Your Eyes
From the Album: Fever
Album Release Date: 1st October, 2001
Single Release Date: 21st January, 2002
Director: Dawn Shadforth
Labels: Festival Mushroom (Australia)/Parlophone (Europe)
Chart Position (U.K.): 3
Producers: Richard Stannard/Julian Gallagher
Come Into My World
From the Album: Fever
Album Release Date: 1st October, 2001
Single Release Date: 4th November, 2002
Director: Michel Gondry
Label: Parlophone Records
Chart Position (U.K.): 1
Producers: Cathy Dennis/Rob Davis
Slow
From the Album: Body Language
Album Release Date: 10th November, 2003
Single Release Date: 3rd November, 2003
Director: Baillie Walsh
Labels: Festival Mushroom/Parlophone
Chart Position (U.K.): 1
Producers: Dan Carey/Emilíana Torrini/Sunnyroads
Red Blooded Woman
From the Album: Body Language
Album Release Date: 10th November, 2003
Single Release Date: 1st March, 2004
Director: Jake Nava
Label: Parlophone
Chart Position (U.K.): 5
Producer: Johnny Douglas
In My Arms
From the Album: X
Album Release Date: 21st November, 2007
Single Release Date: 15th February, 2008
Director: Melina Matsoukas
Label: Parlophone
Chart Position (U.K.): 10
Producers: Calvin Harris/Richard ‘Biff’ Stannard
WOW
From the Album: X
Album Release Date: 21st November, 2007
Single Release Date: 17th February, 2008
Director: Melina Matsoukas
Label: Parlophone
Chart Position (U.K.): 5
Producer: Greg Kurstin
All the Lovers
From the Album: Aphrodite
Album Release Date: 30th June, 2010
Single Release Date: 11th June, 2010
Director: Joseph Kahn
Label: Parlophone
Chart Position (U.K.): 3
Producers: Jim Eliot/Stuart Price
Get Outta My Way
From the Album: Aphrodite
Album Release Date: 30th June, 2010
Single Release Date: 27th September, 2010
Directors: AlexandLiane
Label: Parlophone
Chart Position (U.K.): 12
Producers: Cutfather/Peter Wallevik/Daniel Davidsen/Damon Sharpe/Lucas Secon/Stuart Price
Into the Blue
From the Album: Kiss Me Once
Album Release Date: 14th March, 2014
Single Release Date: 27th January, 2014
Director: Dawn Shadforth,
Label: Parlophone
Chart Position (U.K.): 12
Producer: Mike Del Rio
Dancing
From the Album: Golden
Album Release Date: 6th April, 2018
Single Release Date: 19th January, 2018
Director: Sophie Muller
Labels: Darenote/BMG
Chart Position (U.K.): 38
Producer: Sky Adams
Golden
From the Album: Golden
Album Release Date: 6th April, 2018
Single Release Date: 29th May, 2018
Director: Sophie Muller
Labels: Darenote/BMG
Chart Position (U.K., Radiomonitor): 22
Producer: Lindsay Rimes
Say Something
From the Album: DISCO
Album Release Date: 6th November, 2020
Single Release Date: 23rd July, 2020
Director: Sophie Muller
Labels: Darenote/BMG
Chart Position (U.K.): 56
Producers: Jon Green/Biff Stannard
Magic
From the Album: DISCO
Album Release Date: 6th November, 2020
Single Release Date: 24th September, 2020
Director: Sophie Muller
Labels: Darenote/BMG
Chart Position (U.K.): 53
Producer: PhD