As a teenager, I was hardwired to detest pop music (of a Top-40 variety). Drunk in a haze of punk, metal and prog, such pop music was anathema to me, seemingly only appreciated by the neurologically challenged whose musical diet consisted of Saturday morning binges on Video Hits and a soundtrack to life of Austereo garbage.
Then I grew up, and I realised that pop music can have merit too. And that quality and popularity were far from mutually exclusive (except in the case of, say, Powderfinger).
This may have happened at the moment I was poisoned by "Toxic", was ordered to shake my rump by "Crazy in Love" and felt compelled to shake it like a Polaroid picture by "Hey Ya". I know one thing is for sure, one song that helped me appreciate the wonders of pop music was "Can't Get You Out Of My Head", by Kylie Minogue. When I heard this song for the first time as a 14 year old, I despised it (not the video however, for obvious reasons). Hearing it as an adult however, I was instantly hooked. And before you ask, I am not attracted to men.
An incredibly hypnotic lesson in pop music composition, this song pulls out innumerable pieces of pop trickery from its bag to create an entrancing 3 minute and 50 second long serpent, wrapping its way around you slowly until it has you in its unshakable grip. The metronomic perfection of its rhythm that weaves its way around the song's other-worldly melody swings back and forth across each ear like a pendulum seducing the listener into a compliant trance.
Kylie's 'la la la' hook that is spread throughout is ridiculously simple, yet it sticks to your ear drums like the strongest adhesive. This infectious device is followed up by Kylie sensually and duplicitously intoning that she "just can't get you out of her head" in a wonderfully ironic piece of lyricism that cruelly taunts you as by the end of the song, it is in fact Kylie who cannot find her way out of your head.
The accompanying video further adds to the brain-washing exercise, with its cyborg-like dancers robotically jerking and jolting along with the gyrations of both the song and the movement of Kylie's scantily-clad body. Its futurism at its most camp (save for Tron), however it visually encapsulates the song's aural aesthetic perfectly.
It is a perfect piece of pop music that never fails to excite and entrance me. This is pop at its most clever, most self-aware, most effective. It has not dated one iota, and still sounds fresh and relevant close to a decade on. I encourage you to revisit this wonderful piece of Australian musically history, and prove to yourself that the 14-year old version of you was a tone-deaf idiot.
1 comment:
and i thought i was the only one that loved kylie. that being said its more because i want to have my way with her. repeatedly. for ever.
but she is one of the few that has managed to achieve longevity in pop music. save for.. madonna *shudder* that being said the hooks are all concocted by songwriters and given to ms minogue to do with what she will.
but a good, honest post told personally. i dig it.
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