Spinning Around in Kylie Minogue’s World
Her 12 Greatest Music Videos Ranked!
I had a blast putting this post together because I love Kylie Minogue’s music and I’m a big fan of music videos in general (when they’re done well, of course). I was 15 when MTV debuted in 1981, and I come from an era when almost every household with kids in it between the ages of middle school and college had MTV playing in the background in at least one room at all hours of the day and night. Like everything else that permeates the market and culture, which eventually become oversaturated, music videos have gone through peaks and valleys of varying degrees of quality and relevance. But some artists, like Kylie Minogue, have utilized the medium to create works of audiovisual art that have defined and reinvented their personas, sustaining their careers over the course of several decades. Kylie Minogue delivers visual representations of her music in striking, entertaining and often amusing ways. We know her persona primarily by way of her many music videos, and she always manages to succeed in keeping us engaged and coming back for more. With the caveat that all opinions about art (including music videos) are subjective, please remember that this list is based solely on my own personal taste. Also, while these are my favorite Kylie videos, my list of favorite Kylie songs is not quite the same thing. Having said that, here are my 12 favorite Kylie Minogue videos, ranked!
12. 2 Hearts (2007) from the album X, directed by Dawn Shadforth.
I dig that she’s giving glam Marilyn Monroe visually while channeling Elvis through her dance moves. Marilyn would never have moved like Kylie does in this video, and the choreo projects more strength than Marilyn ever appeared to have. I’m fascinated every time I watch 2 Hearts because I’ve never seen this side of Kylie, before or since. The energy in her performance is a delight. There’s a recklessness, a looseness and an element of burlesque in the way that she throws herself around on stage, and especially in the way she commands that mic. Kylie’s performance is magnetic and almost messy in its emotional impact. If I didn’t know better, I’d think none of it was calculated.
11. The One (2008) from the album X, directed by Ben Ib
The One is a strange video and it took me a couple of views to connect with it, because at first the repetition bothered me. Then I actually looked at the images coming at me and they were different each and every time. This video is hypnotic. All of the lines that emerge, whether straight or curved, appear to be perfectly symmetrical, which makes for a fascinating watch. Steeped in an Art Deco aesthetic, The One’s imagery conjures classic Hollywood and Busby Berkley musical numbers. Toward the end, an image of Kylie referencing the 1960s emerges, and while the color palette shifts, the comparatively modern lines of her bob cut and sunglasses fit right in with the imagery that precedes them. It also helps that I love the video mix of the song, which improves upon the album version by providing a dreamier atmosphere and a slightly faster EDM beat.
10. Slow (2003) from the album Body Language, Directed by Baillie Walsh
I’m less impressed with Kylie videos that emphasize her beauty and not much else. The videos to some of my favorite Kylie songs (Breathe, On a Night Like This) are guilty of this and suffer as a result. Slow would run the risk of falling into that camp, but its odd elements save it from being just a preen fest. First off, a slow motion dive by a gorgeous man in a Speedo grabs our attention before the music even begins. Slow was filmed in Barcelona, home to the most gorgeous human beings on planet Earth (IMHO). And it takes place next to a pool, around which dozens of gorgeous Spaniards are sunbathing. Kylie does, of course, look beautiful; her Slow look ranks among her best. Kylie performs in a way that appears to be casual, but her precision (apparent in several videos on this list) is on display at 0:55 when she sings, “Our eyes connected,” raising her gaze to meet ours at exactly the right moment. The video’s conceit is that Kylie and everyone else are sunbathing, and never get up. They “dance” on their backs, roll over and writhe in the sun, thrusting their hips up while the rest of their bodies never leave their towels. It’s odd, sexy, unusual and it sticks.
9. Can’t Get You Out Of My Head (2001) from the album Fever, directed by Dawn Shadforth
Many music artists have that one crossover hit that explodes into popular culture, often becoming their signature song and defining the artist in the cultural hive mind. For the B-52’s it’s Love Shack. For ABBA it’s Dancing Queen. Gotye has Somebody That I Used to Know. And Kylie’s is Can’t Get You Out of My Head. This video, for a hot minute, captured the sound and look of the new millenium. The robotic backup dancers and futuristic athleisure wear represented the overall feeling that we were now living in the future and should therefore dress and act accordingly. The hooded/gloved white number and the silver plated mini dress she wears in the video are so weird that they still seem fashion forward nearly a quarter century later. I can’t think of any other pop star who works the edge of fashion like Kylie did then, just as she does now, but Cardi B. appears to be heading in that direction. The Fever era also found Kylie being shot in close ups so close that her facial features often looked distorted. At the same time, she adopted a jerky style of dancing that would come at you in a way that made you think it was possible she’d poke an eye out through the video screen with one of her elbows if she wasn’t careful. The fashion, choreo and overall look of Can’t Get You Out of My Head are proof positive that when Kylie leans into weird, it’s balls to the wall weird. Nothing less will do.
8. Timebomb (2012) released as a stand-alone single, directed by Christian Larson
Timebomb presents Kylie as a streetwise bad girl with a predilection for reckless behavior and underground spaces of questionable repute. The director also plays with the video narrative format, starting it with a fake-out clip of the track, which stops abruptly, that Kylie appears to have been performing in a studio. We then follow Kylie as she walks through the studio, handed H2O and.sunglasses, the official track kicking in as she makes her way out the door and into an alley to embark on her adventure. There’s a progression of disparate imagery that follows, framed as street surveillance footage, cell phone selfie POV, glitching effects, use of various lenses and filters and other camera tricks that the director employs to keep things kinetic and chaotic. Kylie winds up in a dingy, murkily lit underground chamber where she strips down to a fabulous black mini with more straps than I can count, and then steps into her hot af Kylie persona as she performs the video’s most erotic dance sequence. She looks ah-mazing, and just a little trashy, which to me is a very, VERY good thing. Timebomb was released out of nowhere as a stand-alone single, and I often wish there’d been an album that captured and expanded upon its upbeat, edge of your seat energy. The Timebomb video recalls Prodigy’s Smack My Bitch Up, but without the violent and drug-related NC-17 imagery; same vibe, but with a toned down PG-13 level of sleaze. Still, it’s one hell of a wild ride.
7. Confide In Me (1994) from the album Kylie Minogue, directed by Paul Boyd
I’ve often been puzzled as to why this video, made during a period in which Kylie was downplaying the sexual side of her persona and striving to be taken seriously as an artist, leans more heavily into hyper-sexualized, male gaze-centered representations of the singer than any of her other videos. Confide In Me is also one of several videos that contain multiple Kylies; not just the singer in different outfits and hairstyles, but the singer appearing as completely different versions of herself; as different characters. The characters in this video are selling intangibles to desperate men, and they are weaponizing female sexuality, wrapping it up in a promise of providing comfort, understanding and redemption to close the sale. Kylie’s characters are designed to attract the male gaze because that’s who they’re targeting, with a promise of sexual and emotional companionship, for a price. Confide In Me’s editing is spectacular, as it never stops moving and morphing, offering up one temptation for a few seconds, and then, just in case that one didn’t work, offering up another, and another, all of them tailored to make you pick up the phone and confide immediately (all major credit cards accepted). The outrageously garish and heavy application of make-up Kylie’s under as she performs may put you off at first glance, but if you dig a little deeper and take a look behind the kabuki masks, you’ll realize the commentary this video is making: about women who accommodate the male gaze with calculation, men who are willing to pay for a truth that might just be a lie, and the undeniable power some women yield in their relationship to both.
6. Come Into My World (2002) from the album Fever, directed by Michael Gondry
Speaking of multiple Kylies, Come Into My World provides us with exactly that: the same Kylie, walking out of the same dry cleaners, dropping the same handbag and following the Kylie that exited the dry cleaners before her as they all walk around a neighborhood with crazy goings on in the streets. Gondry’s direction of this video is what you’ll find under the definition of “precision” in the dictionary. He times the first appearance of a Kylie clone with the beginning of the second verse, and does the same thing for the duration of the song. I love how this song sounds, too. Its structure and instrumentation suggest that it’s swirling upward in circles like Dorothy and Toto in the tornado. That same instrumentation and song structure are mirrored by the video’s imagery, as Kylie (and all of her doppelgangers) walk around in circles, traversing the same sidewalks and street corners, the details of their surroundings changing with each circuit, although the players remain the same. For those of you who (like me) enjoy puzzle games, you’re sure to enjoy watching Come Into My World and trying to catch all of the differences in Kylie’s surroundings as she walks through and past them again and again.
5. Padam Padam (2023) from the album Tension, directed by Sophie Muller
This compact, danceable and infectious musical nugget is the definition of what an effective pop song needs to be. (I sing its praises in greater detail here). It just so happens that when I lived in the San Fernando Valley in L.A. (right before I moved to the East coast), my house was just a few miles from the location where this video was filmed. That vacant pink and blue motel on San Fernando Road that, like several L.A. structures that were once restaurants, motels and the like, exists solely as a filming location. Riding the train home from downtown each weekday, you couldn’t miss it if you tried. Padam Padam and its video are significant successes for Kylie, coming as they did during the fourth decade of her career while she was midway through her 50s. Pop fandom is fickle, and by its very definition centered on performers barely out of their teens (if that). Everything about this video works: the song (natch), the fashion, the choreo and the setting combine to make a weird but endearing visual narrative that is attached to a weird but endearing song. Padam Padam put Kylie back on the map in a way she hadn’t been in a couple of decades. I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.
4. Spinning Around (2000) from the album Light Years, directed by Dawn Shadforth
The first thing you might notice when watching this irresistible video is its aesthetic nod to the disco era. But the next thing you’ll notice, as Kylie glides through said crowded disco, gyrating on the dance floor, cavorting atop the bar, is those bonkers gold lamé booty shorts she’s wearing. They only manage to cover up half of her ass and, understandably, we hardly get a good look at their up front, as it’s artfully covered by the position of her leg, or shadows, or from being out of frame, throughout most of the video (although, yes, you can see the up front in a couple of blink-and-you’ll-miss-them shots). Kylie’s sex appeal is off the charts in this video. Her makeup reflects the lighting and emanates that shine that was so popular in the early aughts. There’s a moment at the beginning, after she’s chosen a partner and seduced him in short order, where she’s leading him out onto the dance floor. At about 1:04, she looks off screen to her left with a beaming grin and a coy look of sheer, unmistakable “have a blessed day, bitch!” fuckery on her face. I have created an entire storyline to explain this gesture, which boils down to Kylie having snaked a man that one of her besties/frenemies was very clear about staking claim to. And Kylie’s doing it just because she can. Spinning Around launched Kylie’s career back into the stratosphere after the relatively fallow 90s period of the previous two albums, which are good but didn’t exactly burn up the charts. Spinning Around also ushered in a new era of chart dominance that would lead to the blockbuster album Fever just one year later.
3. Did It Again (1997) from the album Impossible Princess, directed by Pedro Romhanyi
And now we return to the multiple Kylies trope. In Did It Again, Kylie’s personas do battle with one another to determine who reigns supreme while singing one of the most angst-y tracks in Kylie’s catalog. Cute Kylie, who lays the cuteness on thick but is the meanest of the four; Indie Kylie, a seemingly joyless incarnation with a slicked back pompadour and an inability to smile; Sexy Kylie, a (I’m just gonna say it) tacky bleached blonde with heavy makeup and a petulant sneer who looks like a crazy ex-girlfriend you wish you’d never met; and Dance Kylie, giving diva energy and ready to party. Did It Again is one of Kylie’s funniest videos as the Kylie personas attempt to lip sync the song for us but keep getting waylaid by each other by increasingly violent means. Throwing a shoe at her, breaking a bottle over her head, hitting her in the back with a chair, and brandishing a baseball bat are the methods employed, not to mention all of the hand to hand combat that occurs. Madonna is another singer known for trying on several character hats within a single video, but she’s never gone so meta on herself; not to the point of depicting her own personas as they battle it out in a free for all to see who wins. Kylie’s sense of humor about herself shines through in this video, and while she claims the winner of the battle is Cute Kylie (which I’m not sure I agree with), you’ll have to watch Did It Again if you want to decide for yourself.
2. Tension (2023) from the album Tension, directed by Sophie Muller
Tension is my favorite track (one of many) from Kylie’s most recent album of the same name. She again employs multiple versions of herself to perform in the video, but this time they are not designated with names and, having had a few decades to gain maturity and self-confidence, the personas exist in harmony with one another, not conflict. Tension begins with the first Kylie entering a small structure that I believe represents Kylie’s consciousness. The Kylie who enters the building wears an outfit that I’m fascinated by: its mutedly fashionable, but it’s timeless in a way that prevents you from pinpointing which decade it was created in or is intended to represent. I think this is Confident Kylie, who is comfortable in her skin, not rushed, and satisfied with the progress she’s made up to this point in her life. The next Kylie we see sports a busy blonde up do and is manning a control room with banks of monitors, knobs and levers; she’s obviously Control Freak Kylie, who needs to be there in order to manage all of the moving parts that make being Kylie Minogue possible. Then we see Bladerunner 2049 Kylie (my favorite incarnation in this video) whose look was literally lifted straight out of Bladerunner 2049, down to the shot of her touching fingertips with Confident Kylie later in the video. I think Bladerunner 2049 Kylie represents her sexuality and the way she employs it to represent herself. Finally, we meet Hammy Kylie, done up in a Las Vegas showgirl costume, bright yellow ostrich feathers and all, doing the showgirl walk, kick and shimmy to the delight of the other Kylies (as well as myself). Hammy Kylie is just that: the performer who likes to show off and win over an audience, any audience, and loves every minute of it. The four Kylies meet up in this video just to hang out; dancing, singing and enjoying each other’s company. This video illustrates Kylie’s maturation as a woman and as a performer; there’s no angst, there’s no doubt, there’s just joy as she revels in her own fabulousness. As well she should.
1. All the Lovers (2010) from the album Aphrodite, directed by Joseph Kahn
I think All the Lovers perfectly captures the essence of Kylie because it offers up a little bit of everything we love about her: her beauty, her ability to inspire, her sometimes goofy humor and her predilection for the surreal. The video starts with slow-mo shots of falling coffee, falling milk and falling marshmallows, then cuts to shots of several beautiful young models, who begin stripping down to their underwear and making out with each other in the city street. We know that these beautiful young models are Millennials because they have carefully removed all traces of their body hair on most visible parts of their bodies. (I know, cheap shot…but where’s the lie?). As the video progresses, Kylie sings about all the lovers of time (represented by the aforementioned hairless Millennials) as the group that surrounds her grows and grows into the sky, like one of those zombie swarms in World War Z. Soon we’re treated to more surreal images (a white CGI horse, a floating white elephant) intercut with shots of the models, who are writhing up against each other and continuing to make out. Getting back for an instant to Kylie’s precision with what appears to be casual choreography, at about 1:05 (the beginning of the second verse), Kylie rises up out of what at that point is a pile of hairless Millennials, raises her right arm to the sky, and rolls her left shoulder forward as she sings, “Feel…” It’s a moment, and a lot of time and planning went into it. Trust me. All couple configurations are represented here: boy/girl, boy/boy, girl/girl and beyond. This video predated marriage equality in the continental U.S., and Kylie’s inclusion of the various types of couplings was and is much appreciated. Kylie’s makeup is flawless and she looks radiant, btw. All the Lovers is a joy to watch; sweet, fun and uplifting. By the end of it, with that last shot of Kylie looking straight into the camera with her beaming smile as she releases a lone dove into flight, pulls on my heartstrings and gets me all verklempt every time I watch it.
So there you have it, that’s my list! If you’re willing, I’d love to hear what your favorites are, and if I missed any of them.
