So it wouldn’t be Pride month without stopping for a moment to acknowledge the fact that Kylie Minogue has utterly dominated the sonic landscape with her banger Padam Padam. From Mighty Hoopla in London to the streets of Boystown in LA, there’s only been one track to learn the choreo to.
To mark the nearly 35-year career of the antipodean pop icon, 1.4 took a deep dive into the Minogue back catalogue to select some of her classic music videos that have defined the landscape of gay club culture and pop music more broadly. It’s like a who’s who of the best directors out there and don’t cancel us if we forgot your favourite. There are just so many….
BY STEPHEN WHELAN
WHERE THE WILD ROSES GROW (1995)
Ok, so this technically is a feat. performance with Nick Cave, but it would be remiss to overlook Kylie bringing tragic Ophelia on the river bed beauty shots and, frankly, she has more recording time than he does. And also, ginger Kylie. So we’re having this one. And also, who the … is Eliza Day?
Perfect for – recreating in the bath with floating candles and a Lush bath bomb when you want to bring the drama.
SPINNING AROUND (2000)
Gold. Hotpants. Dawn Shadforth. Gold. Hotpants.
Perfect for – Gold. Hotpants.
CAN’T GET YOU OUT OF MY HEAD (2001)
The real beginning of second era Kylie, the iconic hard lock robot moves, the white jumpsuit, the red covid masks pre-covid, more Dawn Shadforth, beauty retouch that stands the test of time, simply a must know. Kylie 101.
Perfect for – when you think you can dance but you really can’t.
COME INTO MY WORLD (2002)
It’s not often we get Kylie in conceptual mode, but this underrated low-tempo bop directed by Michel Gondry is giving Inception vibes before Inception was even a glimmer in Christopher Nolan’s eyes. An infinite loop glitch multiplies Minogue because one Kylie is just not enough.
Perfect for – proving you’ve been a Kylie stan AFTER the gold hot pants.
IN YOUR EYES (2002)
Ok, so 2002 was probably PEAK Kylie, and frankly the white capri pants on their own earn this Studio 54 styled digital delight directed by Dawn Shadforth a place on the must-know list. Body? 10. Face? 10. Vixen pixie Kylie at her inimitable best. And that twist spin Ru-veal transformation into the chord skirt Amazonian warrior Princess look at 1:23? You betta WERK b*tch.
Perfect for – indifferently acting like you don’t know how hot you are.
SLOW (2003)
If you’ve ever been on holiday, on a beach, on a towel, and not felt the innate urge to start pulling shapes and lip-syncing to an imaginary overhead techno crane you’ve never lived. You’ve also, likely, never seen Baillie Walsh’s utterly perfect evocation of the suntanned, cocoa butter scented lust of summer. Somehow the alabaster Minogue manages to avoid all SPF requirements to writhe and gyrate in direct sunlight by a pool in Barcelona.
Perfect for – showing off your 800 thread count Egyptian cotton beach towels.
IN MY ARMS (2007)
A curly-haired Kylie brings a syncopated wall of sound with dancers drenched in Keith Haring inspired wardrobe directed by the unmistakable Melina Matsoukas. Before Ariana was bringing leg in Hannah Lux Davis’ Focus video, there was Kylie in the round, inspiring Kanye to rock the barred sunglasses. Trendsetting.
Perfect for – recreating with a hair drier and a colour blocked backdrop.
WOW (2007)
We didn’t know we needed Judy Jetson / Barbarella Kylie before Melina Matsoukas dropped her second Minogue collaboration and the echoes of its fluorescent light tube minimalism reverberated right through to Kelly Rowland’s Work video released the same year. So it’s almost a visual two for one.
Perfect for – recreating in a mirror with a YouTube light strobe video on loop.
THE ONE (2008)
From its immediate unrelenting post-disco dirty beat drop to its sherbet fizz fade out, The One is Minogue living her best high tempo life. The kaleidoscopic Busby Berkely old Hollywood glamour of it all (courtesy of director Ben Ib) is a total gag.
Perfect for – serving ‘take me home I’m the one’ confidence on the dance floor at 2am. Pull it together for the break at 2:36, make eye contact, bite your lip and close the deal.
ALL THE LOVERS (2010)
Sultry, confessional, and oh so sexy, Joseph Kahn delivers a sensory overload of interconnected casual partners who amass under the gravitational power of Kylie to show we’re all, in some way or other, connected to one another regardless of sexuality.
Perfect for – those occasions where you want to play coy in spite of your body count.
MAGIC (2020)
Ok, so for the sake of sanity and a semblance of brevity we’ve skipped a whole decade to crash land in Kylie’s return to form with Disco and this Sophie Muller directed exercise in opulence. The golden goddess on a throne Versace-esque look, the (by now) trademark partial hood, the, um, lightsabre (?). Look, she’s 53 in this video and she still hasn’t aged. Somewhere, in an attic, there’s a portrait in her image that’s decaying. Or else she bathes in Crème de la Mer. Either way we want to know her skincare regime.
Perfect for – defying aging.
PADAM PADAM (2023)
IYKYK. So from what we can tell Kylie has arrived in full H&Mup at a motel diner, with a junk yard garage behind, with an entourage of dancers in tow, who all got the memo and understood that the assignment was red, and Sophie Muller showed up again with a camera, and there are above the knee dominatrix boots and a wind machine and chiffon and someone called Lostboy who is apparently 26, produced this track and it’s basically like he cracked the algorithm of how to write a pop song for gays in 2023. So, all in all, perfection.
Perfect for – Pride 2023. This LITERALLY got quoted by an MP in Parliament. Job done Kylie. Job. Done.
