65. Kylie Minogue – Spinning Around (2000)

Oh, how happy this video made me when it came out. Throughout the nineties I had a thing for Kylie, the funkiest, foxiest, jolliest, sweetest, funniest chick around, but I was frustrated by everything she put out. Instead of bringing her delightful personality into music and films, she seemed bent on making things of "quality", which neutered her funkiness. She had some good output here and there, but none of it showed the Kylie I knew from interviews. And then, in 2000, she hooked up with disco, and finally found the beat that brought out her cheerful essence to life.

What is the secret of this beat? Let's go backwards again. In the middle of the sixties, the dominating styles were rock'n'roll and soul, and they relied on the backbeat: the second, fourth, sixth and eighth beat in every bar. This creates a propulsive feeling that pushes forward, and these styles make you feel like your soul erupts out of your body and breaks free into the outer world. But funk, which was born right then, moved the emphasis to the first beat, and treated all the instruments as percussive: the guitars are pinched, the brass and the singing come out in short sharp outbursts. This creates a feeling that all the energy remains in the body and explodes inside, resulting in an inner razzmatazz that makes you want to dance. That brought a change in the attitude towards sexuality as well: in rock'n'roll, sexuality is eruptive, something that bursts out of your loins and drives you to conquer an outer subject of desire; in funk, sexuality is first of all something that flows within you and fills your being with pleasure, and the funk/soul of the seventies produced lots of sensual records. For those who grew up on rock (which was most white kids in the seventies), funk sounded like something that leaves you rooted in one place, and was very hard to comprehend. But the gays did get it. The gay culture in the seventies revolved around their secluded discotheques, where they created a world of their own. And since what brought them together was their sexual identity, sex was a big part of that culture, and the preferred music was naturally the most sensual music around: funky soul records. In time, this culture affected record making as well, toning down the polyrhythmic nature of funk and adding the technology of the discotheque, but maintaining the steady beat and the funky sensuality. By the middle of the seventies, it was possible to define a new style: disco.

To rock fans, disco was a complete travesty, and sounded to them like soulless, robotic music. Not to mention its campy elements, which disgusted the homophobic psyche that was still very prevalent at the time. Following disco's big break in the late seventies, it was viciously oppressed by the rock establishment, and in the eighties it was sent back underground, where it spawned the electronic dance revolution, and returned triumphant in the nineties. But even the dominant culture of the eighties took some things from gay culture - for instance, it was the gays who began the fad of going to gyms to build up your body, and in the eighties it became popular with the masses as well. During that decade it was mainly the shaped male body that got the attention, but in the nineties the focus shifted towards the female body, and the ones who led the way were the supermodels. The supermodels were the biggest pop icons of the nineties not just because they were a new level of cool, women who didn't even have to open their mouths but could make the whole world fall at their feet with just one glance, but also because they shaped their bodies to perfection, and proudly displayed it. By the end of the decade, they influenced women from other fields. Kylie, who was always a scrawny girl, suddenly reemerged here with a knockout body, stuffed into the hottest hotpants ever, and with her singing and dancing, and the funky personality that bursts out of every smile and look, she elevated the hotness bar to a new level.

The record itself was a little weak, but it didn't matter. Kylie finally found herself, and from here on the sky was the limit. Later on she became more interesting musically, and lived up to my expectations of her. Her movie career is still a disappointment, but who cares – there's always video.

20. Kylie Minogue - Slow (2003)

Along with Mariah Carey and Jennifer Lopez, Kylie launched the main fashion trend of the beginning of the decade: wearing less and less clothing, in videos, magazines and on album covers. But while Carey's image was too bimbo and Lopez's image was too tough to be truly sexy, with Kylie it was an expression of pure female sensuality, mixed with humor and good taste. In 2001, this wave swept the new pop princesses as well, and Britney, Christina, Beyonce and Pink started to rival one another on who will be more daring and less wearing. In 2003, Kylie realized that the whole thing went over the boundaries of good taste, and announced that she will no longer take her clothes off in front of the cameras. A sad day, for sure, but I wholeheartedly supported the move. It was time to move on in another direction.

And when the new record came out, it lived up to all my expectations. Kylie simply went for a more mature sexuality, and reminded us that there's nothing sexier than taking it slow. From the moment the record begins to sizzle, you can practically hear the lustful juices simmering, and the heat slowly being brought up to a boiling point. Suddenly, it became apparent that electro music can be as erotic as the sensual soul of Marvin Gaye and Barry White. Kylie opened a new path for the pop girls, healthier than the abyss that Britney fell into in the following years, and they listened and internalized. When Britney started her climb back, it was with this kind of sensual electro.

And as for the outfit, as always, you can trust Kylie to keep good measure. She does indeed wear more, but not too much, know what I mean?

13. Kylie Minogue - Can't Get You out of My Head (2001)

Finally, a non-American artist. Sorry, but Britain and Europe were no match for the States in the naughties, and only naughty Kylie Minogue (who is actually Australian) gave it a good fight. The thing is, she also won.

As American girls turned to black music to express a new female consciousness, in England, in the beginning of the new millennium, they turned to electronic dance. But the only one who managed to produce something truly solid was Kylie. The Europeans already knew how delectable she is, but in 2001 she finally manages to conquer the US as well, with a record that sent the globe a-dancing. With 'Can't Get You out of My Head', she assumed an electro-pop style, emulating the electroclash that was coming up at the time, and became the coolest thing around. With a combination of funky beats, fresh electronic sounds, futuristic outfits and a sweet sensual voice, Kylie presented a vision of the pop of the future, and the future she envisioned was sexy. And while the other pop princesses could go wild and sometimes foolish, the older Kylie was always a model of good taste, and kept things in good measure.

And the future she envisioned in 2001 came about in the second half of the decade, as electro-pop took over, and was adopted by the Americans as well. But no one as yet has made it as sexy as Kylie.

Kylie Minogue Can't Get You Out Of My Head
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