This pioneering study provides a critical appraisal of pop star Kylie Minogue. It argues that a study of this mononymous global pop icon and celebrity – as “Kylie,” she takes her place alongside Cher, Madonna and Beyoncé in the pop pantheon – is long overdue.
Written by academics, music practitioners, and fans, this book argues that Minogue’s persona, performances and reception provide new critical insights into contemporary pop music culture, digital media, and celebrity. It further argues that dismissals of Kylie underestimate her accomplishments as a pop artist and singer-songwriter and undermine fans of pop music who form deep, affective bonds with performers, songs and albums.
Contributors draw on current perspectives in pop music studies, feminism, celebrity studies, fandom, and queer studies, a range revealing that to interpret Kylie is to engage compelling cultural frameworks. Across four parts (Pop Girlhood, Global Kylie, Dance Music, and Queer and Online Fandoms) the book demonstrates how Minogue herself makes important interventions into contemporary popular culture, with her career providing a micro-history of pop music, its myriad cultural meanings, and its fan practices. With this collection, Kylie Minogue studies has arrived.
List of Illustrations Notes on Contributors Acknowledgements Introduction: Kylie and Her Lovers: Performance, Celebrity and Fandom Stephen O’Neill (Maynooth University, Ireland) and Maria Pramaggiore (Appalachian State University, USA) I: Pop Girlhood 1. The ‘Aussie’ Next Door: Neighbours, Charlene, and Kylie’s ‘Ocker’ Origins Joanna McIntyre McIntyre (Swinburne University of Technology, Australia) and Anthea Taylor (University of Sydney, Australia) 2. Performing White Girlhood: Kylie Minogue’s Pop Persona in the 1980s Laura Watson (Maynooth University, Ireland) II: Global Kylie 3. Excuse My French: Kylie, Cosmopolitanism and Creative Autonomy Drago Momcilovic (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA) 4. The Golden Girl Next Door: Transmedia Celebrations of Kylie’s 50th Ruth A Deller (Sheffield Hallam University, UK) 5. From Reddy’s Roar to Kylie’s Padam: Relational Celebrity and Feminist Camp Maria Pramaggiore (Appalachian State University, USA) III: Dance Music: Disco, House, Remix 6. ‘I Wanna Go Out Dancing’: Disco and the Performative Persona of Kylie Minogue Lee Barron (Northumbria University, UK) 7. From Underground to Mainstream: Kylie Minogue and French House Sébastien Lebray (University of Strasbourg, France) 8. Can’t Get You Out Of My Web: Remixing Kylie as Digital Creative Practice Claire Fitch (Dundalk Institute of Technology, Ireland) IV: Queer and Online Fandoms: Performing Kylie 9. Camping Up a Pop Princess: Kylie Minogue and Gay Iconicity Páraic Kerrigan (University College Dublin, Ireland) 10. #PadamPadam: The Affective Spaces of Kylie Minogue’s Digital Media Fandoms Stephen O’Neill (Maynooth University, Ireland) 11. Against Interpretation (after Kylie) Sunil Manghani (University of Southampton, UK) Index
Stephen O’Neill is Associate Professor in English, National University of Ireland Maynooth. The author of Shakespeare and YouTube (Arden Shakespeare / Bloomsbury 2014), Staging Ireland: Representations in Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama (2007), and co-editor of The Arden Research Handbook to Shakespeare and Adaptation (Arden Shakespeare /Bloomsbury 2022), he has published widely on adapted Shakespeare. His new research is in the arboreal humanities. Maria Pramaggiore is Professor and Chair of the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC, USA. She has published widely on film and media and gender and sexuality. Recent publications include ‘Feminism and Auteurism and the 1970s, In Theory,’ in Women and New Hollywood: Gender, Creative Labor and 1970s American Cinema, ed. Aaron Hunter and Martha Shearer (2023) and ‘Streaming Bloody Murder: Documentary Celebrity and Sophie Toscan du Plantier Anniversary Media,’ co-authored with Páraic Kerrigan (Celebrity Studies, 2023).
Reviews for Kylie Minogue: Critical Insights into Pop Music and Media Celebrity
Kylie Minogue’s diverse musical output, illustrious career, and compelling public persona are long overdue for increased scholarly attention. By providing new and important perspectives on the artistic accomplishments and cultural influence of Kylie – a global icon – this dazzling collection of essays invites readers to think critically about a range of issues related to identity, stardom, and fandom in contemporary popular culture. An exciting and valuable contribution to pop music studies! * Kai Arne Hansen, Professor of Music, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences and author of Pop Masculinities: The Politics of Gender in Twenty-First Century Popular Music * O’Neill and Pramaggiore’s collection examines Kylie’s chimeral iterations. It shows precisely why she’s an icon of inclusivity, but does even more. Their book extends its focus to consider factors on the periphery of Kylie’s constructed persona: music production, disco, underground house music, French identity, relational celebrity, nostalgia, fan culture, and aging. The result is enlivening: a pioneering volume that shines unprecedented light on Kylie's image as one of pop’s glittering divas. After reading this, I was left wondering, why has nobody in academia written so well on Kylie before? * Mark Duffett, Associate Professor of Media and Cultural Studies, University of Chester, UK *
