"Ultimate Kylie" DVD

The going-out-of-business sale at Tower Records, Broadway, has some benefits. Last year, I ordered the "Ultimate Kylie" DVD from the UK, but had to return it, because of the incompatible European format. Nevertheless, there it was at Tower Records, in the proper U.S. format, so I purchased it.

Reading William Baker's quasi-biography of Kylie Minogue, "Kylie - La La La", he had made frequent references to Kylie's videos, but being in the U.S., I had never seen most of these videos, particularly the early ones. Some of the newer ones, I had only seen as grainy images over the Internet. The "Ultimate Kylie" DVD is a compendium of most of her videos, particularly the early, influential ones, so I finally can match words to imagery. (For a Kylie fan, I know so little!)

And what imagery! Some videos really stand out, and others are just OK. The earliest six or seven videos are just OK - her early days, before she fully gained her footing in the world of fashion and music. What Baker refers to the "triptych" of videos from the early 90's are something else, though. They rise to a new level.

"Better The Devil You Know" - Such a dynamic video! According to Baker:

Hair blowing with wind machine on full power, arms raised above her head and lifted by a black man, his hands clearly defined against her pale flesh, it was apparent she was well underway on the course of what she described as her own 'sexual revolution'. The fact that the love interest dancer in the video was black is significant: the sexualising of the black male and implied interracial relationship were pushing boundaries in Kylie's own way. This wouldn't have been worthy of comment had not her previous videos been so twee and asexual in comparison.

"What Do I Have To Do?" - Such art! According to Baker:

Kylie's drag queen impersonation in "What Do I Have To Do?" leapt out from the screen at me in those three and a half minutes of celluloid hi-camp, her whole future and its infinite diversity of possibilities opened up in my mind's eye. The shot where she is ironing, dressed in a Mugler version of a French maid's outfit, hurling the iron back and forth with more makeup than Boy George, Marilyn and Pete Burns put together, remains my all-time favourite image of her, glamorising the most mundane of household chores. Not a fraction of an inch of those eyebrows melted as the steam rose from the fifties iron and from that moment I became a Kylie fan.

...The imaginary fusion of Joan Collins meets Liz Taylor with a tattooed panther on her back perfectly expressed the playful seduction, flirtatious charm, and kitsch glamour of the girl I was soon to meet. With that video, she unwittingly cornered every conceivable member of a pop audience: Her gay fans admired the drag sensibility, her little girl fans dived into their mother's make-up bags, her straight male fans wanted to bend her over the ironing board, and older girls wanted to nip down to the wig shop and re-invent themselves.

Of the triptych, "Shocked" was the only video to disappoint, which I blame mostly at the effort at cinema verite: in close-ups, while the target can continue to move, the camera should cease moving - otherwise, when both move, the viewer tends to get ill.

Other videos surprised me with their charm: Brilliantly-colored space-age kitschy "Put Yourself In My Place" and superbly-staged "Kids" (duet with Robbie Williams) chief among them.

Then there was the first Kylie video I ever saw: "La, La, La". It was March, 2002, and I was in a motel room in Phoenix, AZ. Ostensibly I was attending a family reunion, but the real reason for the get-together was (ironically enough) for my cousin to formally announce to the assembled family that her breast cancer had spread to other organs.

Alone, I was half-watching a video channel, either VH-1 or MTV I can't recall, and suddenly I was transfixed. "Who IS she?" I wondered, as she frolicked through the futuristic cityscape of the video. She encompassed every pop ideal I had ever conceived of, but I didn't know who she was. The name brought only hazy memories (Americans unfortunately being outside her publicity penumbra). I did recall Madonna wearing a Kylie T-Shirt at the MTV awards, though, and if Madonna was a fan, then who could argue?

Shortly afterwards, I saw Kylie's "Light Years" DVD on sale at Tower Records, Davis, and blindly took a chance on it. The campy, live 2000 Sydney concert, inspired so very much by musical theater, was pure heaven! I've never looked back.

Lastly, there is the video for "Chocolate". With its superb production values, high fashion, and modern-style ballet, "Chocolate" is probably the most-artistic video ever assembled by any pop star.

Plus the extras, particularly Kylie's live performance at the Brits awards ceremony!

Kylie locates and presses every emotional button I have - no one can compare! She unites the worlds of dance and movies and pop culture and Broadway and Hollywood with a highly-intelligent yet fresh understanding of the past century of fashion and music. Both her and her creative team, particularly William Baker, seem to conceive pop culture as, first and foremost, a matter of fashion. Some people disagree, making music the primary field of action, but Kylie's impressive success argues the opposite.

When it comes to pop culture, fashion is first, followed by music, and then dance.