"Kylie Remade", The Australian, Sydney, 24 November 1995
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HERE
WHEN Kylie Minogue walks out on the stage of Sydney's State Theatre tonight to host the People's Choice Awards, the glitterati of Australian entertainment will be literally at her feet. In the front few rows, the likes of Ray Martin, Garry Sweet, Kate Ceberano and Andrew Daddo will be watching. They might wonder at the scope of her fame, trying to understand how this tiny creature has grown into the most famous person Australia has ever produced. They might also wonder about big fish and small ponds, about what it takes to be a celebrity in Australia compared to a genuine international superstar. No doubt there will be some envious members of the audience who will sneer that her fame has been unmerited, that her success says more about global marketing than artistic drive. That's not true. Fame may have come quickly to Kylie Minogue, as it has to many. But she has held on to it, each year consolidating her fan base and broadening her appeal. That's a rare achievement in the disposable 1990s. In an age when popular music has fragmented into dozens of sub-genres, she has risen above the boundaries. Already she has had several careers - as a child actor, a television star, a movie actress. There have been several takes at being the pop star -- and each has added new fans. Hard to believe that the shy suburban girl who cooed those squeaky tracks in the late 80s - I Should Be So Lucky, LocoMotion and Got To Be Certain - is the sex kitten who squeals Confide In Me. Since Loco-Motion in 1987, she has sold 20 million albums and 25 million singles. Add to this countless sales of film clip and concert videos. Her most recent single, Confide in Me, topped the Australian charts and her fifth album, simply entitled Kylie Minogue, debuted at number three. In the United Kingdom, her stringest market, Confide In Me became her 11th single to reach number two or higher. Only the Beatles and Elvis have enjoyed comparative success on the UK charts. She's also had big hits 'm more than 20 other countries - in the United States she broke into the top three (with LocoMotion). Now, at 26, she is an icon of pop and fashion. Like other superstars of the modem music era -- the Beatles, Presley, the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Prince, Madonna -- Minogue's enduring success has been based on her ability to regenerate her image with every new phase of her career. What sets her apart from those other pop icons, and what compromised her credibility for a long time, was the fact that she had no involvement in creating the music she was singing. And if she had little to do with the music that carried her name, why would anyone believe she had anything to do with her own packaging? These days, the people who work around Minogue are emphatic that she is the one at the helm, that she is a woman in charge of her destiny. It was she who chose her new label, who chose the people to work on the new album (collaborators include the Pet Shop Boys and M People), and it is she who engineers each regeneration of the Kylie image. Her move from the hit factory Stock, Aitken and Waterman two years ago was a turning point. She was chased by virtually every record company in the world before settling for the very hip dance label deconstruction. Cynics interpreted her move as a bid to acquire the cool cachet which had always eluded her. In fact, she signed to deconstruction simply because they promised her total creative freedom. The label's co-owner, Peter Hatfield, has said of her: "Kylie is regarded as a trashy disco singer. We regard her as a potential radical dance diva. Any radical dance diva has a home at deconstruction." Confide in Me was the first fruit of the new deal. In the build-up to the release of the single and the self-titled album earlier this year, she was splashed over hundreds of magazine pages, each time appearing in a different guise. It was as if the image regeneration machine had gone haywire. In the clip to the song, she played out six sensual characters, each layered with an eerie cover of pancake make-up. The single and clip has helped Minogue to surpass the stature she held earlier in the 90s. She is now hotter than ever. Her manager, Terry Blamey, admits there was a time when Minogue had little to do with either her music or her image. Every aspect of her career was left in the hands of the Stock, Aitken and Waterman. As she grew more confident, she started to exercise control Around the release of Better the Devil You Know (from the album Rhythm of Love) early in 1990, she took over creative control of her visuals. The impact was immediate. The video-clip for that song, which had her raging in a variety of skimpy costumes and nestling in the arms of a naked black man twice her size, marked a dramatic change in image. Gone was the wholesome soapie star and in her place was a writhing vamp. The instant maturing probably saved her from disappearing into oblivion with the rest of the SAW stable. Suddenly, she found herself in the forefront of the music video medium. To someone who rarely performed live, it was a comfortable place to be. She has always had a special affinity with the camera, says Blamey, a screen presence worthy of the celluloid goddesses. The comparisons with Marilyn Monroe and Bridget Bardot are obvious. "She has the advantage of being an actress and a singer and she's really comfortable in front of a camera," he says. "She's a very genuine, friendly person and she's able to project that." The focus is on her, adds Stephanie Lewis, programmer of ABC�s videoclip show Rage. �It�s what she does and how she looks. There 's nothing really special about the videos themselves, there's no amazing special effects. To me, they've usually got a good little theme, Kylie looks fabulous and she's got fantastic gear on." "I think she's very clever," says Australian Vogue editor, Nancy Pilcher. "She's able to change with the times. Obviously, what Kylie wears, the young kids want to know about because they like her. I wouldn't say she sets the trends Kylie definitely doesn't set the trends, but she's there quickly as they're happening." Taking control of her career coincided with the changes in her life. She had recently starred in her first movie, The Delinquents, and her affair with INXS's Michael Hutchence had put her up another notch in the fame stakes. Until Better the Devil You Know, her videos had been as sophisticated as K-Tel album ads - bland, three-minute adaptations of Neighbours which achieved their aim of getting 10-year-olds to buy the singles. Fortunately, the music Stock, Aitken and Waterman was creating by that time had become more sophisticated, moving away from the earlier emphasis on sugarpop and taking on a stronger, grooveoriented feel. Kylie Minogue was suddenly a disco queen, one of the jet-setting hip-crowd. Let's Get To It followed in 1991, but it lacked the spirit and energy of its predecessor. Likewise with the accompanying videos. She was still selling lots of records, but there were signs that the party was coming to an end. In 1992 her contract with SAW expired and last year, she signed with deconstruction. "deconstruction have a brilliant reputation," she said on the move. "So I was kind of relying on their credibility rather than, er, my own." Says rock writer Glenn A. Baker: "I think there's a peculiarly Australian admiration for Kyhe. We tried to cut her down, being a tall poppy, and she sidestepped it and survived it. And I think that she came out stronger because she put up with the 'singing budgie' stuff and all the crap that Australians can throw at their own. She just kept at it, kept reinventing herself and kept coming back more and more interesting. "She has a depth of capacity. It's not the greatest voice in the world and no one's ever claimed it to be, but it's combined with a very acute sense of self, sense of her own abilities, and that capacity to keep reinventing herself." Michael Gudinski, whose Mushroom Records label released the first Minogue single, Loco-Motion, says her talent and drive was obvious from the beginning. "We obviously thought she had star quality but little did we know what was going to happen," he says. "If you had said five years ago that Triple J would be flogging her record, they'd say you were crazy. It's fantastic to see the way she's matured and that she's become quite a hip, state-of-the-art artist." Fame chose Kylie Minogue and it chose to hold on to her. The longer it holds her, the more she seems to understand its mysterious nature, how to manipulate it and enjoy it. Fame may eventually decide to leave her, but for now, she has it in her grip and she's calling the shots.
