Full Description
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.
Contents
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
