Overview

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.

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Reviews

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 *

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 *

Author Information

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).

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