Debating Kylie Minogue’s crown jewels: “Padam Padam” vs. “Can’t Get You Out of My Head”
No queen's discography is complete without her crowning jewels.
Kylie Minogue is royalty, and no queen’s discography is complete without her crown jewels.
We could debate our Aussie fave’s bops ad nauseam (and we have), but there’s no denying that Minogue’s two most career-defining are her signature “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” and this summer’s gay anthem “Padam Padam”.
The songs not only speak to distinct eras of Mother Minogue’s career, but also represent contrasting periods of life for fans –– and culture at large.
When Minogue dropped the nu-disco lead from Fever in 2001, our bop consumption patterns were changing. The top-selling single of the year, “Loverboy” by Mariah Carey, sold near 570,000 copies –– a stark difference from the best-sellers of 2000, which boasted over 1 million sales. Sounds like the impact of a little biotch named Limewire….
Fast forward to 2023, the year of our lord “Padam Padam,” and even more has happened: Streaming is king and careers are made and broken by the TikTok algorithm. The concept of CDs, let alone physical copies of singles, is a relic of the past. (Though vinyl’s back, judging by the sheer amount of plastic on Urban Outfitters shelves.)
Still, one thing that hasn’t changed is Kylie. In the decades between these iconic hits, she’s applied every tint of sonic sheen and exhausted the limits of aesthetics. Yet every time, she finds a new way to recontextualize the meaning of “bop.”
“There’s the same amount of notes for every musician, every songwriter, and new songs are being written every day, all day,” she explained to NPR in 2020. “Somehow, there’s always a new way to say the same thing.”
She’s so real for that.
Below, we compare “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” and “Padam Padam,” in hopes of cracking her recipe for undeniable hit.
“Can’t Get You Out of My Head” (2001)
In 2001, Kylie Minogue was coming off a comeback. After the darkness of 1997’s Impossible Princess, she reasserted her pop prowess with 2000’s Light Years, though success in America remained out of reach. Enter a little tune penned by Cathy Dennis and Rob Davis –– and those undeniable “La la la”s.
“It was written in about two-and-a-half hours,” Dennis told Music Week in 2019, calling it “one of the quickest” sessions of her life. The track was shopped to S Club 7, who turned it down. But once it fell into Kylie’s hands, Mother Minogue immediately felt its power.
“I couldn’t even fathom what I was hearing,” she told The Quietus in 2012. “It just… did something. I was beside myself. Then at the end of the song, panic set in. I was saying, ‘Are you sure we’ve got this song?'”
The lyrics didn’t venture far beyond that ear worm of a chorus, but they didn’t have to. That pulsating bass line and obsessive theme offered a darker, but equally seductive, side of Minogue. It instantly appealed to fans, while converting naysayers who wrote her off as an ’80s good-girl ingénue.
Then, there was the video! As Y2K looked for an artistic commander for the new millennium, Minogue’s futuristic visual offered both intergalactic oddity and sleek glamour. Her Devo-esque background dancers and plunging white jumpsuit were instantly commanding, as if the track wasn’t addictive enough. It even scored a VMA nod for Best Dance Video and Best Choreography win in 2002.
The song’s legacy speaks for itself: No. 1 in 40 countries, her highest charting track on the Billboard Hot 100 to-date (No. 7), and over 5 million copies sold worldwide. Rolling Stone crowned it one of the 100 Best Songs of the ’00s, while The Guardian named it one of the 100 Greatest UK No. 1s.
It’s effectively become her signature song –– and a gay club playlist staple.
“Padam Padam” (2023)
And then there was “Padam Padam.”
Never has an onomatopoeia for a heartbeat gone this hard. Written by Ina Wroldsen and Peter Rycroft, the sub 3-minute track has already made an indelible mark on Kylie’s discography… and we haven’t even heard its respective album yet!
It’s not that news of “Padam” arrived without fanfare, but its imminent release was a mere footnote in Minogue’s announcement of her sixteenth album Tension. Perhaps she underestimated the chokehold it would have on the world, especially with a release weeks before Pride Month.
But once the sticky electro-pop anthem hit, it immediately struck a chord. Maybe it was the “WTF?” nature of its title, only understood once consumed. Perhaps it was a cultural “need for frivolity and lightness” that inspired the “Padam-ic,” as Laura Snapes of The Guardian mused.
Whatever it was, it not only captured the hearts of Gay Twitter, Kamala Harris, and Minogue’s loyal fanbase –– it captivated the viral whims of TikTok, as well.
Again, Kylie saw its potential from the start. “It padamed its way straight into my heart and head,” she told TODAY. Still, its whirlwind success felt like “the stuff of dreams” for an artist with a five decade-spanning career.
“It’s the first time [a song] has kicked off in this way in this generation,” she said, calling the embrace from old fans and Gen-Z listeners “liberating.”
Minogue has certainly tried her red-gloved hand at dirty, sexy club music. But something about its synthy and popping beats feels different. It’s almost like she’s channeling the future a lá “Can’t Get You Out of My Head.” The track’s red-hued visual is as eye-catching as its predecessor, with on-point dancers, dreamy and stylized diners, and an iconic chiffon bodysuit.
The single has already become her biggest hit in a decade, topping the charts in Australia, Ireland, and the UK, even snagging Kylie her first-ever top-10 hit on the Billboard Top Dance/Electronic Songs Chart. It’s also reportedly scored Silver certification in the UK, with more than 200,000 copies sold.
Its legacy is still being written, but “Padam” already made a splash within a bigger conversation: ageism in pop. According to Variety, BBC Radio 1 initially “[declined] to add the track,” though its viral success led to inclusion on the C List, making Minogue “the first woman over 50 to make the station’s playlist” which, we guess, is a compliment?
In conclusion…
Where does that leave us? In an era quantified by streaming numbers, it’s hard to imagine “Padam” will ever beat “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” in sales. Though with the advent of Twitter, Instagram, and even Grindr, Minogue created a moment we would’ve never imagined two decades ago –– and at 55-years-old, no less.
Would Kylie’s upcoming Vegas residency have broken a ticketing platform without Tension‘s viral hit? And if the song hadn’t become an inescapable meme, would we be padaming as hard?
We don’t have the answers, but as Minogue told TODAY, she can classify her career moments “pre ‘Padam’ and post ‘Padam.'”
If anything, it’s a reminder that Kylie doesn’t have comebacks, she has serves again‘s.
We hear it, and we know.
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