Looking back at Fever: When Kylie's music video game was airtight

October 1, 2019 marked the 18th anniversary of Fever. So I figured now was as good a time as any to look back on it.

I had already reviewed the album and said how I felt about the music. But now I want to focus on the music videos. Because Kylie Minogue's Fever was more than just one ridiculously popular song or an album that did phenomenally well commercially. It was a stellar example of visual branding. Not just for the songs and the album, but for Kylie herself. And despite being in the game for over 10 years (12 to be exact), Kylie hadn't had a string of music videos tied to one album that really exuded who Kylie was as a brand and a commodity the way in which Fever did.

Fever is an era for Kylie which is as definable by its look as it is its music. The visuals across Fever as a whole were so strong, that it set a foundation for Kylie just as the music did. Her outfits, her physicality, the stylised Kylie logo, variations of which she still uses to this day.

Fever was focused in how it wanted to portray Kylie to secure and cement her place within Pop, one that she'd lost a mere few years prior; but there was a level of fun and creativity that came with it that Kylie's not been able to match since. Not because Kylie isn't capable. But because it marked one of those special moments that can't be replicated or recaptured, because it represented a peak, and I think Kylie and her team knew that. So what was the point in even trying to do it again?

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Kylie had always been the darling of Pop, but has never been credited with a great deal or considered an artist who delivered much in the way of originality. She was what we would consider now in J-Pop and K-Pop an 'Idol'. Kylie was always on the back of a trend, but never setting them. Fever in a sense was no different...and yet it also was.

Fever put Kylie in a position where she was seen as an ideal. Something to attain to. Many UK female Pop stars released similar sounding songs with similar looks to that of which Kylie sported for her Fever music videos. Even artists in Japan such as Ami Suzuki were using Kylie's Fever as visual inspiration.

So let's run through these music videos, one by one.

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Can't get you out of my head

Written by Rob Davis & Cathy Dennis
Produced by Rob Davis & Cathy Dennis
Music video directed by Dawn Shadforth

This was and still remains as one of Kylie's biggest hits and it's not hard to hear why. When Kylie released "Spinning around" the year before as her big comeback single and that blew up the charts, I don't think anybody expected Kylie to come back and obliterate it. But that's always been the public perception of Kylie. She had never been taken THAT seriously, even with a string of hits and successful albums. She was always seen as a bit of an underdog. Generally there had never been massive expectation for anything Kylie was or wasn't going to do. But along she came with a song that owned radio, dominated charts and put some extra zeroes on songwriter Cathy Dennis' bank balance. "Can't get you out of my head" hit number 1 in pretty much every country in Europe, and scored Kylie her first hit in the US, with the song peaking at number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100.

"Can't get you out of my head" was also famously put in a hyped-up head-to-head chart battle by the UK tabloids with Posh Spice Victoria Beckham's long awaited debut single "Not such an innocent girl", which was releasing on the same day and a contender for the number 1 spot on the UK singles chart. But everybody knew it was no contest and that Kylie was gonna dust a bitch.

The music video also saw itself go down as one of Kylie's most memorable. In large part to her dancing around in a bed-sheet as a hooded jumpsuit, with the titties on standby to make a surprise appearance. But the music video also visually tied in with Fever's album art and aesthetic, with a focus on white and everything having a very 80s Grace Jones-esque vibe about it - which set the tone for the next 2 music videos which would follow. Everybody was trying to do the whole futuristic, millennium aesthetic in the early 2000s, but not everybody made it into 2019 with their shit still looking fresh. But Kylie managed to. There are odd hints of 'Oh, this shit is 2000 as hell' with the styling of the dancers in the final rooftop setup. But it's nothing so bad that it ages the video as a whole. The music video even caught the attention of artists in Japan, with the likes of M-Flo and Namie Amuro boring scenes straight from this very video.


In your eyes

Written by Kylie Minogue, Richard Stannard, Julian Gallagher & Ash Howes
Produced by Richard Stannard & Julian Gallagher
Music video directed by Dawn Shadforth

I did a whole entire post on this song and video, and why they're THE absolute shit a while back, so I won't go into it all again. But "In your eyes" is one of my favourite Kylie songs and videos. "In your eyes" is a better song than "Can't get you out of my head" and it had a better video (y'all can fight me on this). But it was never going to be the massive hit that "Can't get you out of my head" was. Yet Kylie still defied expectation. Even though many accepted that Kylie MIGHT be that bitch after she had released "Can't get you out of my head", there was still scepticism as to whether she could sustain the momentum of it and maintain the quality. And with "In your eyes", she did just that. She also showed that she'd really settled into this sex siren that she became with the release of "Spinning around". Marking one of the first times in Kylie's career where an image truly stuck that not only fit her, but the public widely accepted. And the same could be said for her sound. "Can't get you out of my head" signalled the arrival of this new Kylie. But "In your eyes" was the foundations on which future Kylie's songs, visuals and looks would be based on to a greater extent.

And the video!? It's is just great to look at. The lighting. The editing. The styling. It still looks dope to this day. This shit is timeless. Every time I watch it, I'm just in awe of how well it's all executed and put together.


Love at first sight

Written by Kylie Minogue, Richard Stannard, Julian Gallagher, Ash Howes & Martin Harrington
Produced by Richard Stannard & Julian Gallagher
Music video directed by Johan Renck

Three singles deep and Kylie is still giving us hits y'all. "Love at first sight" was a nice change of pace from "Can't get you out of my head" and "In your eyes" - Two songs which were sultry, seductive and quite dark sonically. "Love at first sight" was sweeter and far brighter by comparison. "Love at first sight" was also the one single amongst the four released off of Fever that would go on to be the template that songs from X ("Wow"), Aphrodite ("Can't beat the feeling") and Kiss me once ("Kiss me once") would build on and borrow from. The music video was also a nice throwback to "Can't get you out of my head" with some of the choreo, the dancers outfits and the visuals sharing an aesthetic that matched that of the Fever album as a whole. Kylie was serving BRAND and CONSISTENCY. She was also low key serving us Daft Punk too. My second favourite song from Fever after "In your eyes".

I feel that a lot of casual music listeners who were sick of "Can't get you out of my head" and skipped "In your eyes" completely, ended up really liking this song, because it's just a good dance record that had nothing to really do with it being from Kylie. Anybody could have released this song and people would have liked it.


Come into my world

Written by Rob Davis & Cathy Dennis
Produced by Rob Davis & Cathy Dennis
Music video directed by Michel Gondry

Here we are at single number four. Kylie really did not need to release a fourth single, but she did. Just to show that she could and that Fever was not an album with 1 or 2 good singles. BITCH. THIS SHIT HAS AT LEAST FO'.

"Come into my world" is a good song, but there's no getting away from the fact that it borrows pretty heavily from "Can't get you out of my head". The music video is what really helped sell this song to me as its visually and technically amazing. Directed by Michel Gondry, who at this point was known for his work with Daft Punk ("Around the world") and The chemical brothers ("Let forever be"). It was a great take on the song, by centring the video on the title as opposed to the song subject. The music video stands out because it doesn't feature the look and Fever branding of the previous videos, which actually works in its favour; because it makes this release memorable alongside which were three far superior songs. And to circle back to the song title, if the other Fever videos represented the fantastical world that the character of  Kylie lived in and fashioned of her own making, then this was her day-to-day reality, which isn't unlike our own. A reach? Maybe.

The release of "Come into my world" as the final single was clever. It sounded similar enough to "Can't get you out of my head" that it'd remind you of it. But it's music video was so cool that even if you weren't a Kylie Minogue fan, you'd watch it, marvel at it and really get into it. And for the hardcore Kylie fans, the multiple Kylie setup may have given them flashbacks to "Confide in me" and "Did it again".

Also, "Come into my world" was the song that won Kylie her one and only Grammy award.

Yep. I'm shocked about that too.

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Kylie has given us some cool music videos since Fever, but few which are as memorable as what she gave us in 2001 - 2002. And there's most certainly been no album which has spawned a string of music videos of this quality; which is what makes Kylie's Fever era so special and why it remains a peak Kylie era.