Rolling Stone UK – October-November 2023
English | 164 pages | pdf | 108.34 MB
Celebrating a pop icon as well as the music artists just starting out
WHEN IT COMES to hits, Kylie Minogue is not short of them. At 55, and with a career that spans five decades (don’t ask me how that maths works, my speciality is in words not numbers – much to the chagrin of my accountant), Ms Minogue could have happily continued making music without chasing another top 10 hit to add to her collection of 34 singles 1 that had landed at the top end of the UK charts. (Or to her impressive 51 top 40 singles, if you want to include her broader discography!)
All that changed when ‘Padam Padam’ became not just the song of the summer, but an anthem that inspired a million memes. Touching the sweet spot of where a track becomes not just a hit record but part of the zeitgeist, it evolved into a bona-fide cultural moment. The biggest artists in the world are lucky (lucky, lucky – sorry, couldn’t resist) to experience one or two of these ever-elusive globe-spanning moments in their career. Yet Kylie has nailed it on multiple occasions.
Her latest achievement is all the more extraordinary when viewed in the context of streaming: over the past decade it has made scoring a hit single that bit harder for musicians whose core audience was established before the rise of social media.
So, when an artist who’s been releasing music since 1987 debuts their new single in 2023 and seizes the attention of not just their OG fans, but new and younger listeners as well, and in doing so scores a UK number one airplay hit, it’s worth taking a beat to look back at that person’s phenomenal career and understand how and why their musical currency is still as powerful today as it was more than 35 years ago.
Elsewhere in Rolling Stone UK Magazine October-November 2023 Issue, we continue the momentum and move the focus onto just some of the other artists who are breaking the mould and carving out their own inspiring niche in music. From Troye Sivan to Ethel Cain, via Karol G and Priya Ragu, these pages are packed to popping with standout musicians at the top of their game.
CLIFF JOANNOU
EDITOR IN CHIEF
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