Your Taste It Mirrors Mine

Kylie Minogue “Sweet Music” – I must have loved this song for at least a year without ever stopping to notice its lyrics. That fact alone ought to be enough of a recommendation, really. Exhiliration is generally well enough for me when it comes to pop music.

One way or another, I came to notice the words that Kylie was singing, and it became clear to me that this wasn’t just an incredible dance pop track, but also a song about the act of creating an incredible dance pop track. There’s a lot of art made about the creation of art, but in my experience, it normally concerns the emotional and intellectual problems tied in with being an artist (notions of orginality/authenticity, inspiration and/or lack thereof, frustration/experimentation with process, etc.), but very seldom an earnest expression of the joy of creation. There’s certainly a great deal of music made about a love of performing, but that’s arguably a very different thing, even in the case of improvisation.

What’s more is that “Sweet Music” is specifically about the joy of creating in a collaborative relationship. This is somewhat common in hip hop, but not much else as far as I know. The genius of this song is that it captures that rush of enthusiasm, optimism, and confidence that comes from knowing that you’re making great work, as well as the special sort of instinctual semi-telepathy and friendly competition that’s incredibly similar to flirtation and intense sexual attraction.

The conflation of artistic collaboration and the beginning stages of infatuation is no mistake, especially for an artist like Minogue who works within the traditional pop paradigm of working with multiple writers, musicians, and producers rather than the artistic monogamy that is encouraged and idealized in rock music. It’s funny how pop musicians (especially rock stars) are very seldom disparaged for infidelity in their personal lives, but the audience is usually all too eager to punish them for straying from their collaborators, sometimes to the point of villifying an artist who abandons a less desirable or self-sufficient partner in the way that we might turn against the ex of a close friend who has recently been dumped. So it’s not shocking that the most extreme rockists would think of pop stars as being artistic sluts, even if rockism favors the image of sexual freedom and inhibition in presentation. From that point of view, sex and love comes and goes, but loyalty to your artistic/business partners is paramount. It’s a flawed morality, but it’s pragmatic.

It’s worth pointing out that there’s almost nothing in the lyrics of “Sweet Music” that would exclude collaborative monogamy – in fact, the stray line that asserts that what they are doing is “no exotic affair” would seem to support that concept very well. But let’s be real – this is about a non-permanent arrangement, and that’s actually a lot to do with the freshness and the immediacy and the joy of it, not to mention the excitement of not being able to fully anticipate the new partner’s next move. This is a song, after all, with the refrain “I’m looking for that new sensation.” (And I don’t think it’s just a nod to Minogue’s ex-lover Michael Hutchence!) This is a celebration of new sensations, and it’s a romantic, beautiful thing. Perhaps moreso than any other song or piece of art that I’ve ever experienced, this song goes a long way towards explaining why so many artists become (or remain) artists in the first place. It’s definitely a better and more realistic alternative to the old “I must express my angst and pain” model, right? (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)