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Poll
Kylie
diminutive dancefloor diva 0%
small sexy songstress 6%
raunchy rock chick 6%
pint-sized petite pocket pop princess 20%
antipodean anal avenger 65%

Votes: 29

 The Semiotics of modern 'Popular' music - Symbolism and Discourse

 Author:  Topic:  Posted:
Nov 26, 2001
 Comments:
As adequacy readers familiar with the writings of Ronald Barthes will know, that whenever we read a book, or watch a movie, or listen to some music we are engaging in a discourse. Sometimes this process is obvious, for example when watching a didactic or political TV program.

At other times it is more insidious such as the subtle brainwashing and psychological manipulation of 'calming' elevator music. As we consume the media, we interpret it and make our own mark upon it, in much the same way as an animal marks its territory by means of urination.

In this article, I will be discussing the signifiers and iconography of 'Spinning Around' by the diminutive pop diva Kylie Minouge, and explaining how a seemingly innocuous piece of music can carry a deeper meaning which is perhaps far less paletable than the happy-go-lucky music would suggest. One which is quite frankly sickening and disgusting.

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Kylie Minogue.

Although few unsophistcated American music fans have heard of her, Australia's most famous export to date has been in the limelight now for over ten years. Her story is one of continual re-invention, of highs and lows. From fresh-faced tomboy in a highly respected tv drama, to bubblegum pop princess, to raunchy sex-symbol to gay icon, Kylie changes her image more often that some people change their underwear, and it seems that her fans simply cannot get enough of her

The thing about Kylie is that her seemingly innocent 'bad-but-not-too-bad girl' image appears to cover a covert agenda.

That agenda is the liberalist one of 'normalizing' heterosexual anal sex. I won't go into the details of why the liberals want to promote buggery. Their fixation with making sodomy acceptable and their reasons for doing so are well documented elsewhere. I will simply provide some uncontrovertable semiotic evidence to show that Kylie is (either wittingly or unwittingly) contributing to this highly controversial and questionable cause.

Spinning Around - Kylie Minogue

I'm spinning around
Move outta my way
I know you're feeling me
'Cos you like it like this
The signs here are very clear. "Spinning around" refers to the act of turning over onto all fours, the conventional position for reciving an act of anal stimulation. "Move out of my way" - She does not care about disapproval from the community at large in effect this is a big 'mind your own business' comment. "you like it like this" - like what exactly ? Kylie does not spell it out explicitly, but the semiotic intent is clear. "like this" referrs to 'anal' rather than vaginal. So we can see from the chorus, this song is heavily promoting an "analist" agenda.

I'm breaking it down
I'm not the same
I know you're feeling me
'Cos you like it like this

"breaking it down" - this refers to the breaking of taboos. In this case the taboo of anal sex. Kylie is breaking down the taboo in order to promote an analist outlook on life. "I'm not the same" - well obviously she is 'not the same' as the large percentage of the population who find the act of anal sex perverse, disgusting and dangerously depraved. This line almost revels in the perversion, its almost as if Kylie is saying a big 'fuck you' to the vast majority of normal people who would find this behaviour extremely distasteful.

Traded in some sorrow
For some joy that I borrowed
From back in the day
Threw away my old clothes
Got myself a better wardrobe
I got something to say
I'm through with the past
Ain't no point in looking back
The future will be
And did I forget to mention
That I found a new direction
And it leads back to me, yeah

Some more signs here "joy that I borrowed". Kylie has borrowed her sexual technique from the gay community amongst whom she enjoys a large following . "found a new direction" - well that is another way of saying that conventional heterosexual vaginal intercourse is no longer enough, the new direction Kylie appears to have found is an anal one.

I'm spinning around
Move outta my way
I know you're feeling me
'Cos you like it like this
I'm breaking it down
I'm not the same
I know you're feeling me
'Cos you like it like this

The mistakes I've made
Have given me the strength
To really believe
That no matter how I take it
There's no way I'm gonna fake it
'Cos it's gotta be real
I've got nothing left to hide
No reason left to fight
'Cos the truth's given me
A new freedom inside
Getting rid of my desire
Do you like what you see

"no matter how I take it" - anally or vaginally. "no way I'm gonna fake it" - The symbolism here is not even very well hidden. The song describes how the singer is not going to fake an orgasm, presumably this means that if she cannot obtain satisfaction from conventional clitoral stimulation, then she will have to resort to unnatural anal activities in order to reach a climax. A clear validation of the liberal-analist agenda.
"Do you like what you see" - well clearly we do. Kylie's attraction is one of her key selling points. Indeed many people would probably not have heard of Kylie were it not for her provocative videos in which she prances around waving her backside in our faces as if to say "look, here is my back door, please make tender passionate love to me through it".

I won't bother with the rest of the song, its all pretty much the same, with thinly veiled references to sodomy all over the place, set to a pulsating and thumping disco beat.

The problem seems to be endemic in pop music. We have songs encouraging promiscuity, masturbation, fornication and all perversions known to man played continuously on radio and TV. Anything goes it would seem, except normal heterosexual intercourse between two married partners in the missionary position.

Our children are being indoctrinated with the liberal-analist mindset as part of the growing battle to undermine family values, indeed research has shown that by the time a child is 16 he/she will have heard over 70000 veiled references to the act of anal copulation, from pop music alone.

It is not clear what can be done about this, if anything. The very nature of the sneaky techniques of the liberals is that by the time we normal people realise what the true meaning of the song is, our children are running around happily singing about adult topics which are best saved for the marital bed.

This song by Kylie is but one example of this creeping phenomenon. I am sure that any of you out there who regularly listen to 'Top40' radio stations could give hundreds of others.

Kylie is a very talented singer and songwriter as witnessed by her best album yet, recorded with the help of James Dean Bradfield of the Manic Street Preachers. However if she continues to promote anal sex in this subversive and secretive way, she will soon be added to my ever-growing list of 'artists to be avoided' along with the likes of the thong-twanging Sisqo the extra-marital-affair promoting Shaggy and the simply annoying beyond belief So Solid Crew.


Sodom and Gomora (none / 0) (#3)
by Anonymous Reader on Mon Nov 26th, 2001 at 07:21:49 AM PST
Prove to me that there is anything wrong with sodomy and I'll stop sodmizing everything that can't run fast enough to get away from me.


What (none / 0) (#4)
by Right Hand Man on Mon Nov 26th, 2001 at 11:57:02 AM PST
You mean proof as in something beyond the destruction of an entire city and all of its inhabitants (save for a handful)?


-------------------------
"Keep your bible open and your powder dry."

Mmmmmm... (none / 0) (#5)
by Anonymous Reader on Mon Nov 26th, 2001 at 12:02:23 PM PST
All that lovly carnage... I better stop before I get some serious wood. But again, I ask for proof that there is anything wrong with sodomy, after all the American government is so find of pitching...


You have issues (none / 0) (#18)
by Anonymous Reader on Sat Dec 1st, 2001 at 03:43:55 AM PST
Everywhere you people look, you'll see things like gay/anal sex ect ect ect. That tells me that you have a serious corrupted mind, and that you need help.. fast.


 
Kylies anal preference (none / 0) (#6)
by The dev0 on Mon Nov 26th, 2001 at 03:12:57 PM PST
I think your reading into this to much, i mean, what if she just want everyone,(or even just me) to have anal sex with her? You can't say no to a little of the locomotion with the hottest neighbour, could you? Besides,I dont think it's driving the chocolate highway that pisses God of so much, more likely its just doing it with the same sex as yourself! I totally agree on your comment that anything goes except for normal hetero sex on TV these days, though. I for one am sick of seeing homosexuality exploited on crappy TV shows simply to draw attention away from the shitty writing or to appear "cutting edge" or controversial. Even worse, the targeted age groups of the shows portraying homosexuality as normal seems to be getting younger and younger. How many high school buffy fans do you think are now experimenting with same-sex lovers because TV said it was okay? I dont have a problem with gay people, just people that play at being gay as a "claim to fame", not depending or their personality and intelligence to be interesting. Or in this case, to sell albums......
Never fight naked, unless you're in prison...

 
the absurdity of semioticist reality (5.00 / 2) (#9)
by inveigle on Mon Nov 26th, 2001 at 09:01:02 PM PST
If one examines the neomodern paradigm of narrative, one is faced with a choice: either reject postcapitalist discourse or conclude that the goal of the artist is deconstruction. The premise of realism states that reality is fundamentally unattainable. In a sense, Foucault suggests the use of postcultural capitalist theory to deconstruct capitalism.

Lacan uses the term 'postcapitalist discourse' to denote a neocapitalist totality. Thus, a number of constructions concerning textual precapitalist theory exist. If postcapitalist discourse holds, we have to choose between the cultural paradigm of discourse and subdeconstructive theory. In a sense, the primary theme of Wilson's analysis of realism is the absurdity of semioticist reality.


not quite (none / 0) (#17)
by Anonymous Reader on Fri Nov 30th, 2001 at 08:33:19 PM PST
pasting text from the postmodern essay generator is not very amusing or original. really, i expected more from you. but then, in a world full of inferior people, one becomes accustomed to such frippery.

nevertheless, i love you anyway! whoever you are.


 
Do not let the siren draw you in. (none / 0) (#11)
by RobotSlave on Mon Nov 26th, 2001 at 10:09:04 PM PST
With this interpretation, you come perilously close to the true, insidious intent of this monster's lyrics. The deviant practice she would draw you into and "normalize" is so vile, so perverse, so horrificly insane, that not even the world's premier sexologist, Dr. Kraft-Ebbing, could name it.


© 2002, RobotSlave. You may not reproduce this material, in whole or in part, without written permission of the owner.

Not so. (none / 0) (#14)
by Anonymous Reader on Wed Nov 28th, 2001 at 09:07:08 AM PST
You see, the lyric goes 'I'm spinning around', and goes on to refer to 'taking it'. Had Kylie been a man, then perhaps your interpretation could be valid, however most evidence suggests Kylie is female.


 
Your message needs to be heard (none / 0) (#12)
by Anonymous Reader on Mon Nov 26th, 2001 at 10:50:18 PM PST
As a strong, upright Christian, I am happy to see that you have finally decided to address the problem of immoral, unChristian subtexts in popular music. I would like to address one such example, the message of homosexual lust hidden in the Backstreet Boys' song and video "I Want it That Way".

Please attend to the irony inherent in the lyrcs: "I never want to hear you say/I want it that way". Here the words "I want it that way" clearly refer to gay sexual activity. But wait? Do the comely young men on the screen really mean to reject the homosexual amours of the viewer? Clearly not. Otherwise, why would they steal teasing come-hither glances over their shoulders, wickedly revealing as they writhe to the music just enought silken skin to set the poor entranced viewer's every nerve aflame? The song of these tempters laughs cruelly at the enraptured viewer, who sits paralyzed, stiff with priapic hunger: "ain't nothin' but a heartache/ain't nothin' but a heratbreak"!

Finally the the song builds to a climax, backbeat punping, as the on-screen adonises beckon to the viewer, now half-mad with the desire to luxuriate his trembling fingers through the coarse hairs of their firm groins... like the too-short caress of a wanton lover, the chorus comes one final time: "I never want to hear you say/I ant it that way." Oh yess, yes they DO WANT IT THAT WAY!!

I hope I have made clear the dangers that hidden immoral messages pose to our straight and firm Christan traditions. It is my sincere hope that music lovers everywhere will instead choose to enjoy some of the fine contemporary Christian rock and pop being produced today, and will stay away from acts like the Backstreet boys and those rascals, N'Sync. Than you.


 
Not surprised by this at all! (none / 0) (#13)
by Anonymous Reader on Wed Nov 28th, 2001 at 05:53:58 AM PST
After all, she is Welsh and they are well known for their unconventional approach to sexual congress.


 
It's ROLAND Barthes you poseur (none / 0) (#15)
by Anonymous Reader on Thu Nov 29th, 2001 at 01:15:05 PM PST
Read the subject line, jackass


Man, that Jacues Derrida gets crankier every year! (none / 0) (#16)
by Anonymous Reader on Thu Nov 29th, 2001 at 09:45:10 PM PST



 
Aussie view (none / 0) (#19)
by Anonymous Reader on Thu Dec 6th, 2001 at 01:18:05 AM PST
Nice. The only thing that bothers me about this piece is that Kylie is definately not Australia's most famous export. Unless, of course, you are referring to Australia's biggest mistake.......or would that be Danni ? Wouldn't AC/DC be Australia's most famous export since they are the most successful one ?


 

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