Kylie Minogue and That One Damnably Danceable Song (or How One of the Best Pop Songs of the Century Breaks Away from Pop Structure)

If I’m playing Five Second Rule and asked to name the top 3 Pop song of the 2000s, my answer would be “Can’t Get You Out of My Head”, “Toxic”, and “Since U Been Gone”. What makes “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” (“CGYOMH”) so special is that it’s this one capsule of Electronic music gold wrapped in Pop goodness. Unlike by-the-numbers pop that tries to mask its manufactured quality, “CGYOMH” embraces its machinic-ness and brings it to another level.

A huge part of “CGYOMH”’s appeal is its simplicity. At the core of the song is a pulsing bassline and drum beat that remain constant almost the entire song. This perpetual loop is characteristic of Electronic dance music, whose primary examples include New Order’s “Blue Monday” or Daft Punk’s “One More Time”, but unlike in these songs, this loop plays second fiddle to the vocals in “CGYOMH”. Still, the biggest hook in the song is the infectious, robotic but sensual “la-la-la”. And let’s be real, how can a hook be simpler than a “la-la-la”? The “la-la-la” is, at least to some extent, instinctive to human: you “la-la” through a song whose lyrics you can’t recall. And it carries meaning by itself as well: it’s bubbly, it’s carefree, it’s nonchalant. On top of that, most of the song simply switches between two minor chords: you can just “la-la-la” the entire song, which is actually how the song ends: one simply “la-la”s into oblivion. And quite literally as well, with that fade out (which is another technique covered by Vox here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpKypvDjiPM).

Underneath that simplicity, however, is the intricacy rarely seen in pop songs with such massive commercial success (the only other occurrences I can think of are “Toxic”, which turns out to be a sibling of “CGYOMH” that we’ll cover later in another article, and “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)”). After switching back and forth between Dm7 and Am for an entire minute, the song enters (what, if this was a typical pop song, would be called) the pre-chorus, where it goes through a quite complex chord progression: Bbmaj7-A-G#dim-A-Gm7-A4-A. Notice how we can nicely break this into 3 smaller groups, each ending with an A: (Bbmaj7-A)-(G#dim-A)-(Gm7-Asus4-A). In the first group, there’s a tritone substitution, using a Bbmaj7 instead of an Emaj7, making the machinic song chromatic. Moreover, because it forms a major seventh with the root and a minor second with the A that follows, the tritone creates a “dark force” that maintains through the line with the diminished triad (G#dim), the minor seventh (Gm7), and the suspended fourth (Asus4). As a result, there’s an impression that the obsession sung about in the lyrics is unhealthy and even destructive.

This realization is quickly replaced with temptation: the Dm7 and Am loop return as Minogue sings breathily “Won’t you stay? Won’t you lay?” She holds the last note of the line, which is a C, the minor seventh in the Dm7 chord that creates all the sexual tension of the song. The Dm7 changes into an extended Am9 this time, as the C in the melody briefly pushes to a luscious D (minor third) before resolving into a B (the root note), which creates this subtle but relaxing, reassuring atmosphere. However, the Bbmaj7 returns and maintains throughout the next line, as if to declare that there will be inherent danger, some degree of risk to enjoy this love, which also explains why in the previous line each of the dissonant and unstable chords resolve to a nice and stable A.

The complexity of the song doesn’t stop there: “CGYOMH” also toys with the popular verse-chorus song structure. If asked to point out the chorus in the song, song would probably say the gorgeous “la-la-la” hook, which makes sense as it is the obvious hook of the song, and it’s the only part with any additional embellishing instruments laying on top of the central groove. But if that is indeed the chorus, then why does it pops up after the instrumental intro? One may argue that this is an employment of placing the chorus at the beginning of the song, but then why does it pop up again in truncated form after/in middle of the “verse”? And on top of that, is the part we’re refering to as a “verse” (“I just can’t get you out of my head…”) an actual verse? When you look at the first one minute of the song, you will see that it follow another popular pop structure template, where a verse is repeated twice the first time but only once the second time to get to the chorus faster:

La la la
La la la la la
La la la
La la la la la

La la la
La la la la la
La la la
La la la la la

I just can’t get you out of my head
Boy, your lovin’ is all I think about
I just can’t get you out of my head
Boy, it’s more than I dare to think about

La la la
La la la la la
La la la
La la la la la

I just can’t get you out of my head
Boy, your loving is all I think about
I just can’t get you out of my head
Boy, it’s more than I dare to think about

The problem is, if we follow that template, then the “la-la-la” is the verse, and the “I just can’t get you out of my head” is the actual chorus. Also, note how the “I just can’t…” part is the one part with lyrics that remain unchanged every time it is repeated, another feature of a traditional chorus. Moreover, a song that ends with a fade out would also ends with its chorus repeated over and over, which is… both parts in this case?

To add even more confusion, the other part of the song is built like a traditional pre-chorus and chorus. Just like in a normal pre-chorus would, the line “Every night, every day” changes the atmosphere of the song, creating a tension that would be resolved in the chorus, which in this case is the “Won’t you stay? Won’t you lay?” line. The latter line has the characteristics of a chorus of an Electronic dance track: it contains the vocal peak and is where the beat takes over, followed by a cool down (“Stay forever…”). But then it’s the only part in the song with different lyrics between repetitions, and it is followed by the big hook “la-la-la”.

If you zoom out a bit, then you’ll see another possible set up: the whole “la-la-la” and “I just can’t get you out of my head” is actually the verse, and the “Every night, every day” part is the chorus. This fits the “Verse x2 — Chorus — Verse x1 — Chorus” aforementioned template, but then why does the verse maintain its lyrics every repetition but not the chorus? Why does the chorus sounds like a build up to the verse? And more importantly, what kind of song with a verse-chorus structure ends with a third verse?

In brief, the brilliance of “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” is that it uses so effectively so many pop templates, but at the same time it doesn’t perfectly fit any of them. It’s so simple, but so complex at the same time. But in the end, who really cares? It’s a damnably danceable song.