Artist Kylie Minogue

Kylie Minogue is pretty much the perfect pop automaton, with a pleasantly severe aspect that rubs against her constant smile and fertile voice, which is flat in the most welcoming ways. She’s also something of a soldier, with a pop presence that spans back into the ’80s and a bout with breast cancer behind her. All of that has conspired to make her a hero to many for many reasons, and the music is good, too. Minogue’s lithe and imaginative 2002 album Fever stands as one of the best of a pop-drenched past decade, and the kind of future-pop that followed—including that on her latest album, 2010’s Aphrodite—has been at least serviceable since.

Updated 04/18/2011