Awesome 80s Video #5: Kylie Minogue, "It's No Secret"

Yes, I am resurrecting this short-running series because there is no shortage of awesome videos from that great decade. Today it's a little Christmas cheer...only it has nothing at all to do with Christmas.

Let's go back to 1988 and revisit Kylie Minogue's "It's No Secret."

Her breakthrough “The Locomotion,” which I never liked (not even the original, not even the Grand Funk version), is pretty well remembered today. Not so much her follow-up single, “It’s No Secret.” Somehow this just popped into my head, and I had totally forgotten the video.

It’s cool that it starts with ACTING, including "Locomotion" playing in the bar where we see the characters! Who says meta wasn't cool in the 1980s? I guess the makers of this clip really wanted us to know she was Australian. “Not AGIN!” Hey, Crocodile Dundee was big in 1988.

There are some imperfect things about this—the lyrics are lame, most of the music is unexceptional, Kylie’s hat is almost as big as she is. But the chorus is catchy as hell. Overall this really sounds to me like something that could have come from one of those R&B-ish pop girl groups of the day, like Expose. Is that a compliment? Judge for yourself.

My extensive research (i.e., reading the comments on this video) reveals that the song makes Minogue cringe now, but as I said, it’s a nice dose of frothy pop as we ease into the holidays. Incidentally, I’m undecided on whether her jeans outfit in this video is adorable or abominable.