A new extract marks the 25th anniversary of Kylie Minogue's Can't Get You Out of My Head, tracing how the minimalist dance-pop track came to define her career and shaped the sound of pop that followed. The piece situates the song within the concept of an artist's "imperial phase" – a period, as defined by critic Tom Ewing, marked by command, public permission and self-definition – arguing that everything Minogue did around the 2001 album Fever, from videos to touring to fashion, clicked into a cohesive, forward-pushing vision led by this single track.

The song was written in an afternoon in a Surrey garage studio in autumn 2000 by former Mud guitarist Rob Davis and songwriter Cathy Dennis, with Davis contributing the "la la la" hook and Dennis the title line, and was completed, vocals included, within about three hours. It was initially turned down by S Club 7 and Sophie Ellis-Bextor before manager Simon Fuller suggested it for Minogue, who reportedly knew within a few bars that it suited her; she recorded it in Surrey shortly after, with both Dennis and Davis crediting her performance and the accompanying video as central to the song's lasting impact, coinciding with pop's wider embrace of more experimental R&B-influenced production around the same time.