TED Talks Daily - What literally every K-pop song sounds like | Charlene Kaye

Episode Date: January 29, 2026

Want to become a K-pop superstar? Comedian and musician Charlene Kaye lays out the formula for breaking through in just a few easy steps, from rapping like a sexy baby to dancing like you’re making pizza in the Matrix. Part musical, part dance performance, part comedy show — this is your how-to guide for creating the next K-pop hit.Learn more about our flagship conference happening this April at attend.ted.com/podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You're listening to TED Talks Daily where we bring you new ideas and conversations to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hugh. I have been counting down the days until I could share this talk with you because it is from comedian and rock star Charlene Kaye, who took to the TED stage in a brilliantly shiny silver jumpsuit to break down a truly global phenomenon for us. It's part musical, part dance performance, part com, part how-to guide for becoming a K-pop superstar. All I can say is, enjoy. My name is Charlene Kay. I actually started my career out as a pop musician, and after 20 years of grinding in the industry,

the way I know that I've finally made it is that I am now a stand-up comedian. And today, here at TED, I'd like to talk about something that I have been obsessed with for years, which is K-pop. Do we have any K-pop? Do we have any K-pop fans in here? Oh, nice!

If not, don't worry, there's nothing wrong with being a straight dude. And if you love K-pop and you're a straight dude, are you sure about that? So you might think that it is extremely difficult to be a K-pop star. You have to move to Korea, you have to do this whole training program, and I'm here to tell you today that that's not true. It's actually really easy to be a K-pop star. Anybody can do it,

and I'm going to show every single one of you how in the next seven minutes. Are we ready? All right, great. So in K-pop, you have the girl groups and the boy groups. You want to be in a girl group? So easy. All you have to do is be super cute but not too young-looking, really sexy but not too slutty,

really badass, but not too masculine. You know, all the things men have to think about. So when you start the song, you're not going to sing. You're not going to sing. You're going to talk. Lots of vocal fry. You're going to talk. Hang your yore manga, then you walk, walk, walk, drive a car, shake your hips, bend yourself, lick your lips, shoot a gun, blow a kiss.

Then the main rapper comes in and she has something the first girl doesn't have, which is... Now I'm gonna rap like a sexy baby, I'm a savage, you all wanna hate me, now I'm gonna twerk like Hardy B, because the Bronx is a neighborhood in Korea. Korea is a very Christian nation. So you can't really, really sing about sex. So instead, you're going to sing about fruit. Strawberries are red and berries are blue. It's not about sex. We just really like fruit. Logically, you're going to sing about guns. I'm serious, but you have to stay cute. Never mind that guns are illegal to civilians in South Korea. You're really cute, but you're also in NWA. You're join the other members of your group who are 23 rips, twinks, and you're going to wrap

some sexy nursery rhymes. Now, how do you do that? You just got to whisper everything. Like, it is the filthiest thing you've ever said to anyone. It's so easy, just like this. Twinkle, twinkle, little star. Three little piggies go to market. Old McDonald had a fuck.

Yeah, girl, I'm a little teapy. Now it's time for the course. There are too many of you if you each have your own line. So what are we going to yell about? It's showtime. And that cheese, I'm hot like a fever. And now it's a completely different genre. There are still 22 through having sung yet.

We're going to say more foods like ice cream, hot sauce, chicken noodle soup, donut, cherry bomb, butter, fondue. It's not about sex. We just really like food. Talk about something that happens with both the girl and the boy groups. And this is something that I call the OBR, or the obligatory. ragatone section. And in this section it is mandatory. How you talk about how you're either really cold or really hot. And there's no in between. Here we go. I'm either really cold or

really, really hot. Super, super cold, except when I'm hot. I'm freezing like an igloo, a burning up a sweat, trying out to sing in a Jamaican accent cold. Winter, winter falls. Goodbye winter, winter. I get hot, so hot, hot, hot, hot. These are all real songs, by the way. Winter flower, very hot, I'm so hot, hot sauce, Snowflower, winter without you, hot, hand, hot, yes you hot, summer, sweet winter, the winter's tail, it's cold, like it's hot, five cold songs in all these hot-tops

There's no such thing is warm. The most critical moment in any K-pop song, which is the dubstep dance break for no reason. Now how do we do this? You're gonna do the following moves. Number one, you're gonna glitch like you're connecting to dial up internet in 1999. Then you're going to make pizza in the Matrix.

You heard me. Then you're going to be a horny mime in a glass box. And then finally, you're going to give the angriest massage and end in a pose called The Passion of the Christ. You guys got all that, right? It's so easy. We're going to do it together. Here we go. Lyrics like shining like a shooting star or climbing to the top of a mountain. It goes just like this.

every element of the song randomly comes back, and the person with the highest voice in the group does way too much. Then you end in a move called the Magic Mike. Everyone turn their phone flashlights on. Pop superstar. That was Charlene Kay speaking at TED Next 2025. If you're curious about Ted's curation, find out more at ted.com slash curation guidelines. And that's it for today.

Ted Talks Daily is part of the TED Audio Collective. This talk was fact-checked by the TED Research Team and produced and edited by our team, Martha Estefanos, Oliver Friedman, Brian Green, Lucy Little, and Tonica, Sung Marnivong. This episode was mixed by Christopher Faisi Bogan. Additional support from Emma Tobner and Daniela Balehzo.

I'm Elise Hugh. I'll be back tomorrow with a fresh idea for your feed. Thanks for listening.