Inside the K-Pop Dream Machine • 2024

24:06

The Korean Wave is taking the world by storm, and Korean Pop, or K-pop, is at the forefront. Krishnan Guru-Murthy goes inside South Korea's K-pop dance schools, investigating the hidden cost of becoming the next big idol. He learns how teenagers are crafted to be idols with relentless training regimes, scripted answers and picture-perfect looks, though just one per cent will 'make it big'.

2024 • Music

122:33

Asif Kapadia's poignant and critically acclaimed documentary portrait of singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse, the English soul, jazz and R 'n' B phenomenon who died tragically before her time. Kapadia traces her volatile life and artistic success over the 13 years preceding her death from alcohol poisoning on 23rd July 2011, aged just 27. The documentary tells Amy's story via her music and autobiographical song lyrics, video footage shot by her friends and family, archive clips from TV appearances, plus voiceover interviews with people who were personally and professionally close to her. But, as the film progresses, the hope and promise of her early career is steadily undermined by the self-destructive chaos of alcohol and drug addiction and the pressures of a life lived under the intense focus of global media attention.

2016 • Music

3:00

We don't know much about the human brain on music. Do people instinctively know the sound patterns of the pentatonic scale? Is there a base level of musical knowledge in all of us, just waiting to be tapped? Or is the pentatonic scale simply so common in Western music that it has become ingrained in all of our minds? Improvisational genius Bobby McFerrin uses audience participation to demonstrate the power of the pentatonic scale - or at least the audience's familiarity with it.

2011 • Music

19:25

When does sound become music? Why are humans so uniquely able to master musicality? Researches talk rhythm, octaves, and the magic of song and dance.

S01E20 • Explained • 2018 • Music

4:19

How is it that Beethoven, who is celebrated as one of the most significant composers of all time, wrote many of his most beloved songs while going deaf?

TED-Ed • Music

4:31

How many times does the chorus repeat in your favorite song? How many times have you listened to that chorus? Repetition in music isn’t just a feature of Western pop songs, either; it’s a global phenomenon. Why? Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis walks us through the basic principles of the ‘exposure effect,’ detailing how repetition invites us into music as active participants, rather than passive listeners.

TED-Ed • Music