(hip hop music)
- No, I can do it.
I promise I can do it.
Play it again.
(hip hop music)
- Steven is trying to become a Kpop star.
(laughing) Hilarious.
- I really wanna be a Kpop star.
- Okay, cool.
- [Steven] This is my life long dream.
- To be a Kpop star, you have to have a certain
swag about you,
and Steven has, just, not that.
- Oh, Steven, what have you gotten yourself in to? (laughs)
I'm just kidding, or am I?
- You have to know how to dance.
I feel like he can't just pick that up,
let alone sing,
and become super stylish.
Like, come on, man.
Steven's a great guy, but no, it's impossible.
- If he can pull off something,
even like an iota of what it is to Kpop star
with this project,
then I commend him,
because it's difficult.
It is a hard life.
- My name is Amber.
I'm in a group called f(x).
I recently just released two songs.
One is called "Need to Feel Needed,"
and the second one is called, "On My Own."
Kpop is, I guess,
definitely more than just a genre of music.
It's fashion.
There's shows, performance aspects.
It's this whole experience that, I think,
a lot of people have come to love and appreciate.
Steven, I have no idea what you got yourself into,
but, you know, never give up.
Shake your little butt,
and do something crazy (laughs).
Good luck, Steven.
- [Steven] With Amber cheering me on,
I was ready to begin my quest,
training like a Kpop star for one week.
So I called up a former Kpop trainee
to help me get started.
- I'm Ed.
I used to be a trainee in a Korean entertainment agency
a few years back.
Kpop trainee life is very difficult,
and it's really intense.
So an average day for a Kpop trainee,
all these things are really clearly regimented.
If you have work,
you go to work, and then after work,
you'll probably have to do language class,
'cause it's Kpop, so you need to know
how to speak Korean.
- Yes, in Korean, is--
(speaking in a foreign language)
- You probably go to vocal class,
'cause you need to be in your best condition
for your vocals, right?
(humming)
And then once that's over,
you go to dance class.
- Open, hop, open,
tap, knee, push, drop.
- The most difficult thing about it is
you don't really have a personal life
beyond the training thing.
So, like, you'll be doing hours of training
in all aspects,
especially if you aren't familiar with it.
I think the people that make it to the end
are the people that put in the most effort.
- Okay, I wanna put my heart into this.
- Welcome to Korean 101.
Do you know any Korean words?
- Uh.
My friend would use to say this a lot.
(speaking in a foreign language)
- Oh my god, what is that?
- Wait, what does that mean?
- Pull your pants down.
- Wait. (laughs)
- Yeah, take your pants off.
Why would he say that? (laughs)
- Hi, my name's Erin.
- Steven.
- I'm an acoustic Seoul Hip Hop musician.
I will be your vocal coach.
How you doing today?
- I'm okay.
I don't sing.
- At the end of the day, confidence.
First thing is there is a warm up
that is very, very good,
for pronunciation and the structure of your mouth.
♫ Gug, gug, gug, gug, gug ♫
Can you try that?
♫ Gug, gug, gug, gug, gug ♫
- Come on, man.
♫ Gug, gug, gug, gug, gug ♫
- There it is.
I hear some tones.
Kpop, it's literally building a singing,
dancing machine, bro.
- I'm Michael.
- I'm Danielle.
- This is Danielle.
- We are Kpop choreographers.
What we wanna do is kind of see
where we're at.
- Cool.
- So can you bust out with a few moves right now for us?
- Oh, right now?
- Yeah, right now.
- Yes, right now.
- Here's my go to move.
- Yeah, I'm feeling it.
- (yelling)
- You got this.
You got this, you got this.
- Now, I'm gonna teach you how to introduce yourself.
(speaking in a foreign language)
- Huh?
- How about--
♫ Kah ♫
- Hey, it could be a little bit better
if you pushed it out a little bit more.
- Like a baby.
- Do it.
- A little bit of some simple groove,
like a lean back.
Maybe even like licking your lips,
just for that fan service.
Yeah.
- [Danielle] (laughing)
- [Michael] Not too much.
♫ Kah ♫
- Hey, the baby's out.
- Oh, thank god.
My friend Lcksmith,
he wrote this song for me
to perform.
(speaking in a foreign language)
(muttering in a foreign language)
(speaking in a foreign language)
- And pop your knee forward.
- What is your favorite part of the song?
- When they speak English.
- Let's do that.
- Okay. (laughs)
♫ Baby ♫
- Uh huh.
♫ You and me
♫ You-- ♫
- Oh, that was a--
- I don't know where that came from.
- Oh, that was nice.
What is gonna be your Korean name?
(speaking in a foreign language)
- It just gets right to the point. (laughs)
- So, we're actually out of time right now.
- Thank goodness.
- So, next session, we will be teaching
you the choreography.
- Thank you.
See you tomorrow.
- No problem.
- Ah, man, okay.
It's like midnight right now.
I have to study my Korean,
practice some of my dance moves,
and, also, try to memorize all these lyrics.
I'm kind of feeling overwhelmed.
(sighs)
- Did you practice a lot last night?
- Yes, I practiced all night.
- [Michael] Nice.
- [Danielle] Perfect.
- [Michael] Nice.
- So, I was singing in the shower this morning.
- [Erin] Perfect.
- You get that nice echo,
everything sounds good.
- Oh yeah.
(speaking in a foreign language)
- Nope.
- But then I recorded myself and watched that.
- Hey, uh huh.
♫ Woah, baby, you and me ♫
(singing in a foreign language)
- Five, six, seven, and a eight.
♫ You, you, you, you
♫ You, you, you, you, you ♫
- No.
- I knew this would be emotionally exhausting,
but I had no idea how exhausting it would actually be.
How do Kpop stars do this?
I don't wanna do this anymore.
- People have told me that our group f(x) is extremely,
like, unique and, you know, different,
but our group's goal is just always just to be ourselves
and try to try new things
and experiment with different types of performance aspects.
So we just gonna do our thing.
- I just did a 30 minute workout.
I'm exhausted, but I feel pretty good.
(hip hop music)
(speaking in a foreign language)
- You got way better than last time.
You say it like faster,
and, yeah, I can tell that you practiced a lot.
♫ Baby, you and me ♫
(singing in a foreign language)
(hip hop music)
- Oh my gosh, I just sang and danced this entire song
correctly for the very first time.
It took six and a half days, but I did it.
- Hi, I'm Nicole, and this is Kristine.
Today, we're here to style Steven,
into a Kpop star from head to toe.
To describe Steven's style in one word,
it would be very plain.
- [Kristine] Neutral.
- Boring, grey, brown.
I don't know.
I really think that he dresses like everybody else.
- Yeah.
- Is that mean?
- No, that's not mean.
I think that's being honest.
I think to start Steven's transformation,
something like kind of overall black and white,
kind of feel.
- Oh, okay, I don't know who this guy is.
- Really tight skinny jeans, and some army boots.
- [Nicole] Maybe a dress shirt with a really nice jacket
with a little bit of accessory, not too much.
Bleaching his hair completely gray, ashy.
- [Kristine] Like Kpop T.O.P. style, right,
with that grey hair--
- [Nicole] Yeah, T.O.P. has like sexy hair.
- (laughs)
I like it.
I like it a lot.
Yeah.
(speaking in a foreign language)
Thank you, thank you.
- I think it is really important to keep Steven
as who he is,
so to have Steven feel really comfortable,
and make it seem like,
"Oh, this is me, still me,
"but I'm just having a new look."
I feel like when you say Kpop,
starting from makeup, a lot of Kpop artists
wear like, eyeliners, or BB cream.
- So I think we could do some, like,
contouring on Steven's face a little bit--
- [Nicole] Definitely.
- [Kristine] To bring out his structures a little bit.
- [Nicole] I want his hair up.
- I just gotta create volume.
It's all about being erect.
- [Nicole] And styled really nicely.
- I was always told that the hair is the crown
to this overall look.
- Wow, this is incredible.
That's a Kpop star.
- (laughing) You're welcome.
- Okay, Steven, now you have your full look on.
Do you wanna come out?
- [Steven] Yeah, but I don't know
if the world is ready for this. (laughs)
- I'm scared.
I'm nervous for you.
- Oh my gosh.
- Oh my gosh, wow.
- [Nicole] Oh my god, it looks so good.
- [Steven] So this whole week,
I've been practicing 'till like, 2:00 AM, 3:00 AM,
dancing and singing,
but now I finally actually feel like a Kpop star.
- You look so good.
I'm so happy.
- The people who doubted me,
that I couldn't be a Kpop star,
let's see what they say now.
- [Voiceover] Oh, my god.
- Holy shit.
- Me as an artist, like, when I'm on stage,
it's not just me performing,
and people just singing the song with me.
There's also like fan chants,
and this whole other fan culture
that's extremely dedicated to that artist.
- You look amazing.
(people murmuring)
(applauding and cheering)
(cheering)
- (laughs)
- [Steven] What's up, man?
- Look at you.
You look so cool. (laughs)
- [Steven] Thank you.
This is it.
All my training, all my hard work,
this entire week has led up to this one moment.
Here goes nothing.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(singing in a foreign language)
(clapping)
(hip hop music)
♫ But I'm killing it
♫ Hold up
♫ Girl feel crazy ♫
(singing in a foreign language)
This is the craziest week of my life.
Emotionally, I would be so high sometimes,
just like, oh, I finally got this dance move down.
And then the next hour,
I would be like devastated because I just couldn't
nail a certain note
♫ And then you say
♫ No, no, no ♫
(singing in a foreign language)
♫ Party ♫
At the end of this, can I become a Kpop star?
There's no way.
I was so tired, so hungry.
I lost all connection with the outside world.
♫ Baby, you and me ♫
(singing in a foreign language)
And the fact that, like,
all of this will probably lead nowhere.
- Sounds like what you went through emotionally
is exactly what all these trainees go through.
You only had a week.
Don't be too hard on yourself.
Good job actually getting a video out.
A lot of trainees don't have that.
- Really?
- Yeah, good work.
- Thank you very much.
(singing in a foreign language)
(hip hop music)
- If you don't know Kpop, love Kpop,
or get to know Kpop.
It's awesome, Kpop, Kpop. (laughs)