(hip hop music) - no, i can do it. i promise i can do it. play it again. - steven is trying to become a kpop star.
who is amber dancing with the stars, (laughing) hilarious. - i really wanna be a kpop star. - okay, cool. - [steven] this is my life long dream.
- to be a kpop star, youhave to have a certain swag about you, and steven has, just, not that. - oh, steven, what have yougotten 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 ofwhat 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 thanjust 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 cometo love and appreciate. steven, i have no ideawhat 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 akorean 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 arereally 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 bein 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 bedoing 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 thatput 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. - 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 thestructure of your mouth.
♫ gug, gug, gug, gug, gug ♫ can you try that? - come on, man. - 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 afew 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 youhow to introduce yourself. - 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. - hey, the baby's out. - oh, thank god. my friend lcksmith, he wrote this song for me to perform. (muttering 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? - it just gets rightto the point. (laughs) - so, we're actuallyout 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 tomemorize 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. - so, i was singing inthe shower this morning. - [erin] perfect. - you get that nice echo, everything sounds good. - oh yeah.
- nope. - but then i recordedmyself 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 beemotionally exhausting, but i had no idea howexhausting it would actually be. how do kpop stars do this? i don't wanna do this anymore. - people have told me thatour group f(x) is extremely, like, unique and, you know, different, but our group's goal is justalways just to be ourselves and try to try new things and experiment with differenttypes 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. - you got way better than last time. you say it like faster, and, yeah, i can tellthat you practiced a lot. ♫ baby, you and me ♫ - oh my gosh, i just sangand 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 hedresses 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 ofoverall black and white, kind of feel. - oh, okay, i don't know who this guy is.
- really tight skinnyjeans, and some army boots. - [nicole] maybe a dress shirtwith a really nice jacket with a little bit ofaccessory, not too much. bleaching his hair completely gray, ashy. - [kristine] like kpopt.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. thank you, thank you. - i think it is reallyimportant 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 outhis 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 thatthe hair is the crown to this overall look. - wow, this is incredible. that's a kpop star. - (laughing) you're welcome. - okay, steven, now youhave 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 'tilllike, 2:00 am, 3:00 am, dancing and singing,
but now i finally actuallyfeel 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)
- [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 ledup to this one moment. here goes nothing. yeah, yeah, yeah.
(clapping) ♫ but i'm killing it ♫ hold up ♫ girl feel crazy ♫ this is the craziest week of my life. emotionally, i would be so high sometimes, just like, oh, i finallygot this dance move down. and then the next hour, i would be like devastatedbecause i just couldn't
nail a certain note ♫ and then you say ♫ no, no, no ♫ ♫ party ♫ at the end of this, cani become a kpop star? there's no way. i was so tired, so hungry. i lost all connectionwith the outside world. and the fact that, like,
all of this will probably lead nowhere. - sounds like what youwent through emotionally is exactly what all thesetrainees 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. - if you don't know kpop, love kpop, or get to know kpop. it's awesome, kpop, kpop. (laughs)
