TED Talks Music

How does music shape us? Digital ethnomusicologist and TED Fellow Kyra Gaunt studies how Black girls can preserve the integrity of their own voices while listening, dancing and singing to pop songs largely engineered by men, often with lyrics that express anti-Black, patriarchal sentiments. In a quick, incisive talk, she shows how Black girls can disrupt the stereotypes and stigmas buried within this music and chart their own revolution in sound.

"Music can unlock a frozen memory that melts into the seeds of our creativity," says musician Rosanne Cash. Reflecting on the power of memory, solitude and community, she performs "The Sunken Lands" and "Particle And Wave" and meditates on some of life's most poignant and bittersweet themes.

Performing two original songs, stand-up comedian, writer and musician Marcia Belsky shares comical commentary on some peculiar aspects of our culture -- from Instagram-stalking your crush to fending off mansplainers on social media -- and lampoons NASA's notorious decision to provide astronaut Sally Ride with an egregious supply of tampons for her six-day trip to space in 1983.

Evoke a familiar tune in a song and get slapped with a lawsuit ... it's a tale almost as old as copyright itself. Lawyer and technologist Damien Riehl digs into why "owning" a melody is a ludicrous legal assertion and composes a radical solution for the musical woes of songwriters everywhere.

Have you ever wondered why you like sad music? Do you find comfort or inspiration in rainy days? In this profound, poetic talk, author Susan Cain invites you to embrace the feeling of longing -- or the place where joy and sorrow meet – as a gateway to creativity, connection and love. Accompanied by the splendid sounds of violinist Min Kym, Cain meditates on how heartache unexpectedly brings us closer to the sublime beauty of life.

Singer-songwriter Charlie Puth dazzles in a performance of his effortlessly catchy hit "Attention" and an impeccable cover of Stevie Wonder's "You and I", live from the TED Countdown stage.

Over the last two years, a collective of composers, musicians, computer programmers, scientists and activists has set out to reinterpret Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" for a transformed world, restituting Vivaldi's score in expected climate scenarios for the year 2050. The project, titled "The [Uncertain] Four Seasons," launches November 5, 2021, which will be Youth Day at the UN climate conference COP26, with fifteen orchestras from around the world performing a localized variation during a global live-streaming event.

"Every conversation has the potential to open up and reveal all the layers and layers within it, all those rooms within rooms," says podcaster and musician Hrishikesh Hirway. In this profoundly moving talk, he offers a guide to deep conversations and explores what you learn when you stop to listen closely. Stay tuned to the end to hear a performance of his original song "Between There and Here (feat. Yo-Yo Ma)."

Twerking is mainstream now ... but do you know where it came from? Superstar Lizzo traces booty shaking to a traditional West African dance and tells how Black women across generations kept the rhythm alive, from blues and jazz singers to modern rap and hip-hop performers. With her characteristic energy, she shares how twerking empowered her to love her own body -- and explains why understanding its origins helps protect Black culture from erasure and misappropriation. (And, yes, she twerks on stage.)

Music can act as a guide, says cellist Steven Sharp Nelson. It has the power to unlock the mind, tap into the heart and bring light in the darkest times. Take a deep breath as Nelson takes you on a melodic, meditative journey that could reconnect you with your closest loved ones -- no matter how near or far they may be.