Stray Kids (Korean: 스트레이 키즈; RR: Seuteurei Kijeu; often abbreviated as SKZ) is a South Korean boy band formed by JYP Entertainment through the 2017 reality show of the same name. The group is currently composed of eight members: Bang Chan, Lee Know, Changbin, Hyunjin, Han, Felix, Seungmin, and I.N, with former member Woojin having left the group due to undisclosed personal reasons in October 2019. The group is primarily self-produced, with 3Racha (consisting of members Bang Chan, Changbin, and Han) as their main producing team and the other members frequently participating in songwriting.
Stray Kids released their pre-debut extended play (EP) Mixtape in January 2018 and officially debuted on March 25 with the EP I Am Not, followed by other two I Am series EPs, I Am Who and I Am You. Their Clé trilogy EPs were issued in 2019, consisting of Clé 1: Miroh, Clé 2: Yellow Wood, and Clé: Levanter. The group’s first studio album Go Live was released in 2020, becoming their first platinum-certified album by Korea Music Content Association (KMCA). That year, Stray Kids also made their Japanese debut with the compilation album SKZ2020 through Epic Records Japan.
In 2021, Stray Kids’ second studio album Noeasy became their first million-selling album. After signing with Republic Records for promotions in the United States in 2022, the group released the EPs Oddinary, Maxident (both in 2022), and Rock-Star (2023), and their third studio album 5-Star (2023), all four of which topped the US Billboard 200 and entered the UK Albums Chart. 5-Star was certified five-million in album sales by the KMCA, making them just the third group to achieve this in Korean history. As of October 2022, Stray Kids has sold over 10 million albums across both Korean and Japanese releases. In 2023, they featured on Time’s Next Generation Leaders list.
The group’s name “Stray Kids” was not defined by JYP Entertainment but conceptualized by the members themselves. It originally referred to a lost child who wants to chase their dreams and later evolved to represent the idea of finding a way together out of the ordinary.
Stray Kids’ music is inspired by hip-hop, dubstep, heavy metal, electroclash and dance-pop, and it has been described as “dark and experimental”. After the release of the album Go Live, the public and various entertainment media outlets began calling Stray Kids the pioneers of “mala taste music” (Korean: 마라맛 음악; RR: Maramat eumak), adopted from the hot and spicy mala seasoning, which later became a rising music trend among other K-Pop boy groups. Their songs initially received criticism for being too “noisy”; with the album Noeasy, they embraced the criticism, saying the term was “something that [they] could use as [their] own weapon”. During the showcase for Rock-Star, they implied that they plan on keeping up their tenacious music with principles (Korean: 줏대; RR: jutdae; lit. strong spine). Stray Kids expressed that they want their music to be recognized as a new genre of their own, stating in a 2023 interview during the Next Generation Leaders with Time :
The goal is to continuously pioneer new [musical] subjects and to have our music be recognized as a ‘Stray Kids’ genre.
Experimental music has been Stray Kids’ identity since the beginning of their career, combining various genres throughout their discography. Their debut song “District 9” is a hybrid genre that combines hip-hop, rock, and EDM with frenetic bass, sirens, EDM breaks, aggressive raps, and hip hop dance moves. They also attempted a new sound with “Side Effects”, a propulsive EDM-pop hybrid song inspired by psytrance. “God’s Menu” is said to have a new genre called “mala taste”, which is defined as a genre of hot, strong, and spicy songs. In “Thunderous”, they used contemporary synths and drops to blend in with traditional Korean instruments such as the kwaenggwari (Korean: 꽹과리; lit. a small, flat gong made of brass, primarily used in Korean folk music) and the traditional Korean drums. “Maniac” is a Middle Eastern-influenced “powerful” trap, electropop song, with a bass-synth drop, bird-chirping, and drill sounds. “Case 143” is a pop song with various sounds like a descending chromatic scale, changes in key signature, intense rap verses, and a flexible rhythm. “S-Class” is a hip hop track with elements of boom bap, old school, and pop. It was mixed between booming rap, thrumming bass, sultry electro, 1990s hip-hop, sparkling pop and grimy club. “Lalalala” is a phonk and Afrobeats track with harsh electric guitar, lively drums, and thumping bass.
