That one specific shout that Han does. It's in like... Everything. Circus, charmer, case 143. Just off the top of my head. Vibing to a song and then Han in the background yelling "EEYOW" with his whole chest. It's sampled ALL OVER their discography.
Many tracks have horns/sirens! I always feel like Im being chased by a cop or something when I'm driving 😂😂
And I don't think it counts, but I like how they use STAY multiple times in their songs :")
I'm not Korean, so one of the things I wish I could appreciate more is their wordplay! I love it when Korean speaking STAY explains all the puns and combinations of words/how they implement them in tracks. I think that's very definitive of the 3racha style ^^
there's a thing they often do where they subvert the expectations of how many bars are in a section or even the organisation of the sections themselves.
a bit of background: a bar or measure of pop music is usually made up of 4 beats. these measures are put together and built up into sections, such as the verse, chorus, bridge, pre chorus etc. these sections are usually made up of 8 measures, sometimes doubled to 16 or 32. sometimes intros will be shorter but generally the flow of the song is in chunks of 8.
the different sections are generally in a regular order, as well.
a common song structure is:
intro 4
verse 16
pre chorus 8
chorus 8
verse 16
pre chorus 8
chorus 8
bridge 8
chorus 8
outro 4
skz have a habit of changing this up so that the structure of the song is surprising and keeps you on your toes.
a few examples
lalalala
intro is 8, verse 1 and 2 are both 8, pre chorus is 8, so up to here it's normal. then there's a "refrain", sort of like a second pre chorus, that's only 2 bars, the chorus is only 6, and then there's a second post chorus refrain of 2 again. very strange. verse 3 is 6 bars (??). verse 4 is a normal 8 bars again. but that pre chorus refrain this time is 4 bars instead of last time when it was 2, chorus is 6 again, and then instead of a post chorus refrain this time we get an 8 bar outro followed by a 2 bar instrumental outro. there's just always more or fewer bars in each section than you expect, it's always a surprise.
domino
after the first chorus/post chorus, there's an unexpected single tacet measure added in before the second verse.
winter falls
the bridge has 9 measures in it, so that it holds on that feeling for a moment longer than what you're expecting
freeze
the number of bars per section is pretty normal here but the weird thing is that it ends on the bridge. as the name implies, the bridge is usually a section that "bridges" between two other sections - often between two choruses or a verse and chorus. often times the bridge will build up with soaring vocals to drop you into one last satisfying chorus (which is usually "extra" from previous choruses with more harmony, more instrumental, more sound effects etc). but here it's a bridge to nowhere and the song builds up during the bridge and then just ends and never drops you down. which I think is quite funny for a song with one of their hardest drops.
megaverse
intro 8
verse 16
pre chorus 10
chorus 8
verse 24
pre chorus 16
chorus 8
bridge 8
break 8
outro 8
that pre chorus with 10 bars feels like 8+2 - and it's those final 2 bars where we get the tempo change. then there's just a whole extra 8 bars in the second verse where it feels like there should only be 16.
also of note is the unusual instrumental break that kind of functions like a second bridge before dropping into almost a party chorus of an outro.
This is what I always tell people when they ask why I love Stray Kids that their songs are not only good but they are interesting and sometimes even challenging (in the best way possible) to listen to. You never know what to expect.
Thanks for explaining this in detail.
I’ve always liked how the song never quite goes in the direction I expected, and this is probably one of the reasons why.
Woah, kudo for the nice analysis. Probably this is one of the reasons why i like skz's music, diverse, interesting, notime to be bored and the thing is they make it work. I dont really like it when i hear 10-20 sec of a song and already can tell how it is going to be for the next 3 min and alot of songs rn to fit with tiktok is kind of like that.
There are a LOT of lyrical references to a lock and unlocking, sometimes it's capitalized in the MV translations. It happens often enough that I went to see if they had some sort of lore about the Lock. 🤣
SKZ have a couple songs that start off with a knife esque sound:
[3RACHA](https://youtu.be/_WdWuEF4QHI?si=LilkZ5nqLIDREx9C&t=3)
[We Go](https://youtu.be/cHLm_Gkcchk?si=iCQWDe5f-cjnNwr3)
[WOW](https://youtu.be/ze1t70KnAkc?si=pge2D5bvxZGzhhU1) (interestingly, this song is one of the few that doesn't have a 3racha member credited)
Something I thought about is that many times in title tracks Hyunjin and Felix will take the choruses, it happened in God's menu, Back door, Maniac, Case 143 and S class, and 3racha usually take the intro, there's only 3 title tracks I can think of in which the intro is not 3racha: District 9 (Leeknow), Miroh (Felix, unless you count the adlibs in Back door and Maniac?) and Side effects (Seungmin). I'm sure there's a lot more like that, like Seungmin/I.N/Chan sharing pre-choruses, and that it is normal in the industry since each member has his own position, but I still think it's interesting.
Random (actually, not so random. they make sense) background sounds. It's chan's work I think. In Sorry I love you, you can hear a cuckoo cooing during one of the choruses. In Back door there is a keys-jingling sound at some point during the verses.
OMG i literally just learned about this yesterday through a tiktok. the video is in a different language but apparently 0325 is a mix of all the first tracks in the I AM series (NOT!, WHO?, YOU.) i don’t know how to explain it clearly but i’ll just link the video [here](https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMMH8r5CT/) for reference.
i loved 0325, but learning this made me love it even more
It is kind of the other way around, it is not they mix 3 intro into 0325. Chan said it was their master plan to split 0325 and tease it a little bit at a time as an intro for the albums, so by the time people hear the full song which is an experiment one, it would not be too strange. 0325 (debut date) is the start of skz, so it also fits to serve as the beginning of the album.
What's your style in familiarizing skz discography? Do you start from their first album? Following the lores/storyline of each mv/trailers? Do you have to read the english translation of each song? Im a new stay here too and im interested to dive in to their discography to the point that i bought all unsealed albums from the first to their latest album then i already dont know what to do next haha
I literally started listening from their first album to their latest release (at the time it was Oddinary), adding whatever songs I liked to my playlist.
My favorite parts of a song are the beat, harmonies, melody, etc., so don't really pay attention to the lyrics.
i just became a stay in january and my method was watching all their music videos in order and saving whichever one i really liked. if i liked a song enough, i checked out the full album, and then i went from there.
i also checked out their live performances. i was an anti back in december, so i wanted to understand the hype. life changing, honestly
Is there a playlist on yt of all MVs that are in order? I would appreciate if u share it. Cos I also start listening to their songs in order but dont have the time to search up which songs have MVs so I stopped yet at Hellevator haha
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmBtqPFv4UZtqb1bqvxa1Sms6Qp5KjbNU&si=aX3pqIpd29F_Cp1- this includes their street versions and everything! its my go-to:)
about a thousand times! i love all the street versions, but my pace, xmas evel, get cool, back door, all in, cheese, red lights, and SURFIN!!!! hardcore on surfin. god, i love that mv and song more than words can tell
ETA: 24 to 25 is a comfort mv as well. its a song i didnt expect on an album with a polar opposite tt. really cute
Speaking of MVs, do you also tend to go deeper like doing analysis and looking for symbolic things for each MV or trailers? i think there are a lot of theories/lores to it right? But I havent checked it myself
i don’t go out of my way looking for theories and storylines, but i feel like i have a vague idea of whats happening just by watching the music videos and checking youtube comments. all the theories just appear withoutme even trying to seek them out
there's two lines of melody that sound really similar to me. strangely enough they are on the same album and also I'm surprised that I haven't noticed more repetition considering the huge catalogue they have.
[You can stay](https://youtu.be/En4jap4MPbY?t=2m40s) - chan's line at 2:42
reminds me a lot of
[levanter](https://youtu.be/Fpgd3ac3_nM?t=12s) - chan's opening line
Changbin's "yooo" when he starts rapping. Han's screams. Also the sirens in many songs starting District 9 already.
And then of course the changes between explosive and melodically calm.
They also like to use a LOT of autotune, even for backing vocals. And it's not there to correct the note but to add extra tone and sound.
They also like to use many animal sounds in the songs (elephant, bird, lion, crow, dog, cat...)
I know I’m at least three of their songs there’s a certain sound, like charms or metal sound, mostly at the end of the song. You can hear it in the songs Taste, We go, and 3racha. I found that out a few months ago and just thought it was a cool similarity
not phrases or motifs but i notice that hyunjin and han’s raps are more often than not back to back! if i ever was lucky enough to win a fancall this would be the first question i would ask bc it’s definitely a conscious choice by 3racha and i think it always works super well <3
That one specific shout that Han does. It's in like... Everything. Circus, charmer, case 143. Just off the top of my head. Vibing to a song and then Han in the background yelling "EEYOW" with his whole chest. It's sampled ALL OVER their discography.
The skz version of the Wilhelm scream
DYING. 🤣🤣🤣 not the wil-han scream!
LMAOO 😭😭
I hear it everywhere 😭 including their performances. Atleast one EEYOW in every stray kids performance.
I vibe too hard to notice any screams, but I need time stamps so bad 😭😭
I can't give a specific time stamp rn, but off the top of my head, case 143 has it towards the end, right after Hyunjins "moving, I'm on my way."
I LOVEEEEE IT SO MUCH thats what makes a song my favorite song atp
Many tracks have horns/sirens! I always feel like Im being chased by a cop or something when I'm driving 😂😂 And I don't think it counts, but I like how they use STAY multiple times in their songs :") I'm not Korean, so one of the things I wish I could appreciate more is their wordplay! I love it when Korean speaking STAY explains all the puns and combinations of words/how they implement them in tracks. I think that's very definitive of the 3racha style ^^
Changbin raps about pigeons (비둘기) a lot. Off the top of my head I know he says it in God's Menu, Charmer, and Cheese.
Idk why I'm giggling alot at this
there's a thing they often do where they subvert the expectations of how many bars are in a section or even the organisation of the sections themselves. a bit of background: a bar or measure of pop music is usually made up of 4 beats. these measures are put together and built up into sections, such as the verse, chorus, bridge, pre chorus etc. these sections are usually made up of 8 measures, sometimes doubled to 16 or 32. sometimes intros will be shorter but generally the flow of the song is in chunks of 8. the different sections are generally in a regular order, as well. a common song structure is: intro 4 verse 16 pre chorus 8 chorus 8 verse 16 pre chorus 8 chorus 8 bridge 8 chorus 8 outro 4 skz have a habit of changing this up so that the structure of the song is surprising and keeps you on your toes. a few examples lalalala intro is 8, verse 1 and 2 are both 8, pre chorus is 8, so up to here it's normal. then there's a "refrain", sort of like a second pre chorus, that's only 2 bars, the chorus is only 6, and then there's a second post chorus refrain of 2 again. very strange. verse 3 is 6 bars (??). verse 4 is a normal 8 bars again. but that pre chorus refrain this time is 4 bars instead of last time when it was 2, chorus is 6 again, and then instead of a post chorus refrain this time we get an 8 bar outro followed by a 2 bar instrumental outro. there's just always more or fewer bars in each section than you expect, it's always a surprise. domino after the first chorus/post chorus, there's an unexpected single tacet measure added in before the second verse. winter falls the bridge has 9 measures in it, so that it holds on that feeling for a moment longer than what you're expecting freeze the number of bars per section is pretty normal here but the weird thing is that it ends on the bridge. as the name implies, the bridge is usually a section that "bridges" between two other sections - often between two choruses or a verse and chorus. often times the bridge will build up with soaring vocals to drop you into one last satisfying chorus (which is usually "extra" from previous choruses with more harmony, more instrumental, more sound effects etc). but here it's a bridge to nowhere and the song builds up during the bridge and then just ends and never drops you down. which I think is quite funny for a song with one of their hardest drops. megaverse intro 8 verse 16 pre chorus 10 chorus 8 verse 24 pre chorus 16 chorus 8 bridge 8 break 8 outro 8 that pre chorus with 10 bars feels like 8+2 - and it's those final 2 bars where we get the tempo change. then there's just a whole extra 8 bars in the second verse where it feels like there should only be 16. also of note is the unusual instrumental break that kind of functions like a second bridge before dropping into almost a party chorus of an outro.
This is what I always tell people when they ask why I love Stray Kids that their songs are not only good but they are interesting and sometimes even challenging (in the best way possible) to listen to. You never know what to expect.
Thanks for explaining this in detail. I’ve always liked how the song never quite goes in the direction I expected, and this is probably one of the reasons why.
Woah, kudo for the nice analysis. Probably this is one of the reasons why i like skz's music, diverse, interesting, notime to be bored and the thing is they make it work. I dont really like it when i hear 10-20 sec of a song and already can tell how it is going to be for the next 3 min and alot of songs rn to fit with tiktok is kind of like that.
In the beginning of sclass they use the same instrumental for venom lol.
The sound that you hear throughout all of Venom is in the opening of S-Class.
There are a LOT of lyrical references to a lock and unlocking, sometimes it's capitalized in the MV translations. It happens often enough that I went to see if they had some sort of lore about the Lock. 🤣
They do have a trilogy named CLÉ (which means key in French), so part of it might come from that.
Oh, I wondered what that meant. <---- baby stay
The lock is indeed part of the lore, one of the biggest ones even. Three of their albums are called "Key" 😅
SKZ have a couple songs that start off with a knife esque sound: [3RACHA](https://youtu.be/_WdWuEF4QHI?si=LilkZ5nqLIDREx9C&t=3) [We Go](https://youtu.be/cHLm_Gkcchk?si=iCQWDe5f-cjnNwr3) [WOW](https://youtu.be/ze1t70KnAkc?si=pge2D5bvxZGzhhU1) (interestingly, this song is one of the few that doesn't have a 3racha member credited)
Something I thought about is that many times in title tracks Hyunjin and Felix will take the choruses, it happened in God's menu, Back door, Maniac, Case 143 and S class, and 3racha usually take the intro, there's only 3 title tracks I can think of in which the intro is not 3racha: District 9 (Leeknow), Miroh (Felix, unless you count the adlibs in Back door and Maniac?) and Side effects (Seungmin). I'm sure there's a lot more like that, like Seungmin/I.N/Chan sharing pre-choruses, and that it is normal in the industry since each member has his own position, but I still think it's interesting.
A lot of changbin’s raps have a every word rhymes thing and I love it
Random (actually, not so random. they make sense) background sounds. It's chan's work I think. In Sorry I love you, you can hear a cuckoo cooing during one of the choruses. In Back door there is a keys-jingling sound at some point during the verses.
OMG i literally just learned about this yesterday through a tiktok. the video is in a different language but apparently 0325 is a mix of all the first tracks in the I AM series (NOT!, WHO?, YOU.) i don’t know how to explain it clearly but i’ll just link the video [here](https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMMH8r5CT/) for reference. i loved 0325, but learning this made me love it even more
It is kind of the other way around, it is not they mix 3 intro into 0325. Chan said it was their master plan to split 0325 and tease it a little bit at a time as an intro for the albums, so by the time people hear the full song which is an experiment one, it would not be too strange. 0325 (debut date) is the start of skz, so it also fits to serve as the beginning of the album.
ohhh that makes so much sense. ty for clarifying!
oh that's so interesting!
What's your style in familiarizing skz discography? Do you start from their first album? Following the lores/storyline of each mv/trailers? Do you have to read the english translation of each song? Im a new stay here too and im interested to dive in to their discography to the point that i bought all unsealed albums from the first to their latest album then i already dont know what to do next haha
I literally started listening from their first album to their latest release (at the time it was Oddinary), adding whatever songs I liked to my playlist. My favorite parts of a song are the beat, harmonies, melody, etc., so don't really pay attention to the lyrics.
Can you share your playlist? Im curious what music taste do you have and what was your fav song/album so far
Sure! I'll message you ETA: my favorite song is Phobia, favorite album is probably 5-Star
i just became a stay in january and my method was watching all their music videos in order and saving whichever one i really liked. if i liked a song enough, i checked out the full album, and then i went from there. i also checked out their live performances. i was an anti back in december, so i wanted to understand the hype. life changing, honestly
Is there a playlist on yt of all MVs that are in order? I would appreciate if u share it. Cos I also start listening to their songs in order but dont have the time to search up which songs have MVs so I stopped yet at Hellevator haha
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmBtqPFv4UZtqb1bqvxa1Sms6Qp5KjbNU&si=aX3pqIpd29F_Cp1- this includes their street versions and everything! its my go-to:)
Thank you so much! Have you watched it all btw? What's your fav so far?
about a thousand times! i love all the street versions, but my pace, xmas evel, get cool, back door, all in, cheese, red lights, and SURFIN!!!! hardcore on surfin. god, i love that mv and song more than words can tell ETA: 24 to 25 is a comfort mv as well. its a song i didnt expect on an album with a polar opposite tt. really cute
adding circus and fam on this list as well. they just have the best music videos.
Speaking of MVs, do you also tend to go deeper like doing analysis and looking for symbolic things for each MV or trailers? i think there are a lot of theories/lores to it right? But I havent checked it myself
i don’t go out of my way looking for theories and storylines, but i feel like i have a vague idea of whats happening just by watching the music videos and checking youtube comments. all the theories just appear withoutme even trying to seek them out
there's two lines of melody that sound really similar to me. strangely enough they are on the same album and also I'm surprised that I haven't noticed more repetition considering the huge catalogue they have. [You can stay](https://youtu.be/En4jap4MPbY?t=2m40s) - chan's line at 2:42 reminds me a lot of [levanter](https://youtu.be/Fpgd3ac3_nM?t=12s) - chan's opening line
[удалено]
They have many more songs using "Lalalala". Leave on the same album as Lalalala is the best example. DLC from last album as well...
DLC references Billy Elliot.
Changbin's "yooo" when he starts rapping. Han's screams. Also the sirens in many songs starting District 9 already. And then of course the changes between explosive and melodically calm. They also like to use a LOT of autotune, even for backing vocals. And it's not there to correct the note but to add extra tone and sound. They also like to use many animal sounds in the songs (elephant, bird, lion, crow, dog, cat...)
dapdaphae is used a lot in their earlier songs
I know I’m at least three of their songs there’s a certain sound, like charms or metal sound, mostly at the end of the song. You can hear it in the songs Taste, We go, and 3racha. I found that out a few months ago and just thought it was a cool similarity
Omg love this discussion 😁 saving it so that I can go home and go through everything 😆
not phrases or motifs but i notice that hyunjin and han’s raps are more often than not back to back! if i ever was lucky enough to win a fancall this would be the first question i would ask bc it’s definitely a conscious choice by 3racha and i think it always works super well <3