How Stray Kids became the boy band we know and love!

How Stray Kids became the boy group we know and love!

Author: Helen Bosch / Sep 02, 2021

K-Pop Blog > Artists > Stray Kids

Stray Kids is at the top of the list of the most successful K-pop groups in the world! The boy band is so famous that it's almost unnecessary to introduce them. Fans around the world know the names of the eight members: Bang Chan, Changbin, Hyunjin, Han, Seungmin, I.N., Lee Know and Felix. They owe their success to hits like “S-Class”, “God’s Menu” and “Thunderous”. Stray Kids is also one of the few K-pop groups that write their own songs!

We take a look back at Stray Kids' creation and their rapid rise to the top of the charts:

• Survival Show “Stray Kids”
• Stray Kids Debüt
• 2019 - Woojin leaves Stray Kids
• The members
• 2020 - Go Live, In Life & All In
• 2021 - Kingdom: Legendary War
• 2022 - Maniac World Tour
• 2023 - New records in Japan and Korea
• Mixtape Project

Stray Kids are Bang Chan, Changbin, Hyunjin, Han, Seungmin, I.N., Lee Know and Felix; We can't imagine it any other way. Nevertheless, things almost turned out differently.

Survival Show “Stray Kids” (Pre-Debüt)

In August 2017, JYP Entertainment announced a new survival show called “Stray Kids” in which a boy band would be formed. This would follow in the footsteps of other JYP stars like GOT7 or Twice. On October 7, 2017, before the first episode was broadcast, the trainees released their first self-written song “Hellevator” with its own music video. The boys already convinced K-pop fans of their talent, who have been eagerly waiting for the show's premiere ever since. They didn't have to wait long because “Stray Kids” officially started on October 17th.

The first episode gives an exciting look behind the scenes and shows how J.Y. Park selects who will debut through the survival show. He had to choose between Stray Kids, then called the “Male Project Team”, and a female trainee team called “2TEAM”. He ultimately chose the boys team.

In 2019, a few members of “2Team” debuted as ITZY. However, her path to debut was not captured in a survival show.

The Male Project Team was special from the start because, unlike most other K-pop groups, it was not formed by the agency.

Instead, the oldest trainee, Bang Chan, put together the team himself, consisting of a total of nine members. Things really started after the first episode, because from then on the nine members had to prove in various missions that they were ready for their debut. To the horror of the fans, only Lee Know, who was still using his real name “Lee Minho” at the time, and Felix shortly before the finale were eliminated.

While the remaining seven trainees were preparing for the all-important live show, Park Jin Young surprised them with the return of Minho and Felix. He felt the group was incomplete without them and wanted to give them one last chance. In the live show, the trainees should perform in groups of seven or nine for a direct comparison and fans should also vote for which formation they like better. So they did; An overwhelming majority of 96% were in favor of the debut with all nine members! JYP was also ultimately convinced and confirmed on December 19th, in the show's finale, that all nine trainees would debut together.

But before that happened, the boy band released the pre-debut album “Mixtape”:

The album contains seven songs, all written and composed by the members themselves. The group had already performed some of the songs on the Survival Show. “Hellevator” is also included on the album.

“Hellevator” was the first Stray Kids song ever released, but back in 2016 a few of the members uploaded their own music:

3Racha

3RACHA is a hip-hop unit with three members: Bang Chan, Changbin and Han. These three teamed up early on and uploaded their first mixtape with seven tracks to Soundcloud in January 2017. Their second album “3Days” was released on August 16th. Shortly before, JYP Entertainment announced that 3RACHA would compete in the survival show with six other trainees. But that wasn't the end of the unit. One day after the finale, in which Stray Kids' debut was confirmed, 3RACHA's third album “Horizon” was released. It was now clear at the latest that the unit would continue to exist.

On January 18, 2018, ten days after Stray Kids' mixtape was released, the trio released the special single "Start Line" on Soundcloud to celebrate 3RACHA's first anniversary. Since Stray Kids' debut, the unit has released three more singles: "Zone" in September 2018, "Carpe Diem" in January 2020 and "HEYDAY" in September 2022. The three were also featured on the single "JUST BREATHE" by the Japanese rapper SKY-HI can be heard.

You can find the Soundcloud account with all her songs here !

Although the trio rarely releases music as a unit anymore, Bang Chan, Changbin and Han continue to regularly write and compose songs together. To this day, their names can regularly be found in the credits for all tracks on Stray Kids' albums. They are often listed there under the name 3RACHA.

Stray Kids is one of the few K-Pop groups whose music is mainly produced by the members themselves!

Stray Kids Debüt

Stray Kids officially debuted on March 25, 2018 through a showcase in which they performed their new songs. The next day the debut album “I Am Not” was released along with the music video for the title song “District 9”.

A music video for “Grow Up” was also released on March 31st. “I Am Not” took fourth place on the Gaon Album Chart and marks the start of a three-part album series called “I Am”.

Each album was slightly more successful than its predecessor: “I Am You” even reached number 2 in the Gaon Charts! The “I Am” series also ended in 2018.

2019 - Woojin leaves Stray Kids

On March 25, 2019, the fourth album “Clé 1: Miroh” was released to celebrate Stray Kid’s first anniversary. The album topped the Gaon charts and the title song “Miroh” earned the boy band their first win on a music show! This also began another three-part series.

After Stray Kids gave nine concerts from January to May as part of their first world tour Unveil “I Am…”, they released “Clé 2: Yellow Wood” in June 2019. They then completed the tour with another five dates from July to September.

In September 2019, the boy band debuted again: this time in Japan!

Stray Kids released a compilation album titled “Unveil Stray Kids” on September 19th. It contains Japanese versions of some of their previously released Korean songs: all the title songs, “Hellevator” and some B-sides.

On October 9th, the digital single “Double Knot” was released, followed by an album preview for “Clé: Levanter”, the third part of the “Clé Album Series”. At the end of the month, however, the anticipation was dampened when JYP Entertainment announced that Woojin had left Stray Kids for personal reasons and the album release, originally scheduled for November 25th, was postponed to December 9th. Instead, a new single called “Astronaut” was released in November, the first without Woojin. Both “Double Knot” and “Astronaut” are included on “Clé: Levanter”.

The members

Since Woojin left the group, Stray Kids has been active with eight members:

Both Bang Chan and Felix have a connection to Australia. Felix was born there and Bang Chan moved to Australia as a child. Both came to Korea after being accepted as trainees at JYP Entertainment. Felix was eliminated from the survival show "Stray Kids" mainly because of his poor Korean, as he had not even lived in Korea for a year at the time.

Woojin made his solo debut with the mini album “Moment: A Minor” on August 5, 2020, almost a year after leaving Stray Kids.

2020 - Go Live, In Life & All In

After Stray Kids made their Japanese debut in 2019, the boy band released their first English single album “Step Out of Clé” in January 2020 with English versions of “Double Knot” and “Levanter”.

Six months after the end of the “Clé” series, on June 17, 2020, the first studio album “Go Live” followed with the title song “God's Menu”. The album was the first release to receive a platinum certification by the Gaon Chart for selling over 250,000 copies. “Go Live” topped the Gaon Album Charts and Stray Kids placed the album in the Gaon Download Charts for the first time!

This milestone was followed by Stray Kids’ no less successful first repackage album “In Life” on September 14th. Time magazine even included the title track "Back Door" as the only Korean song in its list of the "10 Best Songs of 2020"!

2020 was also a special year for Stray Kids’ Japanese fan base:

It started back in March 2020 with the second Japanese compilation album “SKZ2020”. Like its predecessor, this album also contains Japanese versions of previously released Korean songs.

A Japanese album with brand new songs was finally released in October! “All In” includes seven tracks: Japanese versions of “God`s Menu” and “Back Door” as well as the three new songs “Top”, “Slump” and “All In”. “Top” and “Slump” serve as the soundtrack for the anime “Tower of God”. All three songs were released in Korean shortly afterwards.

2021 - Kingdom: Legendary War

After “All in” fans had to wait ten months for a new album, but of course Stray Kids wasn't idle during that time. The boy band was featured in the music competition “Kingdom: Legendary War” from April to June! In the show, a total of six popular boy bands competed against each other to determine the real number one. It was the second season of the competition.

The first season titled “Road to Kingdom” aired in 2020. The winner from the first season - The Boyz - was allowed to compete again in the second season. In addition to Stray Kids and The Boyz, ATEEZ, BTOB, iKON and SF9 also took part in the show.

Unfortunately, Hyunjin wasn't there because he was taking a break at the time. The other seven members still gave it their all and won the final on June 3rd! The group won their own reality show as well as the special show “Kingdom Week” for their comeback.

Like all other contestants, Stray Kids released a new song for the show's finale. Stray Kids contribution is called “Wolfgang”.

Then everything happened very quickly: within just five months, Stray Kids presented three albums! The second studio album “Noeasy”, the first album of 2021, started on August 23rd! The single album “Christmas Evel” was released at the end of November and the third Japanese compilation album “SKZ2021” was released on December 23rd.

Noeasy in particular remains a special milestone in Stray Kids' career to this day:

Among other things, the album broke the pre-order record at the time by more than double! It was pre-ordered 930 thousand times. Previously, Stray Kids' record was 300 thousand pre-orders for “In Life”. It was also the first Stray Kids album to sell more than a million copies! But that wasn't just a personal record, as the boy band was actually JYP Entertainment's first artist to reach the million mark. The individual songs were also successful: all 14 tracks from the album placed in the top 40 of the Gaon Download Charts!

“Noeasy” clearly showed that Stray Kids has reached the top of the K-pop scene. In the years that followed, the boys proved again and again that they belonged there and gained even more fans!

2022 - Maniac World Tour

2022 was a packed and extremely successful year! Stray Kids released two Korean albums, each more successful than the last. “Oddinary” was released in March and “Maxident” in October. With Oddinary, Bangchan, Felix and Co. topped the American Billboard 200 chart for the first time! Stray Kids repeated this success immediately afterwards with Maxident.

After Oddinary, the boy band embarked on their second world tour “Maniac World Tour”, which spanned a whole year:

It began on April 29, 2022, included over 40 concerts in Asia, North America and Australia and ended on April 2, 2023.

Meanwhile, Stray Kids not only released Maxident, but also their second Japanese album “Circus” in June. Another Japanese compilation album followed in December, this time with the title “SKZ-Replay”.

2023 - New records in Japan and Korea

Stray Kids opened the new year at the end of February with their first Japanese studio album “The Sound”. For the first time, Stray Kids reached the top of the Oricon charts, impressively proving that they are also very popular in Japan.

Once the group reaches the top, they have no plans to leave. In fact, Stray Kids topped the Oricon charts again with their next Japanese album - Social Path/ Super Bowl (September 2023)!

The boys also celebrated new records and successes in Korea in 2023:

With the studio album 5-Star, Stray Kids shook up the K-Pop scene! The album broke records even before its release on May 30th, as it was pre-ordered over 5 million times, more than any other K-pop album before! The record was broken by Seventeen's mini album "Seventeenth Heaven" in October 2023, but it still remains an incredible achievement.

The other sales figures are also an absolute record: on the first day, fans bought almost 2.4 million copies of 5-Star and in the first week more than 4.6 million! The title track "S-Class" was awarded six Music Show trophies and won the award for "Best K-Pop Video" at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards in September.

5-Star is currently in second place on the list of best-selling K-Pop albums! First place goes to FML by Seventeen. But Stray Kids has already announced a new mini album called Rock-Star (樂-STAR), which will be released on November 10th, potentially shaking up the order again.

Stray Kids has already broken all sorts of records and established themselves as one of the most successful K-pop groups in the world. Nevertheless, they continue to surpass themselves and inspire fans not only with their music, but also with their passion. We're excited to see what the boy band will achieve in the future!

Mixtape Project

Since 2020, Stray Kids has released several mixtape singles, collectively referred to as the “Mixtape Project”. The singles were released independently of the group's albums, but are included on the next physical album, so fans can still listen to the songs on CD.

Fans know that the mixtape songs #1 - #5 are exclusively included on the physical versions of the two album series “I Am” and “Clé”. These five tracks are remakes of 3Racha's songs that were released before Stray Kids' debut. Not only Bang Chan, Changbin and Han, but all members can be heard in the remakes.

Bonus

Did you know that the songs “Road Not Taken” from “Clé 2: Yellow Wood” and “Stop” from “Clé: Levanter” belong together? “Stop” is an extension of “Road Not Taken” and follows on seamlessly from it. Some fans may have wondered why “Stop” sounds so familiar. Have you noticed?

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