Teenage Angst in Eight Part Harmony | “BEWARE (Grrr Law of Total Madness)” by Stray Kids
I absolutely love music. That should not come as a surprise. And one small part of the reason why is that even a song that is written by teenagers for…
I absolutely love music. That should not come as a surprise. And one small part of the reason why is that even a song that is written by teenagers for teenagers about the experience of being a teenager can still apply to me, a 28 year old who is a good 15 years past puberty and still feels like I could bite anyone who looks at me funny sometimes.
Enter BEWARE (Grrr, Law of Total Madness). Like all of the songs on Mixtape, this was a song written for and performed during the Stray Kids “survival show” before their debut. It was unveiled and performed during episode 10, the last performance to determine if they would debut as seven or nine. It was their final performance of the live show, a new song prepared specifically for all nine of them.
Before I get into the content too much, let’s look at the lyrics.
Note: I’ve used the English translations for Mixtape (from the official performance video) but the lyric distribution from SKZ2020 OT8 version. I could not find English translations for SKZ2020 anywhere, but from what I could find, no lyrics were changed. If some lyric distributions are incorrect, that’s my error (and my inability to tell if Hangul is bolded/italicized or not).
Couple disclaimers: I’m a pretty new STAY, and I don’t speak Korean. I am using my limited SKZ knowledge and the English translations from the official performance video. These are my own thoughts based on those translations and not meant to be a definitive interpretation.
Here is the audio to listen to as your read the lyrics.
The discussion of the meaning behind this song is fairly brief in the survival show. Chan reveals the name of the song Grrr, Law of Total Madness (Kor. 총량의 법칙) to the rest of the group and Changbin makes a comment about it being on Wikipedia (which I find hilarious, by the way). I couldn’t find this specific phrase on Wikipedia myself (in Korean or English) outside of pages about Stray Kids.
What I could find when searching Google was this sort of theory that I couldn’t find an origin for, translated as the Law of Conservation. The theory is that you have a set amount of things in your life – happiness, suffering, anger – and once you use them all up, you don’t have any left. For example, if you suffer a lot in your youth, you’ll have a comfortable adulthood/old age.
And that’s sort of how Changbin explains it too: “There is a certain amount of anger that a person can let out.” And at the end of the day, this song is about anger and rebellion and how they’re normal parts of life, specifically of a teenager’s life. It’s very common for teenagers going through puberty to lash out. You have all these new emotions and hormones and changes happening and it can be really overwhelming.
And I think that’s what the message of this song really boils down to: This is normal. Anger is normal. It’s a normal part of being a teenager and growing up, and they want understanding instead of condescension and suffocation. And with the background of this theory (if that’s what they are referring to), it’s sort of a positive, too. You’re “using up” all of your anger in your youth so you don’t have any left later.
This song is so much teenage angst masking this deep, desperate desire to be understood. I love it. I think it encapsulates this concept so well. Angry teenagers lashing out because they’re feeling suffocated or written off and don’t know how to explain all of these emotions and pressure or this desire to connect and be understood.
There’s so much self awareness of this in the lyrics:
My condition, talk, behavior / They all get reversed though I know they should not
Even I don’t know what will happen / I keep on barking today
Though I know I’m not sane / Please understand me
They know. They know they’re reacting badly and “biting” at everyone, no matter who they are. And they are begging for understanding, for true empathy. (Not apathetic empathy – what a phrase! Clichés or offhanded or insincere “sorry, that sucks” can feel really grating.)
A couple lines also sound sarcastic or passive aggressive but are really deep or heartbreaking. What a relatable way to react when you’re tired of trying to explain yourself and getting talked down to or not listened to.
This is where I find it so relatable, because this can be applied to any phase of life, really. I have anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder with an emphasis in Social Anxiety – love that for me). And when my anxiety is high – for an explainable reason or because it’s just decided to rear its ugly head that day – I get irritable. I get snappy. I bite and tear.
And I am fully aware of it. I know I’m being a jerk or lashing out or saying things I don’t mean and/or in a way that is very hurtful. I often apologize in the moment because I hear myself and think “What the heck? Where did that come from?” I don’t want to be angry. But that is the emotion I’m feeling.
And it’s literally that first line: My head is a mess. My brain has decided to revolt, and it’s making me feel weird. And I get angry, because I don’t know how to process it or get it to go away. Or I get really emotional (ask me how many times I’ve cried over random SKZ videos when I’m emotionally and mentally overwhelmed). I just want people to understand that I’m not feeling ok. But my bid for connection comes out as frustration at the person I’m talking to.
I really love that this song is titled BEWARE. A lot of this song is them saying “Hey, I’m going to lash out. Here’s why. I want you to try to understand me. And when you don’t try, when you’re apathetic or condescending or try to fix me, you’re going to be bitten.” I will absolutely give my husband a heads up sometimes like “Hey, in a crappy mood today. Please be kind and don’t take anything I say too seriously.”
And this metaphor of biting and tearing is brilliant. We, unfortunately, can’t communicate with dogs. We have a bit of an understanding; we can guess. But the reality is that we do not speak dog. And sometimes when a dog (or any animal, really) is scared or annoyed or overwhelmed, they lash out. They snap. They bark. They bite. That is how they communicate to us “hey, leave me alone” or “stop that.”
And going back to this all being normal, it is normal. As much as we villainize it, anger is a normal human emotion. It’s often in response to feeling betrayed or being treated poorly. Teenagers (and everyone else) are going to get angry or volatile sometimes. Feeling and processing that emotion (and all negative emotions) is good, as long as it’s done in a healthy way. But no one is perfect at processing emotions in a healthy way.
And even the healthy ways aren’t always…helpful? I really got stuck on the line “I want the power to wreck this situation / Thousands of push ups are useless.” A really common way that we talk about “letting out” anger is through physical exertion – a punching bag, running laps, yelling. And don’t get me wrong, those work sometimes. There is a very real correlation between mental and physical health.
But I liked this line, another little sarcastic/passive aggressive “but that doesn’t work for me” comment. Frustration and a confession – “The solution you’ve given me isn’t working. Please listen and give me another suggestion.”
Of course, the music and choreography embody this concept so well. Both are intense and striking. There’s one point where they’re literally “dragging” each other across the floor, and there are so many explosive moves showing that anger.
During the line “I want you to understand me,” they cross their arms and nod their head. And I think that’s also a great physical expression of the “sincerity wrapped in sarcasm” theme. Crossed arms can be very snarky and rebellious while the head nod and actual words being sung lean more toward wanting connection.
I am seriously so impressed with this depth of storytelling so early on. JYP commented on these songs in the survival show after they performed them and summed it up really well. He said that they didn’t try to be too mature and they wove their own stories in seamlessly.
That’s really a strength that they have – using their own experiences in a very specific thing and making it universal. If you read my post on “Hellevator,” you’ll know that was my experience was similar with that song. I have never been and never will be a K-Pop trainee, but I understand fighting through what feels like hell for a dream in spite of people telling you that you shouldn’t. I am not a teenage going through puberty, but I understand anger and expressing it in “biting” and “tearing” instead of through genuine connection. Yet another masterpiece.
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