“School Life” has a very different sound from the other songs on Mixtape. It’s a lot closer to bubblegum pop, bright and fun. But it still has some of the rebelliousness baked into the lyrics that makes it a Stray Kids song.
Just like “GLOW” this song was performed as part of the second mission in their “survival show.” This mission consisted of three units of three, built around the three members who JYP decided were at risk of elimination during mission one. “School Life” was I.N’s team, and he was grouped with Woojin and Han.
I.N’s main criticism from JYP was that he looked “amateur-ish.” I won’t…even get into all of the thoughts that I have about that criticism. This is not the place for that. But Han and Woojin worked closely with I.N to boost his confidence and help him with both rap and singing. Unfortunately, JYP ended up giving him the same criticism. But! He was not eliminated.
They went on to perform a slightly modified, eight member version (sans Lee Know) for their busking mission. And a nine person version was performed during the final mission as well. It was then, of course, recorded as nine and released as part of Mixtape.
Let’s take a look at the lyrics.
Note: This is one of the songs that has never been rerecorded as OT8. As such, the lyric distributions do include SKZ’s former member. And he will be discussed throughout this post, as he was a part of I.N’s team.
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 Genius. 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 you read the lyrics.
There’s not quite as much commentary on this as there was on “GLOW,” mostly because I think it’s pretty straight forward. It’s about school life!
Something I found really sweet, though, was Han talking about writing the lyrics in the survival show. He went to school in Malaysia, and so he didn’t know what school life felt like in Korea. So, he asked I.N and Woojin a bunch of questions and looked up stuff about in on the internet to make it feel authentic. A couple of the questions he asked I.N and Woojin were:
- Five minutes before lunch break?
- What do you think about on the way to school?
- Wasn’t it exciting to be a high school student?
This is sort of an aside, but about a month after the survival show ended, they aired an episode of The 9th. The 9th was an early YouTube series they did that was like a mix of SKZ Code and a vlog. They had asked the members what they wanted to do with the other members, and Han talked about kind of the same thing. He was envious of some of the younger members wearing uniforms and going to school together. And that he wanted to experience that. So, in that episode, they all wore school uniforms and went to an amusement park together.
I just found that really interesting and sweet. “School Life” is this push back of being in school. They’re annoyed with having to wake up and study and go to school every single day. And even Han himself says in the survival show that it’s about wanting to escape from that. But he also wanted that sense of normalcy with his members and wanted to feel like they were just normal kids all in their unforms going to the amusement park together.
Anyway, I’ll also point out that this song was added to after the initial performance during the second mission. Between the unit mission and the busking mission, they added the second refrain, the second pre-chorus, the interlude, the bridge, the post-bridge, the last repetition of the chorus, and the outro. That’s a pretty big chunk of the song that was not originally included. It’s not discussed in the show other than just converting it into an eight member version (sans Lee Know).
Lyrically, only the second refrain and second pre-chorus are new. The rest are repeats of the chorus, etc. But they all add quite a bit musically and thematically. And they allow for dance breaks that add a lot to the overall performance.
Content-wise, as I mentioned, it’s all pretty straightforward. They used a mix of very descriptive, tangible lyrics to portray getting up in the morning, going to school, starting class, lunch break, studying, etc. with some more metaphorical or abstract language as well. They talk about “battling numbers” in math class. Verse 2 mentions feeling small in the face of grades and having dreams and lunch hour making their heart flutter.
And verse 2, the second refrain, and second pre-chorus lean more into the rebellious side of them. I.N mentioned that in the Stray Kids x Happiness Train VLIVE that did right before Mixtape dropped. He said that it’s a bright, energetic song, but the lyrics have rebellious tones, too, which fit their image.
The best example is the exclamation in the first pre-chorus of 아 쌤 (Ah, Ssaem), which translates to “Ah, teach.” It’s a sort of slang version of 선생님 (Seonsaengmin), the formal way of addressing teachers. During the busking mission, one of the “secret observers” watching the performance remarked that the song was perfect for their age, and mentioned that specifically as an example. It very much catered to kids in school and positioned them as their peers.
Musically, it’s all upbeat. Pretty much from beginning to end, it’s peppy and bouncy. Only the interlude and outro really slow down, another way I think those additions really added to balance of the song.
And like I mentioned they allowed for more choreography, especially with eight and then nine people. The staging looks really different when there are three people as opposed to eight or nine. And the audience matters as well. For the unit mission, it was just JYP as the audience. For the busking and final missions, they had live crowds. I think the additions stood out in the best way.
I really love the choreo they do during the interlude. The music slows and they do this sort of slow mo robot/mannequin move that is so satisfying to watch. And the post-bridge, chorus, and outro show off their uniformity and also individuality in really interesting ways.
I started this out by saying that this song is really different than the other songs on Mixtape. And it is. Musically, it’s much more boppy and peppy. “Hellevator,” “BEWARE,” and “YAYAYA” are more powerful, a little darker, grungier. And “Spread My Wings,” “GLOW,” and “4419” are more lyrical and slow. But “School Life” still has so much in common with their overall image. It still has a little bit of rebellion in the lyrics. It echoes some of the same concepts as “BEWARE” about not being understood.
And really, it’s a great example to me of how well they jump between and bring together genres and themes, even if it doesn’t look like it on the surface.
Sources:
“School Life” from survival show busking mission
“School Life” from survival show final mission
“Stray Kids” Survival Show, specifically Ep. 3, 4, 8, and 10
Stray Kids x Happiness Train VLIVE
You can find post about the other songs on Mixtape here:
Back to the Beginning | “Hellevator” by Stray Kids
Teenage Angst in Eight Part Harmony | “BEWARE (Grrr Law of Total Madness)” by Stray Kids
Coming of Age: A Double-Edged Sward | “Spread My Wings” by Stray Kids
Back to the Future | “YAYAYA” by Stray Kids
Shining Brighter Because of the Darkness | “GLOW” by Stray Kids
Leave a Reply