Melanie Martinez

Growing up with a love for music, Melanie Martinez started singing and playing the guitar when she was three years old. She tried breaking into the music industry by recording and uploading her own song on YouTube such as “Birthing Addicts”, “Smoke” and “I Think I’m Crazy” (Duncan, 2017). Fast forward to 2012, Martinez auditioned for the third season of The Voice, where she sang her own rendition of “Toxic” by Britney Spears’ (Downs, 2017). She subsequently made it through the audition rounds where she joined Team Adam, that was the group being mentored by the Lead Singer of Maroon 5, Adam Levin. Martinez ended up being eliminated on the fifth week of the show, yet has remained as one of the biggest successes from the TV program.

Following her success on The Voice, Martinez eventually manage to break into the music industry and was signed to Atlantic Records in 2014. Through her experiences on the show, the singer released her first single, "Dollhouse," in February 2014, which was complemented by a gloomy and eerie music video that set the tone for her later work. Martinez's first single also charted at #4 on the Billboard Heatseekers Album Chart for up and coming musical acts, serving as a very successful stepping stone for her debut album, Cry Baby (Downs, 2017).

Melanie Martinez. Courtesy of Adam Elmakias via Atlantic Records.

Cry Baby

Martinez's debut album, Cry Baby, was released in August 2015 and currently has over 2 billion streams worldwide, even coming in first on the Billboard Alternative Albums Chart (Phillips, 2021). Cry Baby was later certified platinum two years after its release, and 11 of the 13 songs were awarded gold or platinum by the RIAA. Songs from the album - “Carousel” as well as “Dollhouse” were also used in the trailers for American Horror Story: Freak Show and Pretty Little Liars respectively (Palko, 2019). Manders (2015) describes the album that tackles the combination of adulterous parents, complex relationships, and drugs and addiction, alongside carnival pop as unsettling, but addictive enough to keep listeners returning for more—like candy. Her song title choices for this album are all innocent words and phrases that children are familiar with, such as, “Tag, you’re it”, “Teddy Bear”, and “Milk and Cookies”. However, the Cry Baby album, instead, explores the existential dilemmas that young adults encounter, where the lyrics are a strange mix of childhood innocence, adolescent anguish, and adult cynicism, and are performed over haunting synths and hard-hitting hip-hop beats (Rosenzweig, 2016). Cry Baby, was also Martinez’s alter ego character.

To pick a favorite song out of the Cry Baby album would definitely not be a piece of Cake! But I’d have to say Mrs. Potato Head left a lasting impression on me. Coincidentally, that song is also Martinez’s favorite from the debut album! This song highlights how society can have a detrimental impact on our youth's body image and how it promotes a culture that demands you must look a specific way to be viewed as beautiful (Graves, 2016). Revolving on how young girls and society view cosmetic surgery, the song suggests that it's simply not worth the price to pay to start cutting and altering how you look because one may eventually regret becoming someone they're not. In an interview with Vice (2015), Martinez shared that she envisioned the song to represent plastic surgery with the thought of a children’s toy where you can remove and rearrange pieces of the face. She further added that the song had no intentions to criticize women who undergo cosmetic procedures, but rather to question why they do it in the first place, even though they are already gorgeous without it.

K-12

K-12 Album Cover.

Four years after her 2015 debut album, Cry Baby, came the birth of K-12 (K through 12), her brand-new album that is accompanied by a 96-minute movie musical containing dialogue, special effects, and a unifying narrative. K-12 is a visual concept album that continued the exploration of childlike concepts from the previous. Instead of focusing entirely on the Cry Baby (Martinez’s alter ego) character, the album emphasizes and centers around her environment. Martinez explains that the listeners are not learning about her (Cry Baby); but instead, are learning about the area she's in and as well as her various perspectives (Palko, 2019). The K-12 album eventually charted #3 on the SoundScan/Billboard 200. In addition, the album also climbed to success, with it being the #1 Alternative album, #1 Soundtrack album, #1 LP Vinyl album, #2 Pop album, and #3 Top album. Globally, this album entered the Top 10 in Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Spain, Ireland, and New Zealand. The K-12 musical film proceeded to place the cherry on top of the cake by surpassing 20million views on YouTube, in just the span of one week (Charpentier, 2019). The basis of the album focuses on a variety of subjects such as eating disorders, gender stereotypes, bullying, sexualization of female bodies, race, body positivity, and affirmation (Wass, 2019). Show & Tell, uncovers the truth about being “famous”, where one is just a product in exchange for business and money. She directs attention to how everything is now designed for pleasure and entertainment, and nothing is real and authentic anymore. Detention, also a location where individuals are wronged, disciplined, and required to justify their behavior, describes how one is being placed in the spotlight by revealing the offense committed, for everyone to see and humiliate. Strawberry Shortcake, addresses the uncomfortable realities of school uniform requirements, causing distress in females and making them feel uncomfortable in their bodies as a result of the overwhelming sexual emotions and ideas perpetuated by men. Personally, my favorite song from the K-12 album would have to be Lunchbox Friends, it is simply catchy, and it talks about forming genuine friendships and connection in school that lasts forever.

Despite the dark lyrics in all her songs, Melanie Martinez is a fixture in the bedroom pop genre, even appearing on the Pop Rising Spotify playlist in 2016 and 2020 (Phillips, 2021). Martinez has not released anything since 2 years ago, however, she continues to rack in over 12 million listeners monthly, definitely with me being one of them! I completely love the way that Martinez connects with her listeners by making use of childlike themes and linking it to the realities of what many teenagers and adolescents go through. Discovering her during my growing up years has definitely impacted me and will continue to do so as I further dissect and analyze her music and lyrics due to the music’s ability to be differently interpreted through different life phases.

Written as a Music Journal at the University at Buffalo, 2022.