Critical Analysis of K-12 by Melanie Martinez PDF

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Analyse an album or EP of choice, researching and critically evaluating rhythm, rhyme schemes and structure of lyrics. ...

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Critical Analysis of Melanie Martinez’s K-12 Melanie Martinez continues to represent the fictional identity known as CryBaby1 by releasing K-122 on 5th September 2019, a new album accompanied by a film of the same name. The title K-123 ( a reference to America’s school system, “kindergarten 12 th grade”4) offers an overview of Melanie’s development since her first album release. Unlike her first single release ‘Dollhouse’ 5, Melanie has departed from the traditional commercial path by releasing the album altogether. This aided a popular response- after four years absent from the media- “an eternity in today’s record-quick, release-quicker climate.”6 Melanie addresses several themes such as: bullying, gender roles, eating disorders and the music industry. The Musical Hype review has called it “a thoughtful, well-rounded, conceptual affair”.7 In contrast to her previous album Crybaby8, Melanie has approached her new release with a dissimilar mind, attempting to authenticate her lyrics by presenting them sonically. It becomes clear that her lyrics are a window into her ideologies, expressing her views through complicated structures and sonic identities. In an interview, Melanie discusses her album and how she began “picking out all these sounds to try build it out, so you could really hear it in a way that you could see it.” 9 Melanie employs these production techniques in ‘Show and Tell’ 10 when the introduction begins with cranking sounds, followed by an ambience of children laughing and toys squeaking. The internal rhyme of “hair/nowhere”11 is exemplified through the pauses between each word, ending with the identical rhyme of “there” followed. The use of internal rhyme and slow vocalisation allows us to listen more intently as Melanie demonstrates her frustration toward the industry and her fanbase. The flash of cameras is narratively captured within the video and are sonically expressed when Melanie exaggerates her pitch to convey this sadness to her audience. Each word is followed with a gesture or a specific movement, portraying Melanie as though she is a puppet acting upon each word. Melanie also begins to systematically question her own lyrics during the pre-chorus after asking “why is it so hard to see?” 12 and almost whispering by repeating “why?”. This is reiterated in the second line when she whispers “ouch” after stating “if I cut myself, I would bleed”13, using additive rhyme of “see/bleed”14. Melanie breaks the fourth wall by asking, “Are you listening yet?” 15, capturing our 1 Melanie Martinez, Crybaby, Atlantic Records, 2015. 2 Melanie Martinez, K-12, Atlantic Records, 2019. 3 Melanie Martinez, K-12, Atlantic Records, 2019. 4 "K-12 Definition And Meaning | Collins English Dictionary", Collinsdictionary.Com, https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/k-12 [Accessed 3/11/2019]. 5 Melanie Martinez, ‘Dollhouse,’ from Crybaby, Atlantic Records, 2015. 6 Elias Leight, ‘Melanie Martinez Didn’t Release an Album for 4 Years, But She’s Bigger Than Ever’, Rolling Stone, 6th September 2019, https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/melanie-martinez-k-12-albumyoutube-880480/ [Accessed 3/11/2019]. 7 The Musical Hyper, ‘Melanie Martinez, K-12 | Album Review � - The Musical Hype’, The Musical Hype, 10th September 2019, https://themusicalhype.com/melanie-martinez-k-12-album-review/ [Accessed 3/11/2019]. 8 Melanie Martinez, CryBaby, Atlantic Records, 2015. 9 Mike Wass, » Interview: Melanie Martinez On ‘K-12’ & Stepping Into Her Power", (Idolator.com, 2019) https://www.idolator.com/7872524/melanie-martinez-interview-k-12?edge=1 [Accessed 3/11/2019]. 10 Melanie Martinez, ‘Show and Tell,’ from K-12, Atlantic Records, 2019. 11 Melanie Martinez, ‘Show and Tell,’ from K-12, Atlantic Records, 2019. 12 Melanie Martinez, ‘Show and Tell,’ from K-12, Atlantic Records, 2019. 13 Melanie Martinez, ‘Show and Tell,’ from K-12, Atlantic Records, 2019. 14 Melanie Martinez, ‘Show and Tell,’ from K-12, Atlantic Records, 2019. 15 Melanie Martinez, ‘Show and Tell,’ from K-12, Atlantic Records, 2019.

attention by using the word “you”. By using a first-person narrative, she is projecting these anxieties onto her listeners. The cranks progress the story perfectly as we can imagine the beginning of a show, while Melanie dresses like a puppet and is controlled by her teacher. This may be symbolic of the industry, as she begins expressing her hunger for privacy and discussing the “feeling of being trapped.”16 Melanie looks defeated in the music video as she sings, “You beg and cry for more/and yet I’m on the floor/There are stranger’s takin’ pictures of me when I ask “No more””17. Repeating “more” expresses her outcry for the subject as well as the perfect rhyme of “floor”. The playful tone of the song becomes apparent when the chorus begins, presenting an AABB scheme, adding expression by her use of vibrato on the words “tell/sell”18. By prolonging words, it further expresses the need to entertain and conform to the industries standards of being an artist; exemplifies her perceived duty to entertain her fanbase, despite possible personal disinterest in this cause. Hennion has argued “while listeners frequently claim to remember the melody of a song more than any other aspect of it, the accompaniment and/or arrangement was usually the real root of a song’s appeal.”19 The appeal and remembrance we take from this song becomes the playful melody, in an apparent juxtaposition with the seriousness of the lyrics, and how this song relates most to Melanie on a personal level. The end of the chorus addresses a more serious side of the music industry by suggesting, “Art don’t sell/unless you’ve fucked every authority.”20 It is unclear if this line relates to Melanie in comparison to the rest of the lyrics as there are no connotations regarding her sexual practice elsewhere. However, “society/authority”21 seems purposely linked together with a perfect rhyme as Melanie refers to the lack of feminine power, in a heavily lead masculine industry. The themes of body shaming and femininity is also confronted within ‘Strawberry Shortcake’. 22 Melanie seems to confront a more delicate topic, using visual representation to convey an eating disorder. During the chorus, Melanie enforces the idea of the “male gaze”23 , referring to her body as an object that men can “grab” and change whenever they want. It “denotes the patriarchal dominance that pressurizes women to conform to physical appearances that please the male understanding of beauty.”24 Melanie repeats, “It’s my fault” and “That’s my bad”25 twice within the chorus, using her own perspective to argue her case. She further uses plosives of ‘d’ and ‘’b’ to rhyme “bad” with “grab”26, highlighting the gravity of aggression more openly. There is a sense of vulnerability by refraining from her usual rhyme scheme throughout the verse and using a subtractive rhyme instead. This could be intentional, as it seems to become more of a statement. In the music video, Melanie stands with her upper torso completely exposed. However, her nipples have been edited out, depriving the main sexualised aspect of a woman’s upper body as Melanie 16 Alyson Stokes, “Melanie Martinez Takes On Her Darkest Vulnerabilities In ‘K-12’ Film”, Alternative Press, 6 th September 2019, https://www.altpress.com/features/melanie-martinez-k-12-film-review-interview/ [30/10/2019]. 17 Melanie Martinez, ‘Show and Tell,’ from K-12, Atlantic Records, 2019. 18 Melanie Martinez, ‘Show and Tell,’ from K-12, Atlantic Records, 2019. 19 Antoine Hennion, "The Production Of Sucess: An Antimusicology Of The Pop Song", In: On Record: Rock, Pop And The Written Word, (London: Routledge, 1990), 185-206. 20 Melanie Martinez, ‘Show and Tell,’ from K-12, Atlantic Records, 2019. 21 Melanie Martinez, ‘Show and Tell,’ from K-12, Atlantic Records, 2019. 22 Melanie Martinez, ‘Strawberry Shortcake,’ from K-12, Atlantic Records, 2019. 23 Laura Mulvey, ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,’ Screen, Issue 3, (Oxford University Press: 1975), https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/16.3.6 6-18 24 Heggenstaller, et al., "Reflecting On Female Beauty: Cosmetic Surgery And (Dis)Empowerment". Qualitative Sociology Review 14 (4): 48-65. doi:10.18778/1733-8077.14.4.04. 2019. 25 Melanie Martinez, ‘Strawberry Shortcake,’ from K-12, Atlantic Records, 2019. 26 Melanie Martinez, ‘Strawberry Shortcake,’ from K-12, Atlantic Records, 2019.

explains, “The body is moreso [stet] being looked at as a dessert instead of a work of art that should be respected and valued.”27 She seems to be symbolising the female body by using props and costumes to create this feminine vision, as well as issues into the societal expectations of a female. It is argued, “femininity is not a fixed set of characteristics (…) but rather a wardrobe of masks and poses to be assumed.”28 Wearing a costume that represents a ‘Strawberry Shortcake’ enforces this sense of role-play and using this pose has enabled Melanie to explore the rawness of femininity. Melanie began writing K1229 from 2015 until her release in 2019. During this period, Melanie was accused of sexual assault by her former best friend who had stated, “when I wrote this story about my assault, I initially wasn’t going to make the abuser. But I think it’s important for you all to know this is about Melanie Martinez.”30 It may be seen that these accusations influenced Melanie’s writing, enough to write about it in ‘Strawberry Shortcake’ 31. It may not just merely aim toward the male population, but rather her friend or a society as a whole. ‘Orange Juice’32 also presents the theme of body shaming, using sonic details of water that visually and symbolically demonstrate a bathroom scene within the content of the lyrics. Melanie almost directs her lyrics stating, “Enter there, then spit it out of you”33, as though she is attempting to break the fourth wall by pointing out where to “enter” the orange juice. The post-chorus is then pronounced as “ee, ah, ee, ah, oj”34, which could be argued is the sound of regurgitation. The robotic effect on the vocals of “no orange juice”35 before this, may demonstrate the other character in the story that is going through “bulimia”36, as it is the only part of the song that lacks first person perspective. Stokes argues her creation is “jarring with the juxtaposition of harmless imagery paired with a darker storyline”37, playing on the seriousness of her ideologies within her lyrics. Her listeners have argued she is “covering some taboo subjects” that “artists wouldn’t touch”. 38 This contract of playfulness and seriousness is seen with the production’s portrayal of the nursery rhyme ‘Wheels on the Bus’. 39 This may connect listeners emotionally as they resemble traditional nursery rhymes with childhood experiences. Bicknell argues how “We tend to feel more strongly 27 Llana Kaplan, “From Evil Nurses To Shortcake Attacks: Exploring The Wild World Of Melanie Martinez's 'K12'", (Billboard 2019) https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/8527955/melanie-martinez-k-12-crybaby-album-interview [Accessed 1/11/2019]. 28 Miell, Dorothy, Raymond A. R MacDonald, and David J Hargreaves, “Musical Communication”, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005). 29 Melanie Martinez, K-12, Atlantic Records, 2019. 30 Timethy Heller, on “Twitter” in 2017, Twitter.com, https://twitter.com/timethyheller/status/937817806216691713?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp %5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E937817806216691713&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.inquisitr.com %2F4664593%2Fmelanie-martinez-rape%2F [Accessed 2/11/2019] 31 Melanie Martinez, ‘Strawberry Shortcake,’ in K-12, Atlantic Records, 2019. 32 Melanie Martinez, ‘Orange Juice,’ in K-12, Atlantic Records, 2019. 33 Melanie Martinez, ‘Orange Juice,’ in K-12, Atlantic Records, 2019. 34 Melanie Martinez, ‘Orange Juice,’ in K-12, Atlantic Records, 2019. 35 Melanie Martinez, ‘Orange Juice,’ in K-12, Atlantic Records, 2019. 36 Melanie Martinez, ‘Orange Juice,’ in K-12, Atlantic Records, 2019. 37 Alyson Stokes, "Melanie Martinez Takes On Her Darkest Vulnerabilities In ‘K-12’ Film", (Alternative Press, 2019), https://www.altpress.com/features/melanie-martinez-k-12-film-review-interview/ [Accessed 29/10/2019]. 38 “College Kids React To Melanie Martinez- K-12 (The Film)”, Video, YouTube.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBbTjKL_wnI [Accessed 2/11/2019] (9.50s). 39 Melanie Martinez, ‘Wheels on the Bus,’ in K-12, Atlantic Records, 2019. Re-imagined from the original nursery rhyme ‘Wheels on the Bus’.

about music that we already have some connection to, and familiar music may also accompany personal memories.”40 By comparing a childhood rhyme with lyrics that express sexual perversion from the bus driver, it is hard to argue against critical reception that is drawn from Melanie’s song. Critics claim that “she glamorises and romanticises mental health problems through her dreamy aesthetics and that she is guilty of sexualising children by means of her Crybaby character.” 41 She internally rhymes “hand/pants”42 while referring to the bus driver observing this behaviour and “peeking”43. Though, Melanie argues that, “If you have issues with my music and art […] you should just stop watching it. Because quite frankly, you. Just. Don't. Get. It..”44 Melanie is in fact confronting some dark imagery and hard-hitting subjects in a way that she seems most comfortable to. By reimagining a world where her character can develop through school, Melanie has also used this character to explore her own development as an artist. Overall, it may be said that Melanie is attempting to show the justice that she believes society should confront, using her considerable influence to have a positive impact in the way that most (if not all) artists aim to.

Word Count: 1,520 References: Bicknell, Jeanette. 2009. Why Music Moves Us. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

40 Jeanette Bicknell, “Why Music Movies Us”, (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan), 2009. 41 Katie Smith, “Melanie Martinez Just Clapped Back At Critics Who Say She’s “Glamorising Mental Health Issues”.” Pop Buzz. https://www.popbuzz.com/music/artists/melanie-martinez/news/glamorising-mentalhealth-issues-critics/ [Accessed 1/11/2019]. 42 Melanie Martinez, ‘Wheels on the Bus,’ from K-12, Atlantic Records, 2019. 43 Melanie Martinez, ‘Wheels on the Bus,’ from K-12, Atlantic Records, 2019. 44 Melanie Martinez, On Instagram, “If You Don't Like Pop Surrealism You Probably Won't Like Me. If You Can't Understand That Visual Art Has A Deeper Meaning And You Only Look…”", https://www.instagram.com/p/BZeLsJzlwXa/. [Accessed 2/11/2019].

Caulfield, Keith. 2019. "Post Malone Scores Second No. 1 Album On Billboard 200 With 'Hollywood's Bleeding'". Billboard. https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/chart-beat/8530004/postmalone-hollywoods-bleeding-No1-debut-billboard-200-chart. College Kids React To Melanie Martinez - K-12 (The Film). 2019. Video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBbTjKL_wnI. (9.50s) Heggenstaller, Alessandra K., Asta Rau, Jan K. Coetzee, Anne Ryen, and Ria Smit. 2019. "Reflecting On Female Beauty: Cosmetic Surgery And (Dis)Empowerment". Qualitative Sociology Review 14 (4): 4865. doi:10.18778/1733-8077.14.4.04. Heller, Timethy. 2017. "Twitter". Twitter.Com. https://twitter.com/timethyheller/status/937817806216691713?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp %5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E937817806216691713&ref_url=https%3A%2F %2Fwww.inquisitr.com%2F4664593%2Fmelanie-martinez-rape%2F. Hennion, Antoine. 1990. "The Production Of Sucess: An Antimusicology Of The Pop Song". In: On Record: Rock, Pop And The Written Word, London: Routledge. "K-12 Definition And Meaning | Collins English Dictionary". Collinsdictionary.Com. https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/k-12. Kaplan, Llana. 2019. "From Evil Nurses To Shortcake Attacks: Exploring The Wild World Of Melanie Martinez's 'K-12'". Billboard. https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/8527955/melaniemartinez-k-12-cry-baby-album-interview. Leight, Elias. 2019. "Melanie Martinez Didn’T Release An Album For 4 Years, But She’S Bigger Than Ever". Rolling Stone. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/melanie-martinez-k-12album-youtube-880480/. Martinez, Melanie. 2017. "Melanie Martinez On Instagram: “If You Don't Like Pop Surrealism You Probably Won't Like Me. If You Can't Understand That Visual Art Has A Deeper Meaning And You Only Look…”". Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/BZeLsJzlwXa/. Martinez, Melanie, CryBaby, Atlantic Records, 14th August, 2015. Martinez, Melanie, K-12, Atlantic Records, 5th September, 2019. Martinez, Melanie, ‘Dollhouse,’ from CryBaby, Atlantic Records, 9th February, 2015. Martinez, Melanie, ‘Orange Juice,’ from K-12, Atlantic Records, 5th September, 2019. Martinez, Melanie, ‘Show and Tell,’ from K-12, Atlantic Records, 5th September, 2019. Martinez, Melanie, ‘Strawberry Shortcake,’ from K-12, Atlantic Records, 5th September, 2019. Martinez, Melanie, ‘Wheels on the Bus,’ from K-12, Atlantic Records, 5th September, 2019. "Melanie Martinez, K-12 | Album Review � - The Musical Hype". 2019. The Musical Hype. https://themusicalhype.com/melanie-martinez-k-12-album-review/. Miell, Dorothy, Raymond A. R MacDonald, and David J Hargreaves. 2005. Musical Communication. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Mulvey, Laura. 1975. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”. Screen. Issue 3. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/16.3.6.

Reynolds, Simon, and Joy Press. 1996. The Sex Revolts. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. Smith, Katie. 2019. “Melanie Martinez Just Clapped Back At Critics Who Say She’s “Glamorising Mental Health Issues”. Pop Buzz. https://www.popbuzz.com/music/artists/melaniemartinez/news/glamorising-mental-health-issues-critics/ Stokes, Alyson. 2019a. "Melanie Martinez Takes On Her Darkest Vulnerabilities In ‘K-12’ Film". Alternative Press. https://www.altpress.com/features/melanie-martinez-k-12-film-review-interview/. Stokes, Alyson. 2019b. "Melanie Martinez Takes On Her Darkest Vulnerabilities In ‘K-12’ Film". Alternative Press. https://www.altpress.com/features/melanie-martinez-k-12-film-review-interview/. Wass, Mike. 2019. "» Interview: Melanie Martinez On ‘K-12’ & Stepping Into Her Power". Idolator.Com. https://www.idolator.com/7872524/melanie-martinez-interview-k-12?edge=1. Link to Album: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=XAVFWtus75k&list=OLAK5uy_nn8VvFrtyjj36dIEWabQZoV5i75VVI7EM&index=2...