If you’re not a late millennial or Gen-Zer, you may not know who Melanie Martinez is, so let me fill you in real quick. Basically, she’s a singer who first popped up when she was 16 on an episode of America’s Got Talent in 2012 and launched her music career from there. Since then, she’s blown up, becoming very popular with the alt community and teenagers, releasing her newest album “Portals” last year. I first found out about her when I was about 9 or 10 when I ran across her song “Show and Tell” on YouTube. I quickly forgot about her until last year when she started becoming relevant again online and I have some thoughts about her music.
#1: The Pacing
While I can agree that Melanie Martinez is a pretty talented person, the pacing of her songs are all built around her breathiness. There isn’t a lot of rhyming and some stanzas will be absurdly long. Words get split up and everything just feels kinda off. Though this works in some songs, a lot of the time it just doesn’t sound right.
#2: The Content
A lot of Martinez’s songs are based around very dark subject matter, such as suicide, family instability, drug/alcohol use, sexual abuse, eating disorders, etc. While these are some very important things that need to be discussed and I usually don’t have any problems with them being discussed in music, the way she portrays them is quite concerning.
The first reason why I take issue with this is because most of the backgrounds of her music videos where she discusses these things through song are very, very childish. They usually have very bright, pastel colors, kids’ toys are everywhere, everything is so whimsical, etc. It’s clear that her songs are aimed towards kids, so why is she talking about this stuff so much? I realize that there are kids that are growing up in very unstable homes where they perhaps do struggle with some of these things, but putting that message on a seemingly kid-friendly background seems a bit odd.
My other issue with the content of her songs is there seems to be no positive ending to any of them other than just succumbing to the pain. It’s all complaining and there’s no resolution. I’m fine with talking about serious issues in song form as it can bring some consolation to the listener, but when there’s no positive resolution, it can do more harm than good. In this case, I’ll compare Melanie Martinez with an alt band that I like, Twenty-One Pilots, who often talk about things like suicide and self-harm (two things that the lead singer, Tyler Joseph, has struggled with). Here’s the lyrics from one of her newer songs, “Void”, which talks about wanting to commit suicide:
In the void, in the void
In the void, in the void
In the void, in the void
In the void
Baby, I’m spinning ’round the corner
It’s tasting kinda lonely
And my mind wants to control me
E-e-e-empty
There’s rotten things left in me
Injected by society
No one here but me to judge me
Pipe down with the noise, I cannot bear my sorrow
I hate who I was before
I fear I won’t live to see the day tomorrow
Someone tell me if this is Hell
I gotta escape that void
There is no other choice, yeah
Tryna turn down the voices
The void ate me
Look at the mess I’ve done
There is nowhere to run, yeah
Holding a loaded gun
The void
Like a priest behind confession walls, I judge myself
Kneeling on a metal grater
Bloody, like a body that has died and it’s myself
Tangled in my own intestines
I gotta escape that void
There is no other choice, yeah
Gotta escape the void
So strange
I’m tryna find a doorway
My eyes are staring at me
And they seem so damn unhappy
C-c-c-collect
My fickle insecurities
And turn them into beauty
Alchemize the dark within me
Pipe down with the noise, I cannot bear my sorrow
I hate who I was before
I fear I won’t live to see the day tomorrow
Someone tell me if this is Hell
I gotta escape that void
There is no other choice, yeah
Tryna turn down the voices
The void ate me
Look at the mess I’ve done
There is nowhere to run, yeah
Holding a loaded gun
The void
Like a priest behind confession walls, I judge myself
Kneeling on a metal grater
Bloody, like a body that has died and it’s myself
Tangled in my own intestines
I gotta escape that void
There is no other choice, yeah
Tryna turn down the voices
The void ate me
Look at the mess I’ve done
There is nowhere to run, yeah
Holding a loaded gun
The void
The song finally ends with her finally giving into “the void” saying that she has to run, but there’s nowhere to go.
Meanwhile, in Twenty-One Pilots’ song “Neon Gravestones” from their Trench album (which is also about suicide), we get a similar storyline, but we also get a much happier ending:
Call, call, call
What’s my problem?
Well, I want you to follow me down to the bottom
Underneath the insane asylum
Keep your wits about you while you got ’em
‘Cause your wits are first to go while you’re problem-solving
And my problem?
We glorify those even more when they…
My opinion, our culture can treat a loss
Like it’s a win and right before we turn on them
We give them the highest of praise
And hang their banner from a ceiling
Communicating, further engraving
An earlier grave is an optional way
No!
Neon gravestones try to call
(Neon gravestones try to call)
Neon gravestones try to call for my bones
Call, call, call, call
Call, call
What’s my problem?
Don’t get it twisted
It’s with the people we praise who may have assisted
I could use the streams and extra conversations
I could give up, and boost up my reputation
I could go out with a bang, they would know my name
They would host and post a celebration
My opinion will not be lenient
My opinion, it’s real convenient
Our words are loud, but now I’m talking action
We don’t get enough love?
Well, they get a fraction
They say “How could he go if he’s got everything?”
I’ll mourn for a kid, but won’t cry for a king
Neon gravestones try to call
(Neon gravestones try to call)
Neon gravestones try to call for my bones
Call, call, call
Promise me this
If I lose to myself
You won’t mourn a day
And you’ll move onto someone else
Promise me this
If I lose to myself
You won’t mourn a day
And you’ll move onto someone else
Neon gravestones try to call
Neon gravestones try to call for my bones
Neon gravestones try to call
Neon gravestones try to call for my bones
But they won’t get them
No, they won’t get them
They won’t get them
But they won’t get them
Don’t get me wrong, the rise in awareness
Is beating a stigma that no longer scares us
But for sake of discussion, in spirit of fairness
Could we give this some room for a new point of view?
And could it be true that some could be tempted
To use this mistake as a form of aggression
A form of succession, a form of a weapon
Thinking “I’ll teach them, ” well, I’m refusing the lesson
It won’t resonate in our minds
I’m not disrespecting what was left behind
Just pleading that it does not get glorified
Maybe we swap out what it is that we hold so high
Find your grandparents or someone of age
Pay some respects for the path that they paved
To life they were dedicated
Now, that should be celebrated!
In “Neon Gravestones”, we get a happy ending of Tyler Joseph not succumbing to committing suicide and actually working to try to fix the problem.
#3: Why is Frickin’ EVERYTHING Baby-themed?
This is my biggest problem with Melanie Martinez’s music is that it is constantly baby-themed to the extent where you really have to wonder what’s going on behind the scenes. While I have heard a ton of people try to defend her decisions to make everything very infantilized by saying that children’s toys can be used to communicate the deeper meanings behind the song (such as the use of a sippy cup to represent eating disorders somehow), I’m not buying it. I remember one of the first music videos I saw of her’s was called “Wheels on the Bus” from her album K-12 (which talks a lot about sexual assault), and though everything was very, very kid themed with everyone wearing pink and light blue colors, there was one scene where two students are making out and the lyrics say the guy has his hand up the girl’s skirt. While that wouldn’t be appropriate period, that’s certainly not appropriate given the context of the video. In other music videos, she’s wearing clothes that are very childish while dancing provocatively.
It doesn’t just stop at the music videos either. If you watch clips of some of her concerts, she is often wearing what look like adult size baby clothes that you would see on a Victorian baby doll and once again, she’s dancing in a sexual way on stage. It’s honestly disgusting how she not only infantilizes mental illness and herself, but also seems to fetishize it.
Until next time,
M.J.
The Tanuki Corner 
👍
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