What is Melanie Martinez’s style?
Emily Baldwin Melanie Adele Martinez is an American singer and songwriter. Born in Astoria, Queens, and raised in Baldwin, New York, Martinez rose to fame in 2012 after appearing on the American television vocal talent show The Voice.
Following the show, she released her debut single “Dollhouse”, followed by her debut EP of the same name (2014), through Atlantic Records.
Martinez later released her debut studio album, Cry Baby (2015), which went on to be certified double-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Martinez’s songs “Sippy Cup”, “Mad Hatter”, “Mrs Potato Head”, “Cry Baby”, “Pacify Her” and “Soap”, were all certified gold in the U.S., and her songs “Dollhouse” and “Pity Party” received platinum certification from the RIAA.
Martinez released her second studio album, K-12 (2019), alongside its accompanying film, as a follow-up to the storyline of Cry Baby. Her EP was released a year later in 2020, called After School.
What is Melanie Martinez’s style?
Martinez’s music has been described as pop, alternative pop, art pop, electropop, emo pop, and dark pop. Her debut album Cry Baby and second album K-12 were seen to have hip-hop and R&B undertones.
The subject matter of Martinez’s songs is typically based on personal experiences. Martinez describes her own music as “very dark and honest” and “hip hop/trap-inspired beats with creepy nostalgic childlike sounds such as baby pianos, music boxes, and toys”.
Martinez’s music has been described by The Guardian as “off-kilter, sweary electropop”. Rolling Stone described Martinez’s music as “twisted lullabies about love, danger and madness”, and compared her music to that of “‘Coin-Operated Boy’era Dresden Dolls” and Lana Del Rey.
The New York Times‘s Jon Pareles described her music as “perch[ing] prettily tinkling keyboards and concise pop choruses amid the slow, ominous basslines and twitchy percussion of Southern hip-hop – a candy-coated variation on the dirges of Lorde and Lana Del Rey”, and described her mezzo-soprano voice as “whispery, sardonic, tearful, [and] furious”.
