Sept. 6, American Artist Melanie Martinez released her second studio album titled “K-12.” This is Martinez’ first studio album in four years, although she has been writing music for around five years. Her genre of music mainly consists of Electro and Indie pop. 

Martinez broke barriers with the album, K-12, by addressing serious topics that are overlooked in schools, such as bullying and mental illnesses over 13 topical songs. Her work has taken the music industry by storm by breaking out of the normal pop artist stereotypes and transforming her work into something truly unique and meaningful.

Martinez morphed each and every one of her songs into a distinctive and creative mix of both pop and indie music. The album follows a storyline of her persona Cry Baby going through grades K-12 (hence the album title). 

The first song of the album “Wheels on the Bus” starts out describing her sitting in the back of the bus and observing everything that everyone else is doing around her. She also notes how the driver notices, but never does anything. 

The second song“Class Fight” depicts how Cry Baby is jealous of a girl named Kelly dating her crush Brandon. The chorus of the song features a conversation between her and the girl. In the third song of the album, “The Principal,” describes and labels the principal and how he is greedy and cruel.

She continues to further allude to the idea that his aloofness and heartlessness are destroying the lives of the students he had been entrusted with. The meaning behind the song “Recess” is about Martinez and her need for a break from toxic associations in life. This contributes to how she is suffering from depression. 

Soon after, she remembered what her grandmother had said to her as a child about how she shouldn’t let people into her head is good advice to follow.

Another important song included is titled “Strawberry Shortcake.” The song talks about the sensuality of girls and their bodily image. Looking at it from a grander scale, it deals with the issues of harassment against females. This ties into the album when she participated in the trending #metoo movement. Martinez is saying that women are convinced that they are compelled to make themselves sensually appealing, and that girls and women everywhere should be confident in their own body.

Martinez’ fans were thrilled when the album was finally released, along with the movie and are looking forward to her furthering her career as an artist. 

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