'Cry Baby' Music Video Analysis

'Cry Baby' Music Video Anlaysis

Screenshots of the beginning
of video to establish story.

Picture of Melanie as Cry Baby.

Melanie Martinez is the singer, lyricist and director of the 'Cry Baby' music video. She portrays the main character: Cry Baby (keeping within the idea of a 'star image' in music videos). The colour scheme of the video uses pastel tones to convey the childish visuals of the video. Furthermore, keeping a consistent theme across Melanie's videos, a narrative arch is prominent throughout the video. Much like the 'Soap/Training Wheels' double feature, an initial story which does not have the song playing in the background is played to create a story. In the 'Cry Baby' video, this establishes the birth of the character Cry Baby and foreshadows her dysfunctional upbringing.  

Scene where Cry Baby is attacked by her toys.
It is possible that the toys could represent the
people who have bullied her and made her cry.

Scenes such as when Cry Baby spells 'FUCK' with the alphabet blocks or when she holds a real brain/heart to coincide with the lyrics: 'You seem to replace your brain with your heart' add a maturere/disturbing feel to the music video to contrast with the baby aesthetics (showing consistency in Melanie's ceative star image). The


The following video in the story arch is Dollhouse which is why Cry Baby's tears flood the metaphorical dollhouse in the final scene.



By using a realistic brain and a realistic heart adds an element of gore
to the music video.

'FUCK' written with alphabet blocks.

Cry Baby's tears flood her house.