K-12 is the sophomore studio album and second major-label record by Melanie Martinez. It was released on September 6th, 2019, by Atlantic Records through digital download, CD, cassette and vinyl.[1] The album debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with 57,000 total copies sold in its first week.[2] Background

Melanie began recording the album in 2015 and finished in 2017.[3] It was originally set to be released in the fall of 2017, then got postponed to January 2018. However, it was later pushed back to early 2019, but got pushed back further to later that year. It was officially released on September 6th, 2019.

2015

Around late 2015, Melanie teased her second album's concept through an Instagram post.[4]

On October 6th, 2015, Melanie shared her experience with writing a hook for a hip-hop song initially two days ago, (October 4th, 2015).[citation needed] She was most likely talking about "Class Fight".

"Two days ago. I was writing a hook for a hip-hop song and got really frustrated. Then my friend said some things that made me rethink everything I was writing."
Melanie Martinez   On October 26th, 2015, Melanie revealed in an interview about her second studio album's theme.[5]

"I think I have a title, but I don't wanna say anything yet, because I don't know and it's too early."
Melanie Martinez

During the same interview, she then later revealed her visions about the next album:

"It's a place in a weird town that I'm trying to create and it's Cry Baby's perspective throughout this album. You're not learning about her, you're learning about the place that she's in and her perspective. Down the line for sure I will think of other characters in this world. I've already thought about ways to incorporate a character into the second album just by pitching my vocal down."
Melanie Martinez

On December 3rd, 2015, Melanie shared that she wrote a really sick song in the tub.[citation needed] It is still unknown which song she was referring to up to this day.

2016

In January 2016, multiple songs like "Drama Club", "Eraser", "Glue Stick", and "Papercut" were all written and recorded with the intention of being in the album, although "Drama Club" was the only song to make it to the final cut.

In February 2016, while on the Cry Baby Tour, Melanie was working on writing and conceptualizing songs such Detetion. On April 13th, 2016, and May 17th, 2016, Melanie posted two photos on Instagram with lyrics in both captions, revealing two songs that would be on the album. Those songs were later revealed to be "High School Sweethearts" and "Lunchbox Friends".

In May 2016, it was revealed that Melanie was in the studio with CJ Baran during that month.[citation needed]

In an interview with Beats 1 on June 30th, 2016, Melanie once again shared that her sophomore album would be set in a particular place in Cry Baby's town with Cry Baby acting as the narrator. New characters would be introduced and the album would be based off of Cry Baby's experiences there. Melanie also revealed that she would be working with Michael Keenan for the whole record.[7]

In August 2016, Melanie and Emily Warren had written "Recess", and a lot of numerous songs at that point that they've worked on together like "Wheels on the Bus" and "Strawberry Shortcake".

On October 12th, 2016, Melanie tweeted that she was at home in LA writing music.[citation needed] These songs were likely intended, or are, on her second studio album.

On October 27th, 2016, Melanie shared: "Right now I have one more song to write, and a couple of bridges to write" for K-12. Four days later, on October 31st, 2016, Melanie revealed that she was in the studio recording/writing the album.[citation needed]

2017-2018

On February 1st, 2017, Melanie posted a picture of herself in the studio with Michael Keenan; with a text below, writing:[8]

"🐻✂️🌟🍼in the studio✌🏼 W/👶🏼 @michaelkeenan."
Melanie Martinez

On March 19th, 2017, Melanie shared on Twitter: "this weekend has been very productive. Currently writing and recording" for the album.[9]

Between the timeline of March 25th-26th, 2017, "Show & Tell" was written and recorded with a voice memo during her stay at a hotel while performing at Lollapalooza Brazil.[10]

In May 2017, Melanie revealed that she was finishing up the bonus tracks, or the deluxe tracks.[11]

In June 2017, songs like "Erase Her", "Notebook", "Trophy", and other unknown deluxe tracks were written and recorded with the intention of being included on the deluxe edition of K-12.

On August 15th, 2017, Melanie explained in a Billboard interview that she was finishing up the bonus tracks, with all of the standard tracks having already been mastered.[12]

Melanie spent most of 2018 working on the K-12 film which accompanies this album.

Release & promotion

On May 15th, 2019, a teaser trailer for the film was released, revealing that the official title of the film was K-12. Melanie revealed the new website layout on the same day and a low-quality version of the album cover leaked through the site's source code. The next day on May 16th, 2019, Melanie officially unveiled the album cover on all social media platforms, revealing that the album is also titled K-12.

On May 22nd, 2019, a second teaser trailer for the film was released. A third teaser was released on May 29th, 2019, along with the album and film's release date. On June 17th, 2019, a preview featuring clips of the movie and a snippet of a new song, later revealed to be "Nurse's Office", was premiered at the MTV Movie Awards. Melanie began promoting the album with assignments on June 24th, 2019.

On July 23rd, 2019, the film's official trailer was released along with the album's song list. Additionally, pre-ordering merchandise became available. The K-12 Tour was announced on July 29th, 2019. Any fans who pre-ordered the album up until August 5th gained early access to tickets.

Beginning in September 2019, Melanie promoted the album by having the pink school bus from the film drive around the world, stopping at various locations to sell exclusive merchandise. The second leg of the K-12 Tour was announced on September 20th, 2019, with tickets going on sale a week later.

In an interview with V Magazine, Melanie confirmed that a deluxe version will likely be available in 2020. It was later revealed on January 8th, 2020, via Melanie's Instagram story that the deluxe version would be released in the format of an extended play titled After School.

On January 10th, 2020, Melanie started a TikTok challenge for fans to show their best "handshake dance" to promote "Lunchbox Friends" as a single.[13]

Tours

Main article: K-12 Tour

Melanie embarked on the K-12 Tour beginning on October 2019, and ending in December 2019, in support of the album. The second leg of the tour began in January 2020, and ended in February 2020. The third leg, titled the K-12 Summer Tour, was set to begin in June 2020; however, Melanie announced in an Instagram story on May 14th, 2020, that the summer tour was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The summer tour was then replaced by the virtual concert CAN'T WAIT TILL I'M OUT OF K-12 in December 2020[14], which featured every song on After School EP except "Notebook".

Main article: The Trilogy Tour

In 2024, Melanie embarked on The Trilogy Tour, a tour featuring songs from her first 3 albums, Cry Baby, K-12 and PORTALS.

Story and theme

The album is set in Cry Baby's school and is told from her perspective. According to Melanie, it is Cry Baby stepping outside of her family and love life and acting as a narrator for the album.[15] The standard version of the album has a total of 13 songs,[16] and each track represents a different grade level from Kindergarten through 12th grade.

The album also introduces new characters, specifically friends of Cry Baby at her school, although Cry Baby is still a main focus.[17] According to Melanie, "You're not learning about her, you're learning about the place that she's in and her perspective.       TRACKLIST

There are 13 tracks on the CD, and a separated 7 additional tracks, also known as After School, for the deluxe version. There are currently 16 songs that were intended for K-12, but only some of them made the final cut, (3 tracks are unreleased, and 13 tracks are released). It is unknown how many songs she made for K-12, however, in an interview from 2016, she confirmed that she was aiming to make 30-40 songs in total so she had a lot to choose from.

There is both an explicit version of the album and a clean version. The standard album contains eleven explicit songs, and two non-explicit songs, while the deluxe version contains sixteen explicit songs, and four non-explicit songs. This is Melanie's most explicit album, both standard and deluxe.