





The lights of a bright, glittering carousel in the middle of a grand fair stand before us. Our love is our only ticket to give before we climb aboard and choose a pony to enjoy the ride with. Do we dare get on when we know the only shot we have at love goes in circles, with no end in sight? Melanie Martinez, the creator and main character of her music video Carousel, warns us not to take that chance. Her lyrics explain that it is dangerous to be in love, when the only thing we can do is sit and see the same sights over and over again while never reaching our final destination. In her music video Carousel, Melanie Martinez uses a myriad of colors, contrasting shots, and ingenious lyrics to signify that love is not always as easy, or appealing, as it may seem. 

 In the first frame we are given a light-hearted, loveable, and fairytale-like view of love. In this shot there is a girl sitting on one of the ponies while a boy stands in front of her, leaning his back on a pole. This shot is known as long shot. It can also be considered an establishing shot because it sets the scene, establishes where the characters are, and what they are doing. Establishing shots stay on screen for a longer period of time to allow the viewer to absorb valuable information that is relevant to the story (Downey). This is important considering that this frame sets the entire mood for the rest of the music video. As for the colors, the contrast between the dark skies against the bright lights of the carousel creates a sense of childlike energy and excitement, which gives off a sense of elation on the viewer’s side. These dazzling colors symbolize a glimmer of hope in unknown situations; ‘hope’ being the radiant colors and the ‘new situations’ being the black sky (“Color Theory”). The carousel in this scene embodies her current experience of love. It goes in circles and does not stop. The ponies move up and down, but never move forward, as a result they never get closer to one another. The distance between the boy and girl will never shorten, so they will never be able to touch. The boy is teasing her with the distance, especially since their gazes are focused on one another. This reciprocal attention establishes a relationship between the two (Downey). Unfortunately, the distance between them shows that the girl is left to wonder about what could have been. These contrasting colors and perspectives convey the love the main character can never attain, which takes an emotional toll on her. 

As for the second screen shot, the ‘love’ story suddenly takes a darker turn. The main character is now the only person in the shot and her hands are tied to the pole of the pony she was riding on the carousel. This close up shot is centered on the main character’s face, which establishes how important this still is to the story. Her gaze is focused on her hands and she is struggling to get out of the restraints. This object-orientated gaze and the girl’s emotions build a sense of fear for the viewers, especially since the colors have all of a sudden become more muted. The colors no longer contrast with one another; they are dark and belong to the cooler side of the color spectrum. However, on the pole the girl is attached to there are three distinct and different colored lights. One is magenta, one is cyan, and the other is yellow, which are the three main components of light (“Color Theory”). Light is a symbol of hope, so even though the girl is trapped on the carousel, she symbolically holds onto that sliver of hope. Despite her hopefulness, she is still momentarily captured; she will have to ride the carousel over and over again with no hope of getting off now. She has trapped herself on the ride while giving herself away to experience the adventure. Only now she receives nothing in return, which is not what she expected. From the object oriented gaze and the fear the main character displays, we can see that she realizes that the promise of love was a trick, and it no longer seems as appealing as it used to be.

The lyrics also play a role in conveying what the music video means. In the first couple lines of lyrics it states: “Round and round like a horse on a carousel, we go, / Will I catch up to love? I could never tell,” (Martinez). These lyrics explain what is going on in the first frame. The main character is riding on this carousel, but love is always ahead of her. Even though she is constantly moving, she is stationary on the ride, so love will always be one step ahead of her. Another set of lyrics say: “And it’s all fun and games, / ‘Till somebody falls in love / But you’ve already bought a ticket, / And there’s no turning back now,” (Martinez). This is an example for the second still from the music video. The boy in the video loves playing games and not having any real commitment. However, as soon as the girl has a chance to fall in love with him, it unleashes his countless fears. He tries to escape from all those worries and makes an effort to leave the girl behind in the dust. In the end he is successful, but through that process he has damaged the girl. She has spent time, effort, and most importantly she has given herself to the boy in hopes of working everything out, but in return she is given nothing for her troubles. She committed so much to the relationship that she believes she cannot turn back and leave it all behind. The girl is stuck in a limbo, where love is not in her favor. As the song progresses the girl no longer finds love appealing and says “Right, right when I’m near / It’s like you disappear / Where’d you go? Mr. Houdini you’re a freak show,” (Martinez). In these lines the girl calls the boy out on all of his lies and torment, which pushed the girl to unhappiness. She does not want to ride the carousel because it is no longer fun or easy. From these detailed lyrics we can see the main character has found out love is very difficult and can never be easily bought, like a ticket for a fair ride. 

Melanie Martinez has shown what the ups and downs of love are in her music video Carousel, and how difficult it can be when things do not go according to plan. The main character in the video has found out that love is not simple or easy, and through her horrible experience she no longer finds the appeal in it either. Melanie Martinez’s transitions from bright to dark colors set the tone and her uses of different shots tell the story just as the gazes of the characters do. The girl’s journey was hard and devastating, but maybe all of those sparkling glimpses of hope and childlike essence will lead her to a more exciting (and less demanding) ride in life.   






