Genre Indie pop | Length 3:50 | |
Released May 19, 2014 (2014-05-19) Format CD single
digital download Label Atlantic
Warner/Chappell Writer(s) Melanie Martinez
Kinetics & One Love | ||
"Carousel" is a song by American recording artist Melanie Martinez. The song was featured on Martinez's debut EP, Dollhouse (2014) and her debut studio album, Cry Baby (2015). "Carousel" was released on May 19, 2014, as the second single from Dollhouse. A music video accompanying the song was released October 15, 2014. It was used as the theme song for American Horror Story: Freak Show of American television show American Horror Story.
Contents
Background and composition
This song is featured in a preview for FX's anthology series, American Horror Story: Freak Show, with the theme also being a riff on the song. Melanie told the Huffington Post that American Horror Story is "absolutely, hands down" her favorite show, Martinez contacted FX about the song as soon as she heard this season's theme would be carnival-related. After almost a year of silence, she got the call from the network just two days before the promo aired. "The whole thing was just crazy", Melanie said.
"Carousel" is labeled as indie pop, described by Melanie herself as, "My feeling in love with someone and being stuck on the same ride and trying to grab them but I never reach them".
Music video
Lyndsey Parker of Yahoo Music praised the song and Melanie, saying, "Melanie Martinez has moved on from The Voice to American Horror Story. And her new song and video are so good. The two-toned-haired Goth girl wonder, one of the most unique contestants to ever appear on The Voice [...] While her new video for the song, out just in time for Halloween, isn't quite as twisted as anything on AHS, it's still totally creepy-cool, depicting a doomed romance that literally spins out of control at a dark, deserted Long Island carnival".