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K–12 (album)

Sophomore album by Melanie Martinez

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 6, 2026
Entity authorityQ64157046 ↗
Source-derived summary

K–12 (pronounced "K through 12") is the second studio album and a soundtrack album by American singer Melanie Martinez. It was released with an accompanying film of the same name on September 6, 2019, through Atlantic Records. Martinez played the main character, "Cry Baby", in this film that she wrote and directed. An alternative pop, dark pop, and art pop album, K–12 peaked at number three on the US Billboard 200. No singles preceded the album, but two promotional singles "High School Sweethearts" and "Strawberry Shortcake" were released prior to the album. The deluxe extended play (EP) After School was released a next year.

Background and release

Martinez began writing her second studio album in 2015. In a 2017 interview with Billboard magazine, she said that her then-untitled second album was finished and would be accompanied by a film that she was writing and directing. In February 2019, Martinez wrote that the album "had been done for like two and a half years now", that it would likely be released at the end of summer and that no singles would be commercially released before it. Atlantic Records released the album on September 6.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “K–12 (album)” as sophomore album by Melanie Martinez. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around album, Sophomore and Melanie.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2019, 2015, 2017—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2019-09-06. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with album, Sophomore and Melanie providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “K–12 (album)”, the useful work is to connect “sophomore album by Melanie Martinez” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q64157046. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2019, 2015 and 2017.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

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  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “K–12 (album)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow K–12 (album) primary sources, K–12 (album) archive and album research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “K–12 (album)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.