What does Dollhouse mean?

Melanie Martinez: Dollhouse Meaning

Album cover for Dollhouse album cover
Get "Dollhouse" on MP3: Get MP3 from iTunes

Dollhouse Lyrics

Hey girl, open the walls, play with your dolls
We'll be a perfect family.
When you walk away, is when we really play
You don't hear me when I say,
"Mom, please wake up.
Dad's with a slut, and your son is smoking cannabis."

No one...

  1. anonymous
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    Jun 13th 2016 !⃝

    that you cant always believe what you see on the outside. you need to look deep its like she is saying don't judge a book by its cover. people can look all sweet and kind but inside they are just rude and they stab you need the back. I love Melanie

  2. anonymous
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    May 15th 2016 !⃝

    I think this means that people can look perfect outside their house but can be a terrible family in the inside

  3. anonymous
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    Apr 23rd 2016 !⃝

    I believe the song is talking about how society want's perfection like: thigh gaps, perfect teeth, and relationships where everything's fine and dandy. This song brings us back to reality. We try to be perfect but no one can be.

  4. NightLore
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    Apr 13th 2016 !⃝

    The song 'Dollhouse' is quite straightforward.

    In the music video, 'Crybaby's' family is portrayed as a group of dolls that are seemingly perfect with their makeup and pastel colours. This is, however, only to hide the fact that each member of the household holds a dark secret:

    The mother is an alcoholic. The father is cheating. The brother is addicted to drugs.

    Crybaby, in this scenario, is the only 'innocent' one and tries to act oblivious to the fact that her family is broken. The modern world has a lot of broken families - And having a broken family doesn't always exactly mean divorce.

    A broken family is defined by the crumbling relationships between each member, not just a legal document.

  5. anonymous
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    Feb 16th 2016 !⃝

    I think dollhouse is about cry baby is thought as a perfect girl who has everything but in reality at home her brother is a drug addict her mum is an alcohol addict and her dad is a cheater and she doesn't want to ruin her reputation by letting them look through the curtains.

  6. anonymous
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    Jan 19th 2016 !⃝

    I honestly think it is about how dolls look perfect ,and the little girl thinks the doll family (Crybaby's family) is perfect,But when the little girl isn't looking it is horrible and messed up.

  7. anonymous
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    Dec 29th 2015 !⃝

    You know how your parents would always act nice and perfect when other people are around? That's happening here. To everyone else they are perfect plastic dolls, but to the narrarator of the song, they are addicts, and cheaters.

  8. anonymous
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    Dec 21st 2015 !⃝

    I think Dollhouse is about how everything has a backstory, and not everything is how it looks on the outside. In this case, she is using dolls as an example, by telling a story of a family of dolls with a secretly messed up life. The dolls act perfect and plastic when the little girl is looking, but once her back is turned, their lives go back to cheating, alcoholism, and drug use

  9. ErenJaeger
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    Jul 2nd 2015 !⃝

    HOnestly~
    I think that the meaning behind dollhouse is that everyone thinks that the family is 'perfect', but the girl sees what nobody else sees
    basically the dad cheats on his wife, the wife is an alchoholic, the brother is some sort of drug addict and the girl is a poacher.

  10. anonymous
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    Mar 23rd 2015 !⃝

    The song Dollhouse is just basically explaining that dolls are not perfect.
    In the music video, she is a doll and she has a messed up family; a dad who cheats on his wife, a brother who smokes, and a mother who drinks.
    They have to continuously get themselves perfect and doll-like when there is a human present, because they do not want them to see their faults. They want them to keep thinking that the dolls are perfect.
    When people see dolls, especially kids, they think that they're all beautiful and perfect. But what Melanie is saying is that they aren't. They're flawed.

    By the way, I'm sorry if this is a really terrible interpretation of the song. You're all free to dislike it if you'd like.

  11. anonymous
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    Feb 26th 2015 !⃝

    I think it's about a girl with a supposedly perfect family, but behind the façade is a cheating father, an alcoholic mother, and a druggy brother. She plays with her dolls, or her "perfect family." The dolls see exactly what goes on, and they pretend to be inanimate for the little girl.

  12. anonymous
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    Feb 20th 2015 !⃝

    I believe that this song is about a little girl. This girl has a messed up family because her dad cheats on the mom, the son/brother does drugs and the mom drinks so she can forget her family's issues. This little girl has a dollhouse and dolls that she plays with that are her perfect family. However these dolls also have a messed up family but they hide their problems from everyone else. At the end of the song when the girl is in the dollhouse it is her realizing that her perfect family isn't so perfect and that she cannot escape her own reality. Quite depressing, really.

  13. RebelHerosFightHarder
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    Dec 23rd 2014 !⃝

    i belive this is about a girl who's family appeared to be perfect, but behind what everyone else saw her father slept around alot, her brother did drugs and smoked, and her mother drank to get away from it all. This girl had a rough child hood and did not have a good example from her family. In the song it says, "hey mom please wake up, dad's with a slut, and your son is smoking cannaibis," then the chorus is," Places, places, get in your places throw on your dress and put on your doll faces. Everyone thinks that we're perfect. Please don't let them look through the curtains. Picture, picture, smile for the picture, pose with your brother, won't you be a good sister? Everyone thinks that we're perfect please don't let them look through the curtains. D-O-L-L-H-O-U-S-E i see things that nobody else sees. D-O-L-L-H-O-U-S-E I see things that nobody else sees," there for that is why i think the song is about a girl who had a rough childhood.

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