“Spider Web” by Melanie Martinez

On the surface, the lyrics of “Spider Web” speak to the concept of being an insect caught in a spider’s web. Melanie Martinez, who wrote this song on her own, utilizes different perspectives, i.e. that of both the spider and its prey apparently, to get her point across. 

The former is depicted as a cunning figure when it comes to laying its trap, so the message to other insects is that it would behoove them not to get ensnared therein. But with that said, all of this is of course metaphorical. What Martinez is actually speaking to, based on her explanation of this track, is “social media’s chokehold on society”.

So with that understanding in tow, the lyrics take entirely different theoretically meanings. For instance, when the vocalist portrays the role of an insect and puts forth in the pre-chorus that she avoids “flying where (she) shouldn’t be”, that can be taken as Melanie acknowledging that some aspects of the internet are best avoided altogether. 

And when the narrator states in the second verse that she “didn’t ask for this dangerous visibility”, that can be interpreted as alluding to how the prevalence of social media can invade a person’s privacy in potentially dangerous ways.

“Spinning all your silk and moving all of your eight legs
To build a web that’ll spread through the world
Feeding off our highs and lows
And curious to see us struggle
No one can leave once they merge”

Connecting other parts of the song to the concept of social media dependency, etc. can prove more challenging.  But the outro of this piece is actually its most-direct part, where Martinez discernably implies that she’s referring to a practice like being addicted to smartphones. 

So in that sense, we can take it that “the spider web” mentioned in the song is an analogy for the world wide web, i.e. the internet at large. Furthermore, obviously she does not perceive a dependency on such technology, let’s say specifically for social purposes, as being ideal.

Facts behind “Spider Web”

“Spider Web” was produced by CJ Baran, who served such a role over the entirety of “Portals”, the Melanie Martinez LP this track is derived from. That project came out on 31 March 2023 through Atlantic Records, whom Melanie has been down with for almost a decade now, since 2014. 

To note, the first teasing of this particular song dates back to about a month prior to its release date.