The Carpet Didn't Bleed By Itself

"The Carpet Didn't Bleed By Itself" is the third single from Romo's second studio album POPSTAR: The Life & Times Of Belle Ball. Co-produced by Romo and Ensemble in-house producer Josh Wink, the single was released on April 6, 2009.

A more midtempo offering than the album's previous two singles, "Carpet" is about Belle Ball's experimentation with self-mutilation.

"Carpet" settled for #2 in its entry week in a highly anticipated chart battle with Ryan Dawson where neither competitor reached the top spot. In addition, it began a close chart rivalry between Romo and Elice Claire, who earned that week's #1 with a second-week climb.

Background and writing
"The Carpet Didn't Bleed By Itself" deals with Belle Ball's frustrations following her intervention in the previous track "If Blair Waldorf Jumped Off A Cliff". Because her friends and family abandoned her for her rebellious attitude, Belle sinks into a deep depression, losing interest in her vices and failing to get a good night's sleep. She devolves into a reclusive state, but in spite of her bringing her loneliness on herself, she feels that "somebody needs to save me 'cause I'm running out of time". She tries to take her mind off her problems by experimenting with self-mutilation, boasting she will show her former public "the real meaning of self-destructive". Someone walks into Belle's house and catches her in the act of slitting her wrists; while the unidentified person means well, Belle insults the act as "naive", again showing her rebellious side. The person is confident Belle cut herself because "God knows the carpet didn't bleed by herself".

The song's intro/outro, which begins "Help me, I've been off my meds for two months", is similar to the first verse of Sia's "Breathe Me", famously covered by Izzy in 2007. The inspiration to have Belle Ball experiment with self-harm because she is isolated came from this song. The line also bears similarities to the bridge of Nine Inch Nails' "Closer".

Towards the end there is a reference to Stanley Steemer, a chain of carpet cleaning services based in the continental United States. Romo wrote the reference into the song despite the fact the majority of the people listening to her records are based internationally and wouldn't know what Stanley Steemer is or does. She explained that "I tend to think American sometimes because I've traveled to America a lot."

"The Carpet Didn't Bleed By Itself" was remixed for radio release with an added hint of "donk".

Title explanation
Romo wrote a rough draft of the song under the working title "I'm Not Mine", but decided the title didn't stand out enough and chose "The Carpet Didn't Bleed By Itself", taken from the last line in the middle 8, uttered by Belle's friend upon the discovery that the fallen star had been experimenting with self-mutilation. The lyric was included to give a hint of realism to how people react upon finding out something terrible is happening, as the friend demands to know that the reason why the carpet is stained with blood is because Belle cut herself.

Most audiences did not fully understand how the title connected to the song, which Romo herself acknowledged in her song "Sucks To Be You" on her follow-up album POPSTAR 2: Belle After Death. Early reviews incorrectly speculated the song was about the menstrual process, as "carpet" can be interpreted as vulgar slang for a female's pubic area.

Belle's Ball tour controversy
Before full-time promotion began, Romo's coinciding tour, Belle's Ball, hit a few snags relating to its opening acts. First, Mischa, who earlier had caused trouble when she wanted her own backup band for her set to showcase her new direction, stopped showing up to rehearsals and was consequently dropped from the bill. Phoenix Rising's spot on the second leg of the tour was put in jeopardy because Romo noticed a change in behavior in group member Alexei Monaghan following criticisms of his side project Schizophonic made by Indigo Peak member Yannik Cassenove. Romo gave Phoenix Rising a warning - not to join the backlash, but to discourage Alexei from letting his behavior get in the way of what was more important, putting on a good show.

Reports circulated that Elice Claire dropped out of the tour because of Mischa's firing, but Elice dismissed those rumors. Romo filled the vacancy left by Mischa when she announced that Esmeralda Dimuzio will co-open the first leg with China.

Kaci Trent taints Elite Records
On February 22, 2009, Romo dropped her first act since taking over Elite Records, Kaci Trent, citing that her single "Red Alert" became the label's first release to chart below the top 20. But Romo didn't stop there, and ripped the singer apart:

"'If you want a good idea of what you shouldn't be doing with your career, look no further than Kaci Trent, who we signed last month because we thought she was going to make some promise out of her career, but because she fucked off for her latest single 'Red Alert', which became Elite's first-ever top 20 miss at #28, it's safe to say she likely won't do much else for us in the future and we've decided to drop Ms. Trent from the label. If you want to release in the future and have trouble finding a label, don't worry, we're right next door to Mystic Inc. and they'd be happy to take you.'"

That wasn't all. In a warning to another act who was in danger of being dropped, she said "we can't afford to taint our label with more fucking Kaci Trents." She later referred to her as "Dead to Elite Trent" and "Cunty Trent" before acknowledging the label will not give her a severance package.

SAVE URAPS campaign
Main article: SAVE URAPS

Romo founded a nonprofit organization aimed at keeping Urapopstar's servers going following a threat to shut the site down. She is planning a star-studded telethon to raise funding to keep the site going in the long term, as well as an all-star charity single, "Play The Game". The SAVE URAPS campaign dominated the first half of the single's promotional campaign.

Continuing the Rouge feud
Though tensions between Romo and Rouge quieted down during promotion of her previous single "Nocturnal Emission", Romo started things up again when she responded to a Rouge blog posting that "pregnant" was the worst word in pop, answering back by saying "Rouge" is the worst word in pop. This drew some criticism from Ryan Dawson, a strong supporter of the pop group whose comeback single "Rush The Sound" was being released against Romo. Ryan quickly began campaigning against Romo, observing her as "just another act" despite her streak of four consecutive #1s. Romo got the upper hand by noting her career "wasn't tainted by a #8 single", referring to the disappointing performance of Ryan's single "Miss California" in March 2008. Later on, even as Romo saw noted bumps in her career, she continued attacking Ryan due to flop releases "Futureboy" and "Goldie", as well as for his associations with Rouge and Arwyn Knight.

On April 1, 2009, Perez Hilton played an April Fool's prank on his readers by claiming a reliable source had told him that Romo made up with Rouge and that the two acts were talking about a possible collaboration. Even further, he suggested the drastic move was taken due to Romo terminating her contract with Michael Jones Management to work under Marc Hussey of Twist fame. Because of the story's fabrication, as well as the fact that the story's publication kept Romo's representatives on the phone all day, Romo filed a defamation suit against Perez Hilton the following morning.

Track listings
CD1
 * 1) The Carpet Didn't Bleed By Itself (radio mix)
 * 2) The Carpet Didn't Bleed By Itself (album version)
 * 3) Play The Game
 * 4) Revolution Of Conformity

CD2
 * 1) The Carpet Didn't Bleed By Itself [4tune's Shake N Vac mix]
 * 2) The Carpet Didn't Bleed By Itself (EC's Bullet Hole In The Heart Club Dub)
 * 3) The Carpet Didn't Bleed By Itself (Alesha's Menstruation & Ovulation Remix)
 * 4) The Carpet Didn't Bleed By Itself (Aftershock's Night On The Tiles Radio Re:Edit)
 * 5) The Carpet Didn't Bleed By Itself (Schizophonic's Chiller Thriller Mix)
 * 6) The Carpet Didn't Bleed By Itself (Rossi's Rubadubdub Thanks for the Grub, Yay God Mix)
 * 7) Kill The Carpet, Where's The Bleeding?! (Romo VS DAMNED Booooming Mix)
 * 8) All We Want Is Some Bleeding Carpets [Romo vs. Venus]

Chart performance
Like previous single "Nocturnal Emission", "The Carpet Didn't Bleed By Itself" entered the Urapopstar Airplay 40 at #40 in its first week of pre-impacts, and rose to #16 the following week. On April 12, 2009, "Carpet" became Romo's third airplay #1. On the pre-release chart, it reached #2, just behind Ryan Dawson.

Upon its April 6 release, "Carpet" was expected to fight a close battle with Ryan Dawson's comeback single "Rush The Sound" for #1. But due to split sales, neither reached #1, with Elice Claire's "Keepin' U Up" climbing 2-1 in its second week of availability with over 100,000 copies sold. The single settled for #2 in its first week with sales of 69,343 copies sold, Romo's lowest first-week sales at the time, later surpassed by the 62,527 figure from her 2010 single "Bathroom Entourage". It did, however, see a sales increase in its second week, with 73,903 copies sold, remaining at #2 with Rouge at #1. It ultimately broke her streak of four consecutive #1 singles.

Although "Carpet" did not reach #1, it managed to sell 305,561 copies in its chart run, outselling both her #1 singles from her debut album Eve and her previous #1 single "Nocturnal Emission". Romo has since used this feat to defend the frequent jokes made about the single for the mere fact it missed #1; her high sales without reaching #1 echo similar accomplishments made by China and Elice Claire earlier in the year.