Frank Ocean.
Hotsauce84
8,450 Posts
Proud of this dude. Anderson Cooper too. Things are changing quickly. FINALLY.
Hotsauce84
8,450 Posts
Comments
in other standing up for yourself news - shout out to katie holmes for kicking scary ass Tom Cruise to the curb.
Or at this opportune time when Frank Ocean wanted to lose a shitload of fans/listeners anyhow?
i was thinking it would actually generate some attention, and help gain fans/listeners.
not to discredit dude. he might be a great artist, and i will be purchasing on release day.
I've seen support and praise for Ocean from folks in the LGBT+ community more than fans of his music...but it is the first day after all.
Still, I am not sure it will gain him fans (of his music) as much as have people fall out.
I don't like his music and this won't make it sound any better to me. I admire him for this, but it won't have me going out and buying his records.
The letter comes across as genuine to me. He took a risk, personal and professional. I really don't want to be part of a cynicism that sees an ulterior motive to a young person who puts her/himself out there.
Side note - this also makes me like Odd Future even more; two out members says something about the climate of that crew.
[slightly off topic, but I can see him catching (some yet different) shit if he had written exactly what he did, but about a girl]
Edit - Attention yes, but I am not sure the kind that will result in record sales? Hard to say now.
It's actually a really interesting time to do this imo as he is somewhat on the brink of fame.
Saw a little thing in the paper about how Anderson Cooper came out and "it was no big deal". Thought about making a post, but then it would have been a big deal.
Interestingly, Elton John, Bowie, Phil Lesh and other rockers came out decades ago and continue to fill stadiums. But they were already superstars. (Or bass players in band with a huge fan base.)
Hopefully in the future can just be who they are and not have to answer questions.
I must have heard someone say he was ghey and misunderstood the meaning.
It's cool that he has the courage to come out, but I don't see this as something that's going to boost his career.
Good luck to him though. If Chris Brown can come back and be successful after beating his woman, you'd hope society can accept the fact that some dude is gay.
Neither is Bowie.
...sayin'...
Bowie claimed at the time to be tri-sexual - that he'd had affairs with women, men and HIS GUITAR. Did he respect it in the morning?
As opposed to the Ali G definition - "I am trisexual - I'd try anything sexual."
In which case, that's on them. I reckon you're right about what the reaction is likely to be, but unless dude is being gender-specific, I don't see where the issue is. He hasn't explicitly said he's gay, and that's his business if he chooses to or not. Noz just posted this on Twitter;
It's a pity he went and deleted it, because it's amongst the more insightful things I've read about the story - what does our reaction - and that of the media, of course - say about us?
It might put a ceiling on it, though. It's going to be interesting to see how things look a couple of albums down the line. By then, we should have found out to what extent the current fuss will have shaped dude's career path.
I can't help thinking that part of the reason more rappers/R&B performers choose not to come out is because they know they'll have to spend the rest of their careers answering questions about their sexuality. It won't matter if their music is on some perpetual next shit or if it's landfill. Whether we like it or not, for a significant area of the media, "who's Frank Ocean fucking?" is always going to be a bigger story than his music, and that's actually kind of depressing.
This can be said of all pop music, whether the artist is openly gay or closeted or straight.
if dude's music is overlooked in favor of a focus on who he's fucking, and yet all the while he remains in the entertainment news and continues selling records, his lot will have been no better/worse than most pop stars'.
well, after listening to ULTRA I had no idea he was singing about a dude. Did anybody? I mean as long as lyrics are ambiguous... what difference does it make.
His name is on the lips and keys of a gazillion people today that didn't even know who he was yesterday. I know it's hard to see beyond ones immediate circle or world or what have you, but his letter and the resultant conversation has exposed him to many new listeners. Particularly, listeners that actually buy music. Importantly, he's really fucking talented, so I think he stands a good chance to turn those keystrokes into record sales. Not trying to imply at all that there was any cynicism. Truly, I found his letter to be one of the best articulations of love and heartbreak that I've read by anyone, gay straight or otherwise.
He'll have a big feature in this weekend's Sunday Times, and then the record will drop. I hope it does well. Dudes are totally concern trolling when they are talmbout "dudes won't play it b/c ew it's teh gay". Think about who listens to Frank Ocean. Come on you guys
Stephen. Please.
If you're saying that it oughtn't to be news, I agree. Now, can someone tell that to all the fucking idiots who spend way too long getting seriously worked up about rappers who wear pink, or skinny jeans, or fitted t-shirts, to the extent that some of them even make songs about it? These are the people who will be hurling homophobic abuse at Frank Ocean from now until Dick docks, and as far as their kindergarten mindset is concerned, fashion choices and sexuality go hand in hand. Personally it makes no difference to me one way or the other if more rappers or R&B singers henceforth feel able to come out or otherwise discuss their sexuality. I'm more bothered by the inability of so many people to act like fucking grown-ups about it.
I mean, being in love with another man and having a loving relationship with him, doesn't make you gay? If he doesn't want to put a label on himself, fine, that's his business, but for the sake of discussion let's call a spade a spade.
Are you saying he might crossover because of this? In some ways that would kind of be a shame imo.
Personally, when I made that comment it was only in response to the assertion that this was timed as a marketing ploy. I didn't get into Nostalgia Ultra as a cosepuence I've never really paid him any attention, so don't really know who his audience is. I doubt it's quite the same as the OFWGKTA, but I would guess he's loved by hipsters, TheWeeknd fans and Pitchfork et al. Does he not get love from the traditional RnB market?
Not being American I don't truly understand the US rnb market anyway. The idea of dudes hanging with tha boys, looking criss in their pink shirts whilst they drive around in their jeeps, windows down, bumping Kels, singing along as he espouse about how he's going to do them right. All sounds a little suspect. And that's how it happens in my mind from what I've gleaned from spending a near decade reading Soulstrut, so it must be true.