Let Frank Ocean Be: A Case Against The Toxic Pressure on Artists For New Music Mohith Subbarao Follow Dec 3, 2019 · Unlisted

I sat down, mouth watering to chow down on the grilled fish burrito I had been craving all week. A friend I was meeting for lunch brought his friend as well, and the three of us ate and chatted, taking our sweet time on a Tuesday afternoon — the meal acted as a much-needed respite from the exams and projects we had been bombarded with lately. The topic eventually moved towards music. The friend of a friend lamented the lack of a new album by Frank Ocean, as it had been over 3 years since 2012’s Channel Orange. As he began to discuss Frank’s lack of music and media presence, passionately cutting up his fish katsu, his tone shifted ever-so-slightly from sadness to frustration. He let out a long exasperated sigh.

“What the hell is he doing?”

This person did not seem to have any malevolent intent with his question, but I remember being seriously irked. While I did not want to taint my burrito experience with a possibly pointless discussion about the fan-artist relationship with someone I barely knew, I left that lunch wondering why his frustration got to me.

My anger with his anger was ironic and even hypocritical as I am sure I have been guilty of uttering similar frustrations with some of my favorite musicians. In fact, frustrations like this are relatively common among music fans. But as I reflect more, I find that these types of grievances are representative of an insidious quality that has been increasing over the last few years: the toxic pressure on artists from fans to release new music.

This pressure exists with all artists in some form, especially those who are intentional about their album releases — a la Kendrick Lamar, Beyoncé, or Frank Ocean. Yet this pressure has skyrocketed to unhealthy levels in the last few years as technology and the internet has expanded and streaming platforms have taken off. With the ability to record, release, and market music becoming easier than ever, there is an ever-growing demand for nonstop consumption of a musician’s work. While these pressures may seem innocuous and even supportive, they strip artists of their humanity and disrespect the art form at large.

Frank Ocean in particular has released music much less frequently than other artists and is very selective of any media exposure. As a result, he has received and continues to receive an insane amount of pressure for new music. It has become so bad that these fan frustrations have become intertwined in the public narrative of his career.

In a 2016 New York Times interview, Frank described harassment from strangers pulling up in Ubers and berating him to figure out the release of the next album — what would become 2016’s Blonde. Yet even after the release of Blonde and subsequent massive critical acclaim, it was only a matter of time before fans’ cravings came roaring back. In a 2019 interview with Paper Magazine, Frank discussed how he was more focused on his health and exercise built around swimming rather than necessarily trying to release more music. In response, many fans were irate that they were going to have to wait even longer for the next Frank Ocean album.

Now it is perfectly normal to feel sad when we are deprived of our favorite artists’ music. There is a special spike of joy, exhilaration, and even purpose when any one of my favorite artists drops a new single or album. When I haven’t had that experience in a while, I naturally crave it too. However, when the desire for new music devolves into judgement, anger, and even abandonment of the artist, this pressure becomes toxic. If we act like this, what distinguishes us as music fans from certain money-hungry corrupt record labels — the same type of record labels that Frank Ocean worked to break free from for the better part of a decade?

Art is a gift. We are not entitled to it. In our well-intentioned yet insatiable thirst for new music, we dehumanize the artist. We forget there is a human being on the other side, contemplating not only their art, but their relationships, health, finances, and general purpose. Each musical project they create is an overwhelming spill of blood, sweat, tears, mind, and spirit — all in the hopes of creating something meaningful, impactful, and timeless. To expect music to be released like clockwork is to misunderstand the art form entirely.

Even when it comes to the actual music, this idea of routine production of music is severely misguided. Why should we as an audience want an album to drop when the project isn’t ready? If Blonde had come out a year earlier, when everyone was clamoring for it, it wouldn’t have been one of the masterpieces of the decade. Blonde came at the perfect time because it came out when Frank himself was able to finish it and he himself was at peace with it.

This artistic philosophy is at the forefront of Frank’s decisions. In the aforementioned New York Times interview, he laid out the simple ethos that keeps him sane:

“I know that once it’s out, it’s out forever, so I’m not really tripping on how long it’s taking.”

Whether Frank Ocean drops an album tomorrow, drops one in 10 years, or never releases a project again, it is necessary to understand and respect that he is releasing, or not releasing, his music on his own timeline.

In the meantime, we should let him be.