Blonde
Born as Christopher Edwin Breaux, Frank Ocean ranks among pop culture’s most known and idiosyncratic singers, songwriters, and rappers. Ocean has been a present force in the music industry since he first started ghostwriting tracks for pop stars like Justin Bieber and Beyoncé. However, he didn’t stay in their shadows for long. In 2011, he came out with his first album, titled nostalgia, ULTRA, and then succeeded it with the critically and popularly acclaimed channel ORANGE in 2012.
Ocean has always been perceived as a rather ambiguous figure in the public eye, and this presumption was only further confirmed by the release of his most recent album, Blonde. With titles ranging from Nike to Night, Blonde is an emotionally dense, melodic and progressive album.
Ocean used Blonde expressively, with lyrics that reveal feelings about his own self, his own experiences, and the music industry in general.
There are three songs in particular that stick out compared to the rest, and they touch on issues that affect and can be related not only to Ocean, but to all of us in one way or another. These three songs are: Futura Free, Good Guy, and Facebook Story.
“You know I’m Africano Americano/ And even if you’re half Japanese/Roots run deep.” Racial identity: a topic that our media and society immerse themselves in. In Futura Free, Ocean indulges in the fact that, although his fame and lifestyle appear to be things that would separate him from normal people, he’s actually just like everyone else, because “roots run deep.” Racial identity is important because it connects us to one another. Ocean identifies with his race just like everyone else does, and he, like others, sometimes feels victimized by it. He feels as though he doesn’t deserve the success that life has given him because society makes it seem like he doesn’t, even though he’s worked very hard to get where he is.
“Here’s to the gay bar you took me to/ it’s when I realized you talk too much, more than I do.” Sexual identity: a topic that our media and society sometimes chooses not immerse itself in. In 2012, Ocean came clean about his sexual identity, admitting to having fallen in love with a man. In the rap community, this isn’t something that is commonly accepted. When other rappers write about gay bars or gay culture in general, it’s usually in a negative light. This was a bold, open, and above all, brave statement for Ocean to make, fully owning his sexual identity without fear.
“It was virtual, made no sense.” Facebook Story, a song neither written nor sung by Ocean, but equally as fitting as those that are. Facebook Story comments on the ubiquity of social media — how we can’t escape it and the residual effects of it, and how even if we aren’t wrapped up in it ourselves, the people that we love and that we constantly surround ourselves with are. And it ends up hurting both us and them. Facebook Story also comments on the faces sometimes true, sometimes false, sometimes distorted that social media allows one to replace their own with. You can be anyone on social media, you can edit your photos until you don’t even look like yourself anymore, you can say you’re with someone when you’re really not, you can pretend to be someone you couldn’t be less like. With a man as genuine as Ocean, it’s no surprise that he doesn’t partake in social media to the extent that other singers and songwriters do.
Blonde is sonically and lyrically impressive. Its songs are poetic and the sounds behind them are harmonious yet discordant at the same time. Blonde is something you can listen to when you need to be by yourself, and when you need to be with others. The honesty and overarching messages about society that the songs on Blonde provide are what I believe set it apart from other popular releases this year. Blonde is a genius piece for many reasons, but mostly because of the intense experience it offers. Granted, you will learn a lot about Ocean from listening to it, but you might learn a thing or two about yourself as well.
