It’s officially August 1st and we still don’t have a new Frank Ocean album. People are mad. Their ability to trust others is being tested. Memes are running rampant online. The internet is in a frenzy similar to the one caused by Kanye West’s confusing, delayed and disorganised release of his seventh studio album The Life of Pablo. It’s been called the” most disastrous album release in modern music’s history,” but it also highlighted something important happening to the entertainment industry. Kanye was in complete control of the project, ignoring any label execs that may have been breathing down his neck to stick to the release schedule. The day after the release date, Kanye was still revising, tweaking, improving. In June he added a new track despite the album being out for four months. Yes it was a frustrating and seemingly messy process – but that’s what creating is like. And you can’t help but be in awe at the possibilities that open up once an artist disregards the rules set by those in control of the marketing and publicity aspects of a work and just focuses on creating the work itself.
Kanye admitted to being uninspired and suffering from writer’s block in the three years between the release of Yeezus in 2013 and TLOP. Isn’t it entirely possible Frank Ocean has had the same problems? No one from his camp make statements regarding his work and his website is updated as sporadically as his Tumblr. He’s taking control of his art, and he’s taking his time. For all we know, he’s right on schedule. His schedule.
Picture of Frank found in updated website code pic.twitter.com/RfB3qXPrUo
— Frank Ocean Daily (@TeamFrankDaily) August 1, 2016
I don’t think that these are two isolated incidents of celebrities taking their power back. Even by judging from the number of celebrity Twitter feuds we’ve had this year, most celebrities are taking control of their social media presence and not leaving it to their assistant or publicist (whether that’s a good thing or not is debatable). This year also saw the release of Zayn Malik’s debut solo album, which he recorded in the months following his split from One direction. He told The Fader that he made the decision to leave the band because “whenever I would suggest something, it was like it didn’t fit us. There was just a general conception that the management already had of what they want for the band, and I just wasn’t convinced with what we were selling. I wasn’t 100 percent behind the music. It wasn’t me. It was music that was already given to us.” More and more we are seeing celebrities break out of their marketing moulds and truly creating for themselves and their fans. So who are we to rush Frank Ocean? What right do we really have to demand that he release his work if he’s not ready to? We may be the ones who purchase his work and our attention to him gives him his celebrity status, but at the end of the day we are his fans, and have no say in his creative process.
