In ‘Forest Gump’ Ocean exclaims that “I can never make him love me” – and all the glamour and sensualisation of the pronoun is stripped and all that is left is raw pain. Singing about his conflict with his religion and personal life, the string sections on the track are fitting forthe tone of the song. Tracks like ‘Bad Religion’ and ‘Forest Gump’ truly show the extent of Ocean’s pain. King with his 1963 version of ‘I Who Have Nothing’. While the theme of love has always been present in RnB hits, singing about rejection from the male point of view has rarely ever met the high standards set by Ben E. Opening with track ‘Thinking Bout You’ which leaked in July 2011, it is simple in terms of production and vocal performance however, the message of a man clinging onto a love that can’t last is powerful enough to propel the song into full-on hit status. While in no way a master piece, it is filled with plenty of solid tracks and he has commendably not tried to “over pop” his music for the sake of some added sales. Here’s hoping that with the release of his new album Channel Orange his music can become the main talking point of discussion.Ĭhannel Orange is, by all accounts, a debut album. The brave act, seldom seen in the Hip Hop and RnB worlds, has been widely commended by his peers and fans alike. The buzz created has been enormous and his name has indeed been everywhere in recent weeks. Recent events have catapulted Frank Ocean into the public eye when he published an open letter on his tumblr airing the story of his unreciprocated first love for another man in his late teen years. Kelly or The-Dream, but while they have seen a decline in sales in recent years, Ocean has seen his fan base grow. In terms of raw vocal power Ocean’s vocal ability isn’t in any way as strong as other RnB singers such as R. Laced with artificial sounds and peculiar arrangements, it has allowed him to appeal to many different music audiences with his modern style but still maintain his large following of hard-core RnB fans.
His music is much more experimental and adventurous. His style of RnB isn’t the same as you would expect of the 90s styled practitioners. Despite gaining critical acclaim as a member of OFWGKTA (Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All) the Odd Future boys failed, as a group, to appeal to a diverse enough market and gain the levels of success Frank Ocean has received from solo releases, ‘Novacane’ and ‘Swim Good.’ It was his solo mixtape that caught the attention of Jay Z & Kanye West and earned him a spot on their album track ‘No Church In the Wild.’ He has even ghost written for stars such as Justin Beiber, John Legend and Beyonce.
Since making a splash with his mixtape ‘nostalgia, ULTRA’ last year, Frank Ocean has been going from strength to strength in the RnB music world.
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