There is a series of stages that come with being a Frank Ocean fan.
The first being admiration, where his music enthrals you. Then wonder, the stage where you learn about who he is and what has shaped his art. Then it’s denial, where you learn that he hasn’t dropped an album in nearly a decade, but somehow you convince yourself he will this year. Then, finally, it’s realization. The realization that it won’t happen regardless of how much you wish it would with all your might.
I bring this up because Frank Ocean is one of those artists who people seem to think they understand – an artist that “owes” his fans new music. In actuality, artists don’t owe you anything.
Maybe this is controversial, but I’m a firm believer that art takes time. Whether that time be a couple months or a couple years, artists know what they want. I’d rather listen to something Frank Ocean full-heartedly believes in than something half-baked that he dropped because Joe Schmo on Reddit said he needed to. But unfortunately, it feels like some artists drop for the hell of it.
Take October’s very own, Drake. A chronic over-dropper. 30 songs every album. An hour and a half. Every. Single. Year.
Drake feeds into what his fans want. They want music, and they will listen regardless of whether it’s good or not. That’s part of the problem. Mainstream listeners will pick up any garbage that their favorite artist listens to, and it programs artists like Drake and Taylor Swift to put out these minimal effort projects because A) they can, and B) their fans want new music. It feels like art has lost its best quality – singularity.
The mentality that artists owe us new music pressures musicians into corners of conformity, destroying anything that once stood out about an artist. The number of times I see comments tagging artists like Frank, Phoebe Bridgers, and Rihanna is annoying. They know when they want their music to be released. You don’t.
When art is nurtured, artists hit their stride. It sounds corny, but you can feel when an artist puts their all into a project. The music flows together, exudes a sense of personality, and represents the artists’ full artistic vision. If we constantly rush things, we receive music that is lifeless and rushed. Would you rather wait a year for a project that’s a 4 or seven years for a project that’s a 9?
Fan culture has shoved this question down our throat, and it’s part of the reason why stan culture is so problematic. So many artists have so much talent that is thrown away because the “fans” want more; there’s no sense of satisfaction. And it goes beyond Drake. A lot of mainstream musicians fall into this trap of insincere, mediocre music.
So I bring up Frank Ocean as the prime example of artists who don’t owe their fans anything because I used to think he did. It’s easy to think that the listeners, the people who made him famous, are owed more music because they gave him this life. However, making music is incredibly difficult and it transcends a lot of artists’ personal lives when it should not. Musicians are humans too. I wouldn’t want to be writing and making music I didn’t love. It’s a reflection of the way you view your fans. If you drop a crappy project and know it sucks, chances are you aren’t making the music for yourself, and that pollutes the way your fans listen.
Stans have made it so that artists feel obligated to make music, but they should not. Artists don’t owe us anything, so stop making them feel like they do.