RASIE

4y

I appreciate the receipts, but tbh i was kinda expecting more than just 5 artists from the way you said "considering the amount of influence".

That's not to say Frank isn't influential, the guy started as a label songwriter for popular artists, he definitely has a network of people he's advised or been a sounding board for throughout his career. I just read your post and took it like you were saying the album pioneered a style that's saturated popular trends since its release.

Also kinda sad reading that Lorde didn't realize she could do whatever she wanted with instrumentation until she heard Blonde... That was established nearly 60 years ago and tons of artists have been doing it since. Like what was she listening to before Blonde? Haha

RASIE

4y

I appreciate the receipts, but tbh i was kinda expecting more than just 5 artists from the way you said "considering the amount of influence".

That's not to say Frank isn't influential, the guy started as a label songwriter for popular artists, he definitely has a network of people he's advised or been a sounding board for throughout his career. I just read your post and took it like you were saying the album pioneered a style that's saturated popular trends since its release.

Also kinda sad reading that Lorde didn't realize she could do whatever she wanted with instrumentation until she heard Blonde... That was established nearly 60 years ago and tons of artists have been doing it since. Like what was she listening to before Blonde? Haha

thegreatdivine

4y

In a lot of reviews for Blonde, critics admitted they had no idea what he was talking about on most songs or what the entire album was about but they still gave it glowing reviews simply because it was a new Frank Ocean album.

Campari

4y

I mean I only happened to list 5, there's more in Kevin Abstract, Zayn, Dominick Fike, Bryson Tiller, Tyler and Daniel Caesar.

I agree, I wouldn't say Blonde offers anything music has NEVER heard before considering Frank listened to Beach Boys & Beatles to get influenced himself but I think it's more accessible to today's musicians and younger generation.

In the past 10 years, I think both Kendrick and Frank took the same route in dropping a more left-field sophmore album. I know people were expecting Frank to go CO 2.0 and give us that same sound but for him to strip back the sound, experiment with production and fuse it with the influencers I mentioned, it struck a chord with people and garnered him more respect.

Grenouille

4y

I definitely think signs point to him not being a particularly nice person, and his radio silence to his fans throughout this vinyl debacle has been pretty dreadful.

But still, he’s absolutely not the first artist in the world to get a pass because of the quality of his work and he certainly won’t be the last.

Anyone who is saying things like “Blonde isn’t very good” is being contrarian for the sake of it. Frank has two outrageously good studio albums.

RCKY 2320

4y

the most overrated artist of our generation, he's still good tho but his stans and internet critics really conviced us all of this narrative just because he's a homosexual and mysterious

MORENAA

4y

He did takes some lyrics from Beatles songs, albeit interpolate

Ooo

4y

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.reddit.com/r/FrankOcean/comments/4zttap/apparently_frank_ocean_plagiarized_a_part_of_his/

RASIE

4y

I don't think you even have to go back that far tbh — Frank's fondness of the Beach Boys and Beatles certainly pops up in moments (obvs the interpolation), but there's certainly more players that factor into it (either directly or historically) than just Frank blending his vision with stuff from those two pop-culture giants.

Most of Blonde's stripped-down sonics always seemed to have more in common with things from the past 20 years or so to me than it does with those older household names. Like a good chunk of Jamie Stewart's work from the 2000s. From Xiu Xiu's lo-fi acoustic songs like "Fabulous Muscle" or their cover of Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car" — and just as important is Stewart's frequent mixing of those types of songs with abrasive tracks and others that flirt with Pop sounds together on the same album, much like Frank does with Blonde.

"Fabulous Muscles", "Crank Heart", I Luv the Valley OH!", "Clowne Towne", and "Nieces Pieces" all working together on an album despite standard expectations — not unlike the grouping of similar sounds to those in songs like "Pink + White", "Self-Control", "Pretty Sweet", and "Siegfried."

Also of note is numerous ways Stewart uses vocals to match the variety of stripped-down and upbeat atmospheres. Like on the album A Promise: the way he sticks to raw recording when he goes up in range on songs like "Sad Pony Guerilla Girl", the shouting chorus on "Apistat Commander" set against a shocking use of electronic noise that erupts from a relaxing beat; the way he reduces his singing to the point that it's almost a background effect on "Fast Car", and finishing the album with "Ian Curtis Wishlist" where he talks through unstructured verses set to an a simple sustained use of strings that switches to a crescendo of electric distortion. Examples like these are one of my immediate reference points when listening to Blonde, and for what I think is good reason.

Other than Stewart/Xiu Xiu, you also have the stripped down music of (Sandy) Alex G who Frank reached out to and basically had him brainstorm guitar chords while listening to plain vocal tracks Frank sent to him, and picked out what he liked and found most useful. (Alex G's work ended up on "Self-Control" and "White Ferrari", the latter of which circles back to what I said about a lot of Blonde having just as much in common, if not more, with certain recent artists than Beach Boys/Beatles.)

beflygelt

4y

lmao fam I love Xiu Xiu but I do not hear that influence on Blonde whatsoever

beflygelt

4y

the genius article literally says the author is "the most frequently quoted author on Goodreads."

And Frank does not in fact claim the words are his, but presents the text as something that was sent to a character. So in a way it is already marked as a quote.

So given those two facts there's imo obvious possible explanations which hint against the fact that he intended to "steal" intellectual property.

a) the possibility Frank was legitimately unaware it is a quote belonging to an author, because it was sent to him assuming he would recognige it as JoyBell but he didn't know her work and took it as original (unlicensed) material he could quote

b) the possibility Frank quoted the text without naming the author because it is literally one of the most quoted goodreads authors, and it made sense in-universe (of the screenplay) that someone would text someone else that quote without attributing it.

Additionally in that case you wouldn't have to credit the author on the same page, there could still be a credit at the end (as in a movie), and I don't know if anyone with a magazine has checked for that yet

beflygelt

4y

lmao fam I love Xiu Xiu but I do not hear that influence on Blonde whatsoever

Ooo

4y

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-feels-like-plagiarised-celebrity-c-joybell-c-
Peep this

RASIE

4y

I didn't say Xiu Xiu influenced Blonde — I said they were an example of an artist from the past few decades with traits that anticipated things found on Blonde, that I find as much of on that album as Beatles/Beach Boys. I said Alex G influenced Blonde.

But according to your RYM profile, every album I mentioned in that post is still on your wishlist, with your only logged albums being their releases from the last few years when I'm talking about stuff from the 2000s.

Tho I guess it makes sense that you wouldn't hear similarities between sounds on Blonde and albums you haven't listened to.

beflygelt

4y

yeah she's emotional over it but also she does not own a magazine and has really checked if there isn't already a credit. There's no substantial new info in there.

There's a myriad of possible reasons why Frank didn't comment on whatever some French magazine asked him, he probably didn't understand what they're talking about and didn't engage with it, that isn't really saying a lot. There isn't much he could engage with anyway, the thing was a limited print and it wasn't like he's going to return and replace copies

RASIE

4y

Btw if you can read this or quote me again, i blocked you after replying

RASIE

4y

I don't think you even have to go back that far tbh — Frank's fondness of the Beach Boys and Beatles certainly pops up in moments (obvs the interpolation), but there's certainly more players that factor into it (either directly or historically) than just Frank blending his vision with stuff from those two pop-culture giants.

Most of Blonde's stripped-down sonics always seemed to have more in common with things from the past 20 years or so to me than it does with those older household names. Like a good chunk of Jamie Stewart's work from the 2000s. From Xiu Xiu's lo-fi acoustic songs like "Fabulous Muscle" or their cover of Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car" — and just as important is Stewart's frequent mixing of those types of songs with abrasive tracks and others that flirt with Pop sounds together on the same album, much like Frank does with Blonde.

"Fabulous Muscles", "Crank Heart", I Luv the Valley OH!", "Clowne Towne", and "Nieces Pieces" all working together on an album despite standard expectations — not unlike the grouping of similar sounds to those in songs like "Pink + White", "Self-Control", "Pretty Sweet", and "Siegfried."

Also of note is numerous ways Stewart uses vocals to match the variety of stripped-down and upbeat atmospheres. Like on the album A Promise: the way he sticks to raw recording when he goes up in range on songs like "Sad Pony Guerilla Girl", the shouting chorus on "Apistat Commander" set against a shocking use of electronic noise that erupts from a relaxing beat; the way he reduces his singing to the point that it's almost a background effect on "Fast Car", and finishing the album with "Ian Curtis Wishlist" where he talks through unstructured verses set to an a simple sustained use of strings that switches to a crescendo of electric distortion. Examples like these are one of my immediate reference points when listening to Blonde, and for what I think is good reason.

Other than Stewart/Xiu Xiu, you also have the stripped down music of (Sandy) Alex G who Frank reached out to and basically had him brainstorm guitar chords while listening to plain vocal tracks Frank sent to him, and picked out what he liked and found most useful. (Alex G's work ended up on "Self-Control" and "White Ferrari", the latter of which circles back to what I said about a lot of Blonde having just as much in common, if not more, with certain recent artists than Beach Boys/Beatles.)