Frank Ocean Blonde Cover Art Frank Ocean Blonde Album Cover
So Is It Blond or Blonde?
Both—and the confusion over Frank Ocean's album title is sign of a wider rebellion from the artist-confronting-music-manufacture conventions.
Since The Atlantic has been publishing and so much virtually Frank Ocean lately, a colleague asked that someone articulate up a confusing linguistic issue: Is his album Blonde or Blond?
Both. The title of Frank Ocean'due south excellent and baroque new release is spelled different means in different official locations. On Ocean's own site, he has posted two album covers that don't characteristic the "e." On Apple Music, where the album is exclusively streaming, information technology is listed as being spelled with the "eastward." If Apple Music's listing were wrong, y'all'd retrieve Ocean and his team would insist it be inverse by now. Instead, Ocean posted a Tumblr picture with the explanation "Altogether cake for Blonde."
So it seems pretty clear past at present the ambivalence is intentional—and of a piece with Ocean's larger M.O. lately. "I got 2 versions" are his beginning words on the first piece of Blond(e) music released to the public, the music video for "Nikes." Incidentally, the version of that song that's actually on the album does not take Ocean saying that.
The most common theory for the meaning of the spelling duality is that the word "blonde" is a gendered adjective, referring to fair-haired women, while "blond" tin apply to anyone. That Bounding main'due south new album could be spelled either style might be a reflection of his own sexuality—lyrics on the anthology refer to relationships with both men and women.
Only I've actually taken to thinking about the "east" in Blond(e) in even more high-concept terms—a symbol of all the ambivalence that fascinates Ocean. The last song on Endless, the visual album he released 48 hours before Blond(eastward), is called "Higgs," which may or may not be a reference to the subatomic particle of the Higgs Boson. It'd make some sense if it was: The so-called "God particle" can either contain mass or not, nigh immediately disappears into nothingness later on coming into somethingness, was kickoff detected by humans in July 2012 (a few days before Ocean's album Channel Orange arrived!), and, of course, is prone to mis-explanation and misunderstanding by laymen like me.
Which is another manner of proverb the "e" is for "enigmatic."
* * *
That a highly anticipated release from a major artist doesn't have an agreed-upon title fits Ocean's apparent business mission in 2016, too. To borrow and pervert a buzzphrase, he'due south culture jamming, injecting some individuality into a corporatized system and, perchance, antagonizing it.
On Tuesday, news bankrupt that Ocean was no longer with the major characterization Def Jam and that Blond(e) had been released independently. A source told Pitchfork that Endless, the aforementioned visual album that immediately preceded Blond(e), "fulfills Frank'due south obligations to Def Jam and Universal."
Ocean isn't giving interviews, and Def Jam hasn't officially commented on the state of affairs, but this all seems similar some pretty remarkable maneuvering on the artist's role. He's previously had a strained relationship with his label, as seen when he put out his debut 2011 mixtape independently on his blog because, he said, Def Jam wouldn't release it officially. Endless is a incomparably un-album-like "album," a compilations of demo-similar vocal snippets accompanying a 45-minute video of Ocean building a staircase. You can't buy the tracks individually or buy any of it in the iTunes store—you can merely stream the full video on Apple tree Music.
Blond(e), it would stand to reason, is going to make more than money than Endless for the simple fact that it'south actually for auction. In releasing Countless to fulfill his record contract and so immediately releasing the more anticipated and more monetizable Blond(e) independently, he may be denying the conglomerate he used to piece of work for their biggest potential payday from him yet.
Forbes reports that Universal Music Grouping, Def Jam'south parent company and currently America's best-selling tape company, is non happy:
For UMG, Blonde has led to a massive rift with one of its primal artists and a decision to decouple itself from the lucrative, but oft criticized do of providing exclusive streaming rights. On Mon, music industry analyst and critic Bob Lefsetz reported that UMG CEO Lucian Grainge sent an email to other executives stating that the company, which represents artists like Drake and Kanye West, would end all exclusives with music streaming companies similar Apple. At least two sources confirmed to FORBES that his determination was influenced partly by Ocean's motion to partner with Apple for his newest anthology.
Information technology would be a major modify for the music mural if Universal really did start blocking exclusives: Huge artists similar Drake, Kanye West, and Rihanna are on the visitor's roster and have all released exclusives to either Apple or Tidal this year. Ocean ditching a label and releasing music merely through Apple tree is a move that, when taken with his friend Hazard the Rapper's independent release of his acclaimed Coloring Book via Apple, is a sign of why labels might want to ban exclusives. Non simply do they limit the potential reach of a work of music, simply they also represent an opportunity for artists to make money and distribute their products without a record deal.
Of course, angering Universal comes with big risks because it represents a loss of resources and, perhaps more importantly, the potential burning of bridges with important people in the industry. The situation might assist explain Kanye West 's Twitter tirade yesterday: " If anyone at radio actually loves music ... Come together and pick your favorite Frank Ocean song and play it at to the lowest degree x times a day. [ …] Every station across the world. I Centre. Clear Channel local stations. Satellite. Every station. This will make the world better. "
Ocean may have even been trolling his new corporate patron Apple past having Endless close with a Wolfgang Tillman vocal that satirically extols the virtues of the iPhone—and also the devices of competitors Sony and Samsung. In that location are few to no major musicians working today wholly contained of big-business alliances, merely y'all can imagine Ocean would someday similar to be. This is someone who once backed out of singing in a Chipotle ad, and then posted online that he returned the company's payment of $212,500 with a check that said "FUCK OFF." This is someone who put out an album and wouldn't tell anyone the proper manner to spell its name.
Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/08/blond-or-blonde-frank-ocean-spelling-album-def-jam-universal-exclusives/497204/
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