{"id":186,"date":"2019-12-30T22:11:41","date_gmt":"2019-12-30T22:11:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/?p=186"},"modified":"2020-04-25T23:43:28","modified_gmt":"2020-04-25T23:43:28","slug":"ivy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/201x-favorites\/ivy\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIvy\u201d \u2013 Frank Ocean"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Frank Ocean - Ivy\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AE005nZeF-A?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Frank Ocean has taken the idea of rejecting labels to previously unthinkable extremes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the most literal sense, he self-released his debut mixtape in 2011 after getting fed up with his treatment by Def Jam. In 2016 he streamed a relatively lackluster \u201cvisual album\u201d called <em>Endless<\/em> to technically fulfill that Def Jam contract, then less than a day later he self-released his acclaimed <em>Blonde<\/em> LP as a truly free artist.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After taking home two Grammy Awards for his official debut album <em>Channel Orange<\/em>, Frank rejected the significance of that \u201cGrammy winner\u201d label by withholding <em>Blonde<\/em> from submission to any categories in 2017, saying, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/world\/americas\/frank-ocean-blonde-endless-interview-a7421496.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">I\u2019d rather this be my Colin Kaepernick moment.<\/a>\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Frank rejected the Cooksey name he was given at birth, in doing so rejecting the father who abandoned him only to sue him years later with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.huffpost.com\/entry\/frank-ocean-gay-slur-libel_n_59e8f19fe4b0df10767b9de2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">frivolous slander claim<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Frank has consistently rejected labeling his sexuality, following the 2012 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/frank-ocean-opens-up-about-his-sexuality-245092\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Tumblr post<\/a> in which he famously opened up about his attraction to men.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Frank rejects being called an R&amp;B singer. After his debut single \u201cNovacane\u201d received accolades for breaking new ground in R&amp;B, Frank summed up his frustration with that loaded label to <a href=\"https:\/\/thequietus.com\/articles\/07450-frank-ocean-interview\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Quietus<\/a>: \u201cIf you&#8217;re a singer and you&#8217;re black, you&#8217;re an R&amp;B artist. Period.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Occasionally, Frank rejects being called a musician full stop. He told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/music\/2012\/dec\/13\/frank-ocean-would-be-best\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Guardian<\/a> in 2012, \u201cIt would be fucking legendary if I just made Channel Orange last year, then put out a best-selling novel next year, then, you know, designed an arena in Stockholm in 2014! I don&#8217;t know!\u201d He put it more succinctly to the BBC: \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/entertainment-arts-16390456\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">I make pop culture.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Frank Ocean has been called \u201ca mirror to the millennial generation\u201d (not just because he\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stereogum.com\/1834828\/don-henley-thinks-frank-ocean-is-a-talentless-little-prick-and-doesnt-like-kanye-west-either\/wheres-the-beef\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">made an enemy of uber-boomer Don Henley<\/a>, though that doesn\u2019t hurt). If it\u2019s true, it\u2019s largely due to his absolute rejection of the labels through which previous generations have systematically wielded authority. Frank will not allow his creative expression to be defined by the old guard\u2019s way of doing business; he will not accept meaningless honors from industry elites whose award shows prop up outdated power structures; he will not keep the name passed on to him by a patriarch who didn\u2019t raise him; he will not allow society to tag him with one sexual identity or another; and he will rebuff any expectations, musical or otherwise, that his rabid fans might hold, no matter how much they plead (or <a href=\"https:\/\/pitchfork.com\/news\/drake-booed-off-stage-at-camp-flog-gnaw-by-fans-expecting-frank-ocean-as-surprise-headliner\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">boo Drake<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Frank has earned his position of power through his talent, focus and labor. His independent streak doesn\u2019t seem to come from some broad, political vision of how the music industry or society ought to work \u2013 he\u2019s doing what he feels is right for himself, because he doesn\u2019t need to do otherwise. This creates an intense contradiction at the heart of Frank fandom. In rejecting all labels, Frank represents the authentic millennial ideal; yet in deifying Frank and what they want him to represent, his fans have created a new pack identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a way, the cult of Frank represents what\u2019s happening around the world as elites fall and their systems atrophy. There\u2019s an initial sense of populist justice in watching old hierarchies crumble and hearing the voices of old gatekeepers fade. But the collapse of the elites creates a vacuum, and rather than an egalitarian utopia emerging, we\u2019re seeing new tribes form around identity-centric dogma in an escalating war to define civilization\u2019s new rules.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Frank Ocean is what he is because his music is exceptional. I don\u2019t think <em>Channel Orange<\/em> and <em>Blonde<\/em> completely live up to their hype, but I\u2019m not sure it\u2019s fair to expect them to. Frank\u2019s influence on the sound of popular music in the 2010s is undeniable, and his best tracks \u2013 \u201cNovacane,\u201d \u201cPyramids,\u201d \u201cBad Religion\u201d \u2013 are unimpeachable.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My favorite Frank song is \u201cIvy.\u201d I don\u2019t have any great reason why it should be more important or meaningful than any other song. It\u2019s a quietly perfect guitar ballad, a humble, intimate gem that reveals Frank\u2019s humanity. Ironically it\u2019s his ability to express that humanity that\u2019s transformed him into a superhuman idol, but I think that says less about Frank, or about millennials, than it says about the state of the world previous generations so brutally pillaged before giving to us. Frank Ocean shows us the possibility of an authentically human future that we might never see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Frank Ocean has taken the idea of rejecting labels to previously unthinkable extremes. In the most literal sense, he self-released his debut mixtape in 2011 after getting fed up with his treatment by Def Jam. In 2016 he streamed a relatively lackluster \u201cvisual album\u201d called Endless to technically fulfill that Def Jam contract, then less&hellip; <\/p>\n<div class=\"readmore-wrapper\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/201x-favorites\/ivy\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[36],"class_list":["post-186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-201x-favorites","tag-frank-ocean"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ivy - Frank Ocean | Rich Bradley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"&quot;Ivy&quot; is a quietly perfect guitar ballad, a humble, intimate gem that reveals Frank Ocean&#039;s humanity.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/201x-favorites\/ivy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ivy - Frank Ocean | Rich Bradley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&quot;Ivy&quot; is a quietly perfect guitar ballad, a humble, intimate gem that reveals Frank Ocean&#039;s humanity.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/201x-favorites\/ivy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"RB.org\/songs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/richlbradley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/richlbradley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-12-30T22:11:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-04-25T23:43:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/scott3icon.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rich Bradley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@rlbradley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@rlbradley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rich Bradley\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/201x-favorites\/ivy\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/201x-favorites\/ivy\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rich Bradley\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/#\/schema\/person\/20a932bf4ce1b2724037a850355d507c\"},\"headline\":\"\u201cIvy\u201d \u2013 Frank Ocean\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-12-30T22:11:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-04-25T23:43:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/201x-favorites\/ivy\/\"},\"wordCount\":764,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/#\/schema\/person\/20a932bf4ce1b2724037a850355d507c\"},\"keywords\":[\"Frank Ocean\"],\"articleSection\":[\"201X Favorites\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/201x-favorites\/ivy\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/201x-favorites\/ivy\/\",\"name\":\"Ivy - 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