I checked the Frank Ocean subreddit a day after the Homer launch. There’s a reason that the stereotype of modern pop fans is that they’re so devoted, you don’t call them fans you call them “stans.” Good music can feel like the most valuable commodity in the world to the people who consume it-and yet the economics of fame, among other factors, encourage artists to branch into other arenas. But they also show how musicians occupy a distinct cultural place that is different from that of a TikTok darling or fashion mogul. Such efforts offer reminders that pop stars are, on some level, just influencers with brands to monetize. The legions who follow Lady Gaga or Kendrick Lamar have lived through years in which their faves seemed to skip the recording studio to work on eye shadow or launching a creative agency. Kanye West diehards have both fist-pumped and grimaced through his shoe drops and political proclamations-and they are now having their patience tested as he keeps moving back the release date for his new album. Rihanna has spent much of the past five years building a successful fashion empire, but every time she posts about her Fenty Beauty brand, she’s swamped with comments asking about her next album. Here is one of the least-loved rituals of modern music fandom: getting hyped for something that turns out to not be music. Read: Frank Ocean, Harper Lee, and the reclusive artist The Homer website does stream music-but it’s a previously released album by the rapper 454, whom Ocean must be a fan of. The singer has opened a store in Manhattan and distributed a mail-order catalog to sell brightly colored, diamond-studded ornaments (plus some scarves) priced from $395 to $1.9 million. Ocean’s Homer project isn’t a sonic masterpiece, but a luxury brand focused on jewelry. Heartbreak did ensue for many fans, but not for the reason they expected. “I need to find a and get my heart broken real quick.” “Streets saying Frank Ocean dropping soon,” read a fan’s tweet that was shared more than 1,000 times. Each one is widely considered a classic of emotionally devastating, boundary-breaking R&B. Though he’s been one of the most-hallowed names in popular culture since about 2011, he’s only ever put out two full-fledged, traditionally released albums. Ocean, they guessed, was about to do a rare thing: release new music. “This is 3 years in the making and there is so so much I’m excited to share with all you strangers.”įans went berserk. Late last week, he began touting something called “Homer.” “My hope is to make things that last, that are hard to destroy, set it in stone,” he wrote over a picture of himself holding his hand to his heart. ET on August 16, 2021įive years to the month after releasing arguably the best album of the 2010s, the spotlight-shy Frank Ocean has emerged to share something with the world again.
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