Frank Ocean Analysis

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Recommended: Homosexuality in today's society

Christopher Edwin Breaux, later Christopher Francis Ocean, and more formally known as, Frank Ocean, is one of the most inspiring artists of this generation. Frank Ocean speaks of many controversial social and cultural issues through his music and writings. Most artists are afraid to incorporate these issues into their music due to fear of backlash from their audience. Some issues in particular that Frank addresses are homosexuality and racism. Both of which are extremely eminent in today’s society, being real issues in that the majority of our population have to unfortunately experience. However, Frank does a superb job as an artist with a large platform, to address them and make people aware. Frank Ocean is an African-American male who grew …show more content…

One example of this is in Frank’s earlier work from his first album, Nostalgia, Ultra in 2011. A specific line that supports the LGBTQ community is, “I believe that marriage isn’t between a man and woman, but, between love and love.” (Frank Ocean, “We All Try”, 2011). 2011 was a time where, I believe, homophobia was at it’s peak. Ocean was able to express that it is perfectly normal to love who you love and to not listen to those telling you that same-sex marriage is wrong. Another outlet that Frank uses to get his thoughts out is the website Tumblr. He spoke out on behalf of the horrific shooting in Orlando at Pulse Nightclub which was a hate crime toward the LGBTQ community in his blog. He states, “I daydream on the idea that maybe all this barbarism and all these transgressions against ourselves is an equal and opposite reaction to something better happening in this world, some great swelling wave of openness and wakefulness out here.” (Ocean, 2016). Frank cleverly uses his words to create imagery for his audience to picture a world without hate. The theme of his writing was about how homophobia is still present in today’s society but, that he still hopeful for a better future. Atlantic Magazine published an article that analyzed Ocean’s response to the Pulse Nightclub shooting. They incorporated what others reactions were to Frank’s response, into the article. “One user confessed to never having had gay friends because, they now realize, society has trained them to avoid gay people.” (Kornhaber, 2016). This just goes to show how people feel about homosexuality. Our society HAS taught people how to feel about things and I think that it is time people become their own person and feel what they want to feel. I believe that Frank Ocean uses his voice in a positive manner to make his audience more aware of everything that is going on

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