Frank Ocean, Grammy nominated R&B singer, has mastered one thing that many artists have failed to understand. He has mastered an art form that has long lost its touch in recent years. What he has mastered is – suspense.
Frank Ocean waited four years in between his first album Chanel Orange and his second studio album Blonde. In today’s music scene, artists are releasing albums every year, sometimes double dipping and releasing multiple albums in a 365-day span.
Artists like Frank Ocean might be seen as old-fashioned seeing how some artists like Future pride themselves with being able to complete a mixtape in six days. However, is waiting in between album releases bad?
Music is an art form and is ultimately supposed to get an emotion out of someone. Whether the emotion is pain, loss, anger or love, music is supposed to make you feel something. I find it odd that artists are expected to release music at a fast pace.
Fans love their favorite artist, and want to get their hands on all of their music. But the concept of fans wanting give, give, give from musicians diminishes the artistry.
Some hip-hop artists are releasing music at such fast rates that their music begins to sound the same. An artist such as Future released two albums only a week apart. Don’t get me wrong, because there were hits on both the self-titled projects, but I found myself getting lost in the music. Not the good lost as if it were that compelling, but lost because I couldn’t tell the difference between songs. I felt I had heard many of the tracks and sound from Future before.
In addition, releasing music at such high volumes takes away from the excitement of music. Drake, for instance, has an immense and impressive body of work from albums to features, but now it seems he is relying on his popularity to carry his music. Songs like “Fake Love” are not among his most artistic songs, but they rise through the charts because he is Drake.
His music is not as exciting as it once was. That goes for many other artists as well. Artists are focusing more on releasing music to stay relevant than focusing on producing the best possible work.
I don’t want artists to stop releasing music. I want them to release music when it is their best. I would rather have one phenomenal LP with 12 songs released in a year than one album and three mixtapes released in a year. I, as a listener, will always prefer quality over quantity.
fieldsbj14@bonaventure.edu
