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After a six-year hiatus from live shows, beloved R&B artist Frank Ocean made his long-awaited return to performing last weekend at Coachella — one of the largest music festivals in America. The 35-year-old, who is notoriously mysterious, garnered tons of hype leading up to his set. I myself am a huge fan of Ocean, so to hear that he was headlining gave me excitement, despite having no intention of flying out to California to see him. Unfortunately for everyone involved, the concert was a massive failure.

Ocean arrived on stage an hour late, gave a lackadaisical effort and ended his performance abruptly. To make matters worse, there was the last minute decision to cancel the livestream of the show. Since then, there has been plenty of discourse surrounding the odd nature of the performance and whether to blame fans’ lofty expectations or Ocean’s lack of professionalism. As fans, we need to look at this controversy as part of a bigger disconnect between ourselves and the artists we love.

Ocean is an enigma. Besides a few scattered singles, the California native hasn’t released new music since his globally acclaimed sophomore album “Blonde” back in 2016. The man is so self-kept that there are social media forums dedicated to “Frank Ocean sightings.” With how elusive Ocean is, it shouldn’t really come as a surprise to his fanbase that he wouldn’t put on a “normal” show following an extended radio silence. Beyond this, Ocean has no recent music to highlight, unlike the festival’s two other headliners, Bad Bunny and BLACKPINK, who both came out with projects in 2022. There’s a portion of the blame that falls on fans for their naivety.

That being said, Ocean clearly has explaining to do. He explicitly stated that he has never liked Coachella’s environment, and only agreed to attend as an ode to his late brother, with whom he’d attended the festival in the past. While his motivation was touching, at the end of the day, there’s a contractual agreement at hand, and thousands of people paid to see him. Some spectators waited nearly 12 hours in advance to get spots for the set. Even if Ocean’s performance was well-intentioned, the result was a broken promise that was simply disrespectful for those in attendance.

This dilemma speaks to an abuse of power by some artists toward their fans. Ocean doesn’t owe his fans new music, a massive performance or public visibility, but you can’t walk the line between celebrity and everyday man at the same time. He wasn’t forced to partake in Coachella, so fans had every right to assume his signing on was indicative of him taking the step back into the public. Trying to strike a balance between maintaining fame and practicing self-care shouldn’t be at the expense of those who put you in the position of influence. The hard truth is that stringing along one’s supporters, like Ocean did this past weekend, creates a toxic relationship and a cycle of building fans up and then letting them down.

While it may not be to the same degree, we’ve seen other artists leverage their fans’ interest in potential new music to stay in the limelight. A notable example would be Kanye West announcing projects like “Yandhi” and “Donda” without releasing them on their promised dates.

It doesn’t need to be this way, though. Take Kendrick Lamar, for example. The revered rapper came out with his Pulitzer-Prize winning album, DAMN, in 2017. His next release, “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers” didn’t arrive until last May. In the time between those two projects, Kendrick practically fell off the face of the earth with only a handful of shows and sparse social media presence — an improbable feat for the most acclaimed rapper of the 21st century. But by the time he was ready to share his latest work with the world, Kendrick resurfaced with a Super Bowl Halftime Show performance and eventually issued a non-cryptic album announcement a few months later. Not once during his absence did Kendrick ever give his following false hope regarding new music; there was never an ultimatum.

Meanwhile, Ocean’s behavior makes his fans choose between empathizing with him or holding him accountable. As an artist who has cultivated a fanbase through his lyrical vulnerability, it’s unfortunate that Ocean can’t be more transparent. True fans will wait as long as we need for new music or appearances. There’s no need to exploit our anticipation.

Jonah Weintraub is a sophomore broadcast and digital journalism major. His column appears biweekly. He can be reached at jsweintr@syr.edu.

Published on April 23, 2023 at 11:15 pm