Thesis: Frank Ocean’s “Blonde” is the swan song of the conceptual album, a thematically streamlined masterpiece exploring sexuality, materialism, and race through the dual lens of his own deeply personal experiences as both a perpetrator and victim of circumstances created by those issues.

How to tie the sources in: 

Album:

For the album, I’ll be using the cover art with the band aid and alternate spelling and tying it in to theme of sexuality/masculinity through the chris brown fight. Introduction to all themes in Nikes, through song/video.  Beat switch in Nights directly in middle of album – emphasis on duality, change in production style, transition from active to passive lyrical content, frustration with themes (solo reprise) . Explain how themes from one song tie into the other. Ex. From Ivy to pink+white (relationships), from pink+white to be yourself (self-reliance). Last few songs transitioning from frustration to acceptance ex. (godspeed-futura free) (how far is a lightyear 9.4x1012km, song is 9.4 min) 

Nikes video:

Partying, drugs (materialism), explicit sexuality, pictures of asap yams/pimp c/trayvon martin (race), shift in verse lines up with shift in cinematography (duality), tie in to song as introduction

Coming out letter:

Tie into theme of sexuality, contrast to the chris brown fight, tie into duality

Chris brown fight report:

Tie into sexuality/masculinity, contrast to coming out letter, tie into duality

Streamlined phases of album:

Stages of grief:

• Denial of issues from a personal or relationship(breakup) standpoint (nikes)
• Anger  (ivy)
• Bargaining pink&white (idea of “we have no control anyways, so why not just go with it”, weather analogies) to eventual depression (realizing the weather will destroy everything anyways)
• Good guy is acceptance (self reliance) and also solo (comfortable being lonely/ending on perfect authentic cadence)

Reminiscence: 

-skyline to-first half of nights frank reminisces on his past relationships in a stream of consciousness delivery

Frustration:

-Andre 3000 was a very deliberate choice for solo reprise, jaded artist with a frustrated verse sets the tone

-Facebook story

Frustration/letting go transition:

White Ferrari: Frank chooses to see the beauty in an old relationship before he truly found his first love (another man as referenced in letter)

Letting go:

Siegfried: acceptance that he will never fit in to the “american dream”

Godspeed/futura free: realizing it’s okay to let go

Rough Idea-

In less than a month, an election is taking place. For some people, that election has already begun, as early polling and mail ins have been opened already in some places and are opening in more very soon. I am not old enough to vote yet, and this time around I am feeling somewhat relieved that it is not my duty to pick the lesser of two evils. However the time will eventually come when I am called upon to fulfill my responsibility as an American citizen and decide what is right for the country, in my own eyes. Therefore I have been examining the issue thoroughly, and one thing that kind of disturbs me is the amount of people on both sides of the spectrum twisting facts, spewing misinformation and identifying themselves too much with a certain party, some to the point of blatant disregard for the rights of the people around them. People blindly follow, and are therefore blindly influenced. Desperate to abide by the status quo of their respective communities, people en masse sacrifice their individuality in order to thoroughly align themselves with certain followings. In these cult-like followings, the leaders wield the influence to dictate popularity in all sectors- fashion, music, other people, even science and politics. Considering the incredulous followings some of these leaders possess, millions of theoretical votes are potentially a single check away. The platforms they use to entertain their cults- twitter, tik tok, instagram- all grant the ability to convey messages at their fingertips. I am really just talking about social media “influencers”, but in all seriousness, it’s pretty scary how much sway over their fans these influencers have. The exigence of the matter is that there is an election coming up, and I believe “influencers” with the power to turn the voting tide in entire states have been knowingly (or unknowingly) weaponizing their followings in order to avoid backlash by the status quo they have created. Whether through miniature expressions of political opinion sprinkled into content followed by pleas to attend the polls (jenner, etc), or straight up vote buying (Mongeau), this is already taking place.

Thesis-  Influencers are able to manipulate and weaponize their millions of followers on command, but there is absolutely no way to stop them from deciding the outcome of elections.