On July 10, 2012, the world was given an opus of pure heart, soul, and game changing r&b in the form of Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange. Debuting at number two on the Billboard 200 chart, the album was filled with a combination of psychedelic, electro, pop, jazz, R&B, and experimental sounds. The pensive lyricism from Ocean placed listeners into a world where love, life, drugs, sex, relationships, and class from a surrealist viewpoint encapsulated them.
The album spawned several singles, including the Grammy Award-winning “Thinkin Bout You”. The single preceded the album release and was paired with a heartfelt note from Ocean detailing him falling in love with a man, his first love. That letter resonated throughout the music industry and society simultaneously, cementing “Thinkin Bout You” being about a Black queer man’s experience navigating love – an unheard moment for a such a mainstream r&b/hip hop artist.
Now a decade after the album’s release, its impact is still relevant today and a viral Twitter thread reminded the world of that.
Frank Ocean’s debut album Channel Orange was released 10 years ago today. 📺🍊
Here’s a thread with some fun facts about the album ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/hnpDGYF5s2
— Frank Ocean Updates (@blahnded) July 10, 2022
Posted by Frank Ocean Updates (@blahnded), the Twitter account highlighted a few fun facts about the album. Get lost in these:
Ocean’s album name is influenced by grapheme-color synesthesia, a phenomenon in which individuals associate letters and numbers with colors. Playing on that phenomenon, he describes orange as the color he connects with falling in love during one summer.
Frank named the album after the color that reminded him of the summer he first fell in love pic.twitter.com/IVIO95bXXT
— Frank Ocean Updates (@blahnded) July 10, 2022
Making music resemble the structure you sing about, like in “Pyramids” is pretty iconic.
The synth notes in Pyramids form a Pyramid shape pic.twitter.com/W3TKF7xmaf
— Frank Ocean Updates (@blahnded) July 10, 2022
Ocean is a cinephile, and makes that very known in his shout outs to various films in his songs, especially in Channel Orange.
Throughout the entire album, Frank pays homage to classic films multiple times including Quentin Tarantino’s “Jackie Brown”, Robert Zemeckis’ “Forrest Gump” and the iconic Cleopatra.
✍️ (@blondedblog) pic.twitter.com/z11zR8NjZx
— Frank Ocean Updates (@blahnded) July 10, 2022
And while different organizations attempted to hinder the release of Channel Orange…
Target refused to sell Channel Orange nationwide. It’s alleged that since they donate to non-equal rights organizations that they chose not to support the album’s rollout, which should’ve hindered its first week sales as Frank chose to release it exclusively through iTunes pic.twitter.com/zVPK1zDj3I
— Frank Ocean Updates (@blahnded) July 10, 2022
Channel Orange still became one of the most critically acclaimed albums of its year and is still the most acclaimed R&B debut album out there.
Upon release, Channel Orange was met with unanimous critical acclaim which would very quickly lead the album to become the most acclaimed and appreciated album of the year!
It remains the most acclaimed R&B debut album of all time. pic.twitter.com/eGqgp8nJrt
— Frank Ocean Updates (@blahnded) July 10, 2022
You can check out the full thread here and maybe take some time to listen to the masterpiece that is Channel Orange.