Separating the performance art from the artist

Let me preface this by saying I absolutely adore Frank Ocean and have “Solo” on as I write this.

But, hate and love often fall close to one another, the through line being the passion and deep emotion they elicit. 

I don’t hate Frank Ocean. Not at all. His music helped me forge a relationship with one of my best friends in high school and has been a consistent force in my life since my senior year. But I can’t help but find myself full of frustration as I reflect upon my experience standing on the fields of the Empire Polo Club last Sunday night. 

Frank Ocean’s performance has been described as erratic and confusing, to which I can attest. As I’m sure you’ve already heard, he started an hour late, was on a stage where he was nearly impossible to see, had his set intercut by a 10-minute DJ set of remixed material and then began splitting his time between singing covers and dancing on stage in what could best be described as a glorified listening party. All of this occurred only to be curtailed mid-set at 12:20 — twenty minutes past the Indio curfew — before he even touched hits like “Ivy,” “Super Rich Kids” or “Thinkin Bout You.” 

Ocean’s ride-or-die defenders profusely explain that he is an artist, a performance artist, a perfectionist and that his art cannot be rushed. Ocean also lost his brother in 2020, when he was tragically killed at 18 years old in a car crash, something Ocean mentioned during his set. All of these points remain valid as artists, of course, do not owe their fans anything. Does anyone owe anyone anything, anyway?

Plus, of course, this was Ocean’s first official live performance in six years. It’s pretty fair to assume that he may not have worked out the kinks of the performance, especially when he was reportedly suffering from a physical injury. 

However, when you consider fans’ finances, the situation changes. Signing on to play at Coachella was a commitment three years in the making, so to show up with a set where you aren’t even singing half the time feels, at best, confusing and, at worst, disrespectful. The festival is a massive expense. Held in the middle of the desert in a town where only approximately 45,000 people typically reside, one must pay $179 with additional fees for a campsite. If staying at a hotel, one must pay for the $125 shuttle pass on top of the actual festival ticket, with the cheapest general admission ticket type costing $549 with additional fees unless you want a bundle for $649. It doesn’t help that the pricing breakdown is downright confusing.

Ocean’s performance drew people in droves, so much so that people were there waiting for his set when the festival began at noon. As I stood in the crowd, we were packed in like sardines. People all around me fainted, indicated by people shrieking “MEDIC! MEDIC! MEDIC!” after a day of standing in the nearly 90-degree heat and copious amounts of dust that turned our snot black. Perhaps such an unglamorous experience is so far removed from celebrities that they couldn’t even consider it, something made evident by Coachella’s VIP sections that sit in front of the area for us plebeians. But that can’t be true, with artists more aware of crowd crushing and overheating since the disaster at Astroworld in 2021. 

It’s still important to remember that we should not demand artists to meet our needs when it comes to their art. We cannot demand or expect art to be produced — no matter how much we think we “deserve” it or not, the next Frank album will come when it will. But what happened at Coachella was disrespectful to those who shelled out to see him. While Ocean doesn’t owe fans anything, he has a responsibility to hold up the contract, and, at the very least, sing more than 14 songs live and not interrupt with a DJ interlude in the middle of the performance. 

What he did perform was incredible, I only wish there was more of it. As he has now pulled out of Weekend 2, perhaps fans can have the space to consider what they should expect from a performer like Frank Ocean. Hopefully, they will not waste their time or money.