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Target Refuses To Sell Frank Ocean's New Album
By
Jen Carlson
Published Jul 12, 2012
Modified Jul 12, 2012
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Jul 12, 2012
Modified Jul 12, 2012
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Frank Ocean, the R&B virtuoso and member of Odd Future, who just revealed a bit of his personal life with the world after writing a letter about his same-sex first love, is dropping his album Channel Orange on July 17th. The album has been streaming on his Tumblr, and he digitally released it on iTunes already. The latter fact is Target's reason for refusing to carry the album—but since the company has been under fire for donating to anti-gay groups, their motivation is being questioned.
The company released a statement saying: "At Target, we focus on offering our guests a wide assortment of physical CDs, so our selection of new releases is dedicated to physical CDs rather than titles that are released digitally in advance of the street date." According to Rolling Stone, Ocean's manager, Christian Clancy, Tweeted (then deleted) this: "Target has refused to carry Frank's album because of iTunes exclusive. Interesting since they also donate to non-equal rights organizations."He then Tweeted: "note to self: take your own advice. emotional knee jerk reacting isn't the move," and later, "I apologize for my comments about Target. They are not carrying Franks album because it went digital first. Not for ANY other reason." But his original reaction was understandable, given the company's past. After all, the store does carry Kanye West's and Jay-Z's Watch The Throne, which was also digitally released in advance.
Target says the claims "are absolutely false," and noted that they have sold albums from Ricky Martin, Adam Lambert, and Elton John in the past. They also totally have a good friend who's gay.
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channel orange
frank ocean
target
Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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