This Guardian interview with Lil Nas X is good, but this description of Frank Ocean's music makes me want to facepalm. Nobody ever says that straight people who sing about relationships are exploring their sexuality in their music.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/apr/04/lil-nas-x-i-100-want-to-represent-the-lgbt-community
I don't listen to Troye Sivan so I can't speak to any characterizations of his music, but Frank Ocean's stuff is just music about relationships and unrequited love and breakups, and nostalgia for lost youth, and it's beloved by straight boys crying over breakups.
BTW, the other thing that The Guardian got wrong is that the beat Lil Nas X bought off of YouTube, "illegally sampled," NIN. It wasn't an illegal sample, Trent Reznor released that album under the Creative Commons License allowing for derivative works with attribution.
Like, if you're going to talk about the NIN sample that's used in Old Town Road, get things right. Just because a lot of artists have gone around suing rappers for copyright infringement over samples doesn't mean the NIN sample was infringement. It was allowed under the license.
It was a big freaking deal back in 2008 when Ghosts I-IV was released online under the Creative Commons license after Trent Reznor got pissed off at his old label for threatening to sue him over putting instrumentals from past albums online for fans to have fun with.
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