Roughly a week after announcing that he was gay, emerging R&B singer Frank Ocean‘s heavily-anticipated studio debut Channel Orange debuted at number two on the Billboard top 200.
Although Ocean sold over 130,000 records within a week, U.S. country act Zac Brown Band debuted at number one, nearly doubling Ocean’s sales with 234,000 records sold.
Despite receiving fairly minimal promotion, Ocean rode a wave of internet buzz, performing at major U.S. music festivals like April’s Coachella, and is due to appear at next month’s Lollapalooza in Chicago. Ocean also made his live television debut last week with a performance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
Despite surpassing sales expectations, mega retail chain Target notoriously opted not to carry the album. Previous rumblings inferred that the company did not support Ocean’s sexuality. However, those claims appeared to be unfounded, as iTunes had released an exclusive copy of Channel Orange a week before the physical copies were scheduled to be distributed. Due to the exclusive, Target had simply decided against carrying the album.
