Frank Ocean's "Channel Orange" #2 on Billboard Charts

Welp, Frank did it [And without a radio single] …
Frank Ocean’s new album ‘Channel Orange’(which is in stores today), will debut on Billboard this week at #2 with an estimated 130k units sold after being released exclusively through Itunes last week. Although his album had a non-traditional promotions and marketing plan, this puts Frank in the arena of Chris Brown, whose ‘Fortune’ album sold 135k in it’s first week, and Usher’s ‘Looking 4 Myself’ album which sold 128k its first week.
Of Course, Frank drummed up tons of publicity after he posted a letter to his tumblr, revealing his first love was a guy, however he delivered a solid album which prompted even more sales through word of mouth. All week, ‘Channel Orange’ remained a top trending topic as celebs like Kim Kardashian, famed video director Anthony Mandler and Adele (who congratulated him on having a ‘stunning’ album) tweeted about ‘Channel Orange’, while artists like 50 Cent and Jamie Foxx spoke highly of his music in interviews.
Jermaine Dupri even took to his blog last week and revealed that ‘Channel Orange’ got him excited for R&B again [Nevermind that it's purposely categorized as Pop in Itunes]. He wrote:

When I saw the # that Frank Ocean is suppose to hit next week, I got extremely happy. I said I need to get in my car and and listen to this album. By the time I got to “Sweet Life,” I was even more happy. Finally!! an RnB album that’s hip, with out having the same 5 rappers on every song,I actually hope he hits 200k, for the sake of RnB. It’s in the worst position it’s ever been since I started making music. The Record company’s don’t believe in it, Radio won’t play it if it don’t have a rapper,and a majority of the artist that are labeled RnB,are confused and lost,so I repeat,I hope Ocean sells more than the 125k that he’s on pace for,maybe these executives u’ll wake the f-ck up,or at least try to copy what he’s doing,like they always do, by the way,the end of “Pyramids” jammin like a muf-cka.

Meanwhile, if you are wondering why Frank’s album does not come with an R&B label, he explained it a little in a recent interview with Elliott Wilson:

I’m going to borrow a line from Duke Ellington and say it’s “beyond category.” Pharrell has told me to say I’m a singer/songwriter, because that’s what I really am. I don’t want to step off into the “Don’t label me because I’m black” realm, but I would say any artist that is killing it right now has long since abandoned genre and expanded past certain labels. Via Respect

The first week success of Frank’s album can almost be compared to Usher’s ‘Confessions’. ‘Confessions’ flew off of the shelves because most of us believed it was a true story revolving around Usher’s break up with his ex-girlfriend [Chilli]. We later found out it was Jermaine Dupri’s story, but the bottomline is that, we were connected to the album through a back story. In Frank’s case, he drew a deeper connection with his fans by providing a back story of heartbreak (or Unrequited love), a week before the album was released. Some call it a marketing gimmick, I call it genius.
Loving someone who doesn’t love you back is a story that we all can relate to. Frank told great stories on his album while displaying real emotion and that’s exactly what is missing in

R&B music nowadays.