Award-winning study names Frank Ocean the 21st century’s most influential artist
Consortium for Mathematics and its Applications (COMAP).
You’re part of the math; the math, the math, the math, the math. —Lonny Breaux (Frank Ocean), “Math.”
Frank Ocean is the most influential artist of this millennium, mathematically speaking.
Ethan Shelburne, Clare Heinbaugh, and Stuart Thomas—an undergraduate trio from the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia—beat over 16,000 university-level teams at COMAP’s 2021 International Mathematical Contest in Modeling by designing a quantitative way to evaluate any musician’s direct and indirect influence in both their own and other genres. Their model ranked Ocean’s impact on the musical landscape above that of all his peers over the past two decades.
Read the award-winning academic paper “Sonic and Iconic” below—or download it as a PDF, courtesy of Stuart Thomas and COMAP.
Ethan Shelburne, Clare Heinbaugh & Stuart Thomas, “outstanding winners” of the 2021 MCM, held on February 4–8 (Photo: W&M).
Related Articles:
Blonde joins singles “Novacane” and “Thinkin Bout You” in the distinction. Channel Orange remains certified gold.