Frank Ocean fans find it both interesting and perplexing: why does Frank Ocean wear headphones in concert? No other artist does that! Well, he has good reasons. Let’s discuss.
Table of Contents
Frank Ocean was born in California on 28th October 1987. He is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, photographer, and visual artist renowned for his peculiar music style.
He spent his childhood days in New Orleans but later moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in music.
He was first introduced to music by his mother, who used to play jazz music on her car stereo. Ocean frequently went to jazz bars with his mother, which encouraged him to make his own music. So to have funds for a recording, he did various part-time jobs like washing cars or taking his neighbor’s dog for a walk.
Ocean started with ghostwriting tracks for famous pop stars like Justin Bieber. He achieved fame in 2011 when he released the mixtape of his music called ‘nostalgia Ultra.’
Later his albums “Channel Orange’ and ‘Blonde’ made him famous all over the world. The “Channel Orange” album was released in 2012 and was nominated for Album of the year and won best urban contemporary Album at 2013 Grammy awards.
Blonde was released in 2016 and debuted as the number one on the US billboard 200, and was certified platinum by the recording industry association of America.
Frank Ocean always wears headphones during his live performances, something that many of his fans and critics find very peculiar. Let’s find out which headphones he was wearing and why he wears them at concerts.
Why Does Frank Ocean Wear Headphones?
#1. Noise Cancelling
Frank Ocean wears sound-canceling earmuffs so that he can be isolated from the audience. He is, at heart, a studio musician, and he wants to recreate that environment even when he is performing live. The noise-canceling feature protects his hearing, reduces environmental distractions, and he can enjoy a better audio experience.
The main benefit of this headphone is that it reduces the sounds of the ambient atmosphere. The technology in these headphones blocks or filters the sound waves of high frequency using passive or active responses. So they reduce the stress level at the performance of the performer and provide peace of mind.
Noise-canceling earphones also protect your eardrums. It sounds which are less than 75 decibels are safe for your ear. But in live concerts, sounds can go above and beyond this level and reach into the early 100s too. It is always a good idea for recording artist to cover their eardrums and protect themselves from such harmful noise levels.
So, I believe that all budding singers out there should emulate Frank Ocean and should wear noise-canceling headphones while performing because the constant loud sound can greatly damage the ears.
But there are some limitations you may face while wearing these headphones, like it may cost you many times compared to the standard pair. They are pretty heavy to wear. They require a power source to be helpful for the performer in order to remove the background noise.
#2. Hearing The Backing Track And Vocals
The earmuffs that the Frank Ocean wear at the concert have monitors in them to hear the backing track and vocals. It enables him to listen to the music in an accurate and detailed way. So this may be the cup of everyone’s tea.
An experienced singer or someone who usually performs singing on stage like Frank Ocean needs to use monitor headphones. You can listen to your favorite tunes with these monitor headphones.
The monitor headphones provide comfort to the user and have no boosted bass. They have wide and flat frequency responses and are pretty robust. The best thing is they block out the unnecessary noise which may disturb a singer.
Which Headphone Does Frank Ocean Wear?
Frank Ocean mainly wears two types of headphones. They are as follows.
#1.Peltor Earmuffs
The Frank ocean manly wears 3M Peltor earmuffs. The sound quality of these earmuffs is not that good, but the isolation is excellent.
The 3M Peltor earmuffs have a stainless-steel headband for consistent force and adequate hearing protection. The band also helps to reduce the heat build-up with good fit and balance. It has a noise protection rating of around 31 decibels. The ear cups tilt to ensure a customized fit and comfort for the user.
#2. Vic Firth Isolation Headphones
In some of his concerts, he has been seen wearing Vic Firth isolation headphones, and that alone seems self-explanatory. Frank Ocean wants to be alone.
These headphones are typically reserved for drummers who are trying to cut out all the other sounds. Again, he’s a studio musician, and, despite the thousands of people in the audience, he wanted to recreate his ideal environment.
You might also like to read: Can Beats Studio 3 Headphones Get Wet
Wrap Up
Frank Ocean is recognized for his unique music style, songwriting, and wide vocal range. The ocean always tries to grapple with the theme of youth, innocence, lost love, loneliness, desire, and mortality. He always tries to present the theme with something fresh and extraordinary. That’s Why he is one of the distinguished artists today. Well, now he is 33 years old, and within these 33 years, he has received many prestigious awards for his work. His way of singing and the albums are famous all over the globe. People of all ages love to hear his music.
Well, he always wears headphones at the time of singing to isolate himself and concentrate only on singing. The headphones protect his eardrums and listen to such things which the audience is not able to hear. The headphones provide him with a direct source of sound.
I hope this article has helped you know about a great singer, i.e., Frank Ocean, and the type of headphones he wears at the time of singing or why he used to wear headphones during his concert.
Please do share your suggestions for this article. Let us know if there are other artists who you follow who also wear headphones in concert