I Think Frank Ocean Has Tinnitus...

Used to perform like this...



And now performs like this...




I really love his music, I hope he doesn't have tinnitus.

But at the same time if he really has it, I'm glad he's taking care of his hearing...
And he makes Peltor muffs look cool!! plus I'm also a singer and now I won't feel weird to perform with Peltor muffs on

 

Looks like they're not just muffs, but muffs with headphones in them. I'm not sure how much more sound they block over the in-ears he was wearing before. It might be just a fashion statement
Or he lost his in-ears or something.

By the way, Paul Gilbert did this in reverse. He started with muffs/headphones and now wears in-ears.

 

I saw Frank Ocean in concert about a month ago and was wondering the same thing!! It looked pretty striking on stage, and at first thought it might just have been a fashion statement, but now I'm not so sure as it seems he wears it at every concert!

Those earmuffs definitely have monitors in them so he can hear the backing track and vocals, but I reckon they also do a good job of blocking out the noise.

Until he says he has T publicly, we'll have to keep wondering!

 

Interesting observation. At least he's protecting his ears and doing what he loves to do ....

 

Wow thats cool,
i remember seeing him back in 2013, it was a great experience
where did you see him?
how did you protect your ears??

 

Yeah his performance was great! I saw him at a festival in manchester, uk. It was outdoors so it wasn't super loud, but I wore double protection, 33Db in ear and 32Db earmuffs, like Frank's haha

My T increased a bit but has since gone down and I'm better at habituating when it comes to loud noise exposures. However I very, very rarely go to concerts/loud events now that I have T.

 

Ha! If you go to one of his concerts again, everyone would think you're a super fan
It would be a concert where it's socially acceptable to wear muffs. I need to start listening to his music

 

You're so right, I actually felt less self-conscious knowing that the guy that everyone was watching on stage was wearing giant earmuffs as well!

 

Guys, for me it looks like earmuffs over in-ear monitors.

I see no reason to do that other than a worsening hearing problem... maybe he got some tinnitus or hypercausis... or maybe he always had it and it worsened a little...

Either way, he takes care of his hearing - that's great!

 

These look like the Vic Firth headphones for drummers to me. You can see the 'TH' of the logo in one of the photos. If he chose these exact muffs, I'm guessing he did so because these are (about?) the only muffs with headphones in them.