Frank Ocean's Bad Religion

Frank Ocean is an American singer and songwriter, who came out as homosexual in 2012, right before the song “Bad Religion” was released. “Bad Religion,” written by Charlie Gambetta, Christopher Breaux, Kevin Risto, and Waynne Nugent for Ocean is a soulful ballad that tells the story of Ocean’s inner conflicts as he rides in the back seat of a taxi. The song “Bad Religion” was a way for Ocean to cry out for help as he faced an unimaginable decision: choosing between the man that he loves and God.
The song begins with a pipe organ, a familiar chord in the Church. Ocean steps into a taxi and says “Taxi driver/You’re my shrink for the hour” (lines 1-2), showing that Ocean uses apostrophe to address his inner conflicts. In a highly emotional state, Ocean says, “It’s rush hour/So take the streets if you wanna/Just outrun the demons, could you?” (4-6) instead of specifying a destination. He is traveling through a blind journey, not knowing what will come next. The music changes from a pipe

An allegory is used to represent the love between Ocean and God. “This unrequited love” (11) is the kind of love that Ocean feels for God; he loves God, but he feels as if it isn’t reciprocated. He then does not even refer to God as a religion, rather, a “One-man cult,” (13) and with the word cult comes with an entirely different feeling than religion. At this point in the song, there is pain in Ocean’s voice as he says “And cyanide in my Styrofoam cup” (14). Ocean is thinking about ending the pain by drinking his death. By the end of the chorus, repetition is used as Ocean repeats “Love me” (17-18) over and over again as it fade into the music. The way “Love me” is repeated sounds as if Ocean was begging to be loved back by God. Ocean is coming to terms with rejection, but the “Love me” is always predominant in the song, which shows that a part of Ocean will always want God’s love to be