My 10-year-old daughter has lately become enamored with some metal band called Otep. She wants me to buy her the CD’s. She showed me a couple of videos, one of which was a cover of Nirvana’s “Breed,” and another was something called “Buried Alive,” which seemed like angsty, college freshman level “I hate my life,” emo metal.
I was quite the metalhead in my day, not just as a fan but as a musician, and I was familar with (and a fan of) the farmost extremities of the genre, so I’m no shrinking violet, but I haven’t kept up with new bands, so I don’t know how much more extreme they’ve become (though I honestly don’t see how it could have gotten worse than Slayer, and Morbid Angel and Cannibal Corpse and some of the other shit I used to listen to back in the day). I also wasn’t into that stuff at quite such a young age.
I don’t mind buying my daughter the discs. When it comes to monitoring the kind of media my kids are exposed to, I’m libertarian to the point of near irresponsibility. My daughter watches South Park and Family Guy with me, and plays Grand Theft Auto with me and stuff, so I’m not exactly puritanical. I’ll pretty much let her see anything short of hardcore porn, or extremely violent horror, but I’d like to know what I’m getting into if I buy her these CD’s. I’m mostly concerned about how the lyrical content treats women. I’m not SO much concerned with whether it’s sexual, but one of the things I really do try to guard against my kids being exposed to is sexual violence, or any violence against or degredation of women.
Am I going to be in for any nasty surprises if I buy thes CD’s? I don’t care if they say “fuck” every other word, but I don’t want to find out it’s got any Eminem style songs about dead girlfriends stuffed in the trunks of cars.
So what’s the deal with this band? Is it standard metal stuff or is there anything that’s really too much for a 10 year old?
I knew the singer was a woman, but that doesn’t neccesarily mean the lyrics aren’t misogynistic. There are female singers who sell themselves as sex toys or idealize themes about being submissive or subservient to men.
Otep is a very feminist singer and yes, her songs are very angsty and aggressive (its metal, the whole point is that its emotions are operatic and violent). You may or may not find her lyrical content disturbing. She does use cuss words, but not to the level of say, Eminem. Her lyrics are about abuse, the manipulation of the media, art, lies, that sort of thing. I like these lyrics from her song “The Lord is my Weapon”:
say what you need to save your soul but leave your religion at the door
we’re smoking all of Krsna’s weed, I’m sick of these weak anarchies
you see me as a place to make a bruise, but in my reality I’m a slave to the muse.
Dio, I know from some other threads that you’re very protective of your daughters; now, I am pretty far from Otep’s target demographic, being a 37 year-old straight male with no kids, but I actually have been an Otep fan for a while now. I’m trying to think of a good comparison, but since I don’t know which artists you know…hell, if you are familiar with Ani Difranco, you pretty much get the gist of Otep, except the music is much more aggressive and loud. That’s the short version.
The long version is that Otep’s music covers a wide range of issues that young women face including self-esteem issues, abuse of various kinds and from various sources, feminism and female empowerment, and a generally liberal political and religious viewpoint. Otep is, if not exclusively lesbian, at least bisexual. The message boards on her official website are populated mostly by young female fans who are encouraged to express themselves through poetry or song or art, and Otep even has something of a catchphrase about being ‘perfectly flawed,’ which pretty much celebrates diversity and tolerance and acceptance. The music is very aggressive, but I suspect it’s very cathartic as well, and although I have no daughters, I think if I did, I could find q lot worse than Otep for them to listen to.
Something to think about; if they (or just she) are drawn to Otep, it may be because her music speaks to some issues that she’s dealing with; which could mean anything from some kind of abuse to depression to good old peer pressure or body image issues. It could mean she’s feeling frustrated in some way. Or, and this may be a real possibility, she might just like to really rock out. In any case, should you worry? Maybe, maybe not, but if so it probably wouldn’t be worrying about the music; instead about why she is drawn to it.
Yes, you should be very concerned. Nobody buys CD’s anymore. She needs to download them to her iPod (or your preferred MP3). Seriously, it is like she is living in 2005 or something.
She’s a little emo and broody, but nothing serious, I don’t think. When I ask her what she likes about Otep, it seems to just boil down to a fascination with the person herself. She’s said that she likes that Otep “looks like an angel but has a hard rock voice.”
She also said (and this is a quote), “I don’t have any ‘issues,’ I just like Otep. Just because somebody likes metal does not mean they have ‘issues.’”
She also likes the whole goth fashion thing. She’s just an emo girl, I don’t know.
Otep really seems to have connected with her, for whatever reason. She watches the videos and writes down the lyrics. I guess she could do worse.
That was my first thought, but then I’d never heard of Otep. Sounds like something from ancient Egypt. Guess I have to spend a little time on youtube today before I yell at those kids on my lawn.
Otep claims that that’s her real name; out of curiousity, I tried looking for someone with that name, and there’s at least one woman with Otep as her middle name who was born in Texas. Is she Otep? Not sure, but hey, its possible Otep isn’t lying about her name.
I have been a huge fan of Otep for many years now. Most of their music is about standing up for what you believe in, even if you are forced to fight for those beliefs. Otep Shamaya (lead vocalist, and whom the band is named for) herself is coincidentally a lesbian, a vegetarian and animal rights activist, so she has likely taken a lot of heat from the music industry because of her life choices and beliefs, but that has never stopped her from writing poetry, and making music. Many of their songs have powerful and/or uplifting messages behind them.
This song speaks about being in the minority of society and being ridiculed for it, and it speaks that the victims can stand up for themselves. Otep - Rise Rebel Resist Lyrics | AZLyrics.com
As far as I can tell, Where the River Ends illustrates a story, about a man who wanted to have sex with a woman while they were on a date. She didn’t want to, but he raped her anyway. Because of that, they had a child, and later, a second child. He ran his household with an abusive iron fist, but one of the daughters had enough and she put an end to it. The reference to the father being a minotaur and the daughter killing him is to illustrate a point. Otep said in an interview that she does not condone domestic violence victims to kill their tormentors, but rather seek help and get out of that situation.
It is indeed Egyptian. I follow Otep on Facebook, and on St Patrick’s Day a couple years ago she made this post (to the best of my recollection) “Happy St. Patrick’s Day tribe. It’s a conundrum for me. I’m an Irish girl with an Egyptian name, plus I don’t drink. I think I’ll run around in circles until I’m dizzy, stumble to the nearest bar and punch someone” She refers to her fanbase as her Tribe, and refers directly to the Tribe in several of her songs.
LOL! Well, Halloween IS coming up, why not a zombie thread? But I also have much love for Otep. I do think I liked her first album best, though (sevas tra).
