Surrounded by the hostile music industry of the early 2000s, Karen O received invaluable advice to adopt a "bitch" persona. This advice, which she views as self-respect, helped her navigate an environment demanding conformity and marketability. By asserting her agency and refusing to compromise her artistic vision, Karen O became a role model for other female musicians seeking to carve out their own path.

(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Stills / Sorrell Schneider)

Karen O is an idol to so many. Artists like Beabadoobee and Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner are two of a whole class of musicians that hold the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ singer up as a role model and vital force helping to carve out space for women in indie. For the musician herself, so much of that comes back to one token piece of wisdom handed to her.

“‘Karen, you need to be more of a bitch.’” That was the advice a young Karen O received right back at the start of her career that has steered her right. She calls it “The best advice I ever got,” deeming the simple and sharp one-liner as a kind of saviour.

It feels silly and tokenistic. Or even in maybe ways, it feels counterintuitive. Should anyone ever be instructed to be less friendly or approachable? We’re always told over and over that your reputation is a vital piece of the puzzle when it comes to your success. Patti Smith’s biggest piece of advice rings true here, as she instructed her fans and followers to “build a good name”, stating that over time, your name and the well-respected light of your nature will become a “currency”. To Smith, kindness, work ethic and being liked will reward you.

But that advice doesn’t translate so well when placed into a largely hostile environment. Smith came up in the late 1960s scene at the Chelsea Hotel where collaboration, sharing and caring for each other were highly valued things as artists all seemed to really look out for each other. Even though the Horses singer obviously still faced the issues and inequalities that came from being a woman in music, she broke through at a time that was truly built on openness and love for one another.

The early 2000s in New York City was a very different landscape from that. While we’d all like to think that all inequalities and injustices get better with time, that often isn’t true in unsuspecting and subtle ways. While the new millennium should have been a bright new step into the future, the blossoming indie scene at the time was overrun by testosterone. On the level above that, the music industry as a whole was overrun by the sexualisation and commodification of women as pop stars ruled the roost and record labels seemed to demand all female artists be easily sold and marketable. It was a time when desirability made a star. In the era of MTV and the start of the digital age, the time that birthed Karen O was very different from the times that came before. They required a protective prickliness.

To Karen O, that piece of advice has a clear and productive meaning. She explains, “You have to look up when you feel like someone’s pushing you in a direction that you feel not comfortable in going.” For her, the move to be more of a bitch isn’t one to become nasty or hard to work with. Instead, she said it’s “more self-respect to a certain degree.”

The need to hold that self-respect harder and more rigidly came directly from the scene and time she came up in. As digital music became a thing and it became harder and harder for bands to gain and keep attention, more pressure was put on the musicians themselves to make their art sellable. Especially for female artists, record labels became desperate to mould and rearrange their stars into something easily consumed and understood.

Karen O always refused that. Instead, she’s marched down her own path to the beat of her own drum, letting that advice and her gut lead and blocking out the other voices. “You usually hear ‘if you don’t do this, then you’re gonna mess this up for yourself,’” she said of outside pressures. “Generally, that’s not true. Not a single time have I ever regretted saying no to something that felt wrong.”

Being a bitch is simply having the inner strength and the guts to speak up to that, say no and keep doing what you’re doing. For the musician, this philosophy is the only way to protect yourself and what people want from you: your music. “As an artist, you have to protect your gift because it’s a precious thing,” she said, explaining that bitchiness is a way to maintain agency, “If you say no when you need to say no and yes when you need to say yes, you’re carving a path for yourself as an artist that does their art on their own terms.”

It’s sage wisdom, really. Maybe we should all be more of a bitch.

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