Songfacts®:

• Orgy's songs often deal with how we're being manipulated and who's pulling the strings. As the internet swelled in 2000, this became a particular concern as most users were thinking about privacy. It was in this environment that they released "Opticon," a song about a surveillance state.
  
  In a 2023 Songfacts interview with lead singer Jay Gordon, he explained: "That is based on a big eye in the sky looking at everybody. A satellite checking out everything we do. It's a little more realistic than people would think."
• This was the second single from Orgy's second album, Vapor Transmission, following "Fiction (Dreams in Digital)." The band formed in Los Angeles in 1997 and signed with Elementree Records, the label established by Korn. Thanks to their cover of "Blue Monday," their debut album, Candyass, sold over a million copies. The band was quite fashionable, with a glamorous look enhanced by heavy makeup and intense hairstyles. They became part of the West Coast celebrity scene, which is hard to sustain.
  
  Vapor Transmission didn't do as well as hoped, and after one more album, Orgy called it quits. Jay Gordon, who controls the name, assembled a new version of the group in 2011 with a completely different lineup.
• "Opticon" appears in the 2001 horror movie Valentine, starring Denise Richards and David Boreanaz. A music video for the song compiled from footage of the film is included as an extra on the DVD.