Why pretentious?

Deijavoo

Why is music that is a little different from the norm considered to be "pretentious"?

I'm going through an utterly obscene splurge on LOW and RETRIBUTION GOSPEL CHOIR and keep noticing comments on YouTube etc... that use this term for them.

a quick Wiki:

"attempting to impress by affecting greater importance or merit than is actually possessed."

These guys just seem to me that they genuinely enjoy what they're doing rather than worry about it's importance. However I find their music very important so maybe I am the one who....

....oh.... never mind...

Bellycaster

I don't like the term myself, but I may have been guilty of using it in the past, but in the wrong context.

I found my mistake was calling the Music pretentious when I should have been calling "some" of the people who "played" it "Pretentious".

The best example I can give is picturing this scene, this scene was conjured up in my imagination simply from one particular album of the time:

Yuppy type small Dinner Party at Yuppy Types house in the Early 90's.  Two couples with zero interest in Music in general are talking about who has the most money and the best car etc, whilst Sting's Ten Summoner's Tales plays as background music because it was the easiest, most obvious and fashionable thing to buy at the time for something to "Put On".

Now, back to reality. Sting is a great writer and musician, the album's success speaks for itself, but I have hated it from the outset because of that very image it conjured up in my mind. I know it's wrong and I am week for letting that get to me, but the vision was strong, Lol.

I'm sure certain songs or artists may have had a similar effect on a lot of people.

X_X

Fazer

Low are brilliant and not pretentious, don't take any notice of youtube comments

Deijavoo

You are correct sir. 

I just find the term used a lot for music I love and it frankly pisses me off. 

Mogwai, (post Bends) Radiohead, Mars Volta, Godspeed You...., Isis etc....

ok, I'll give you Mars Volta.  

;-)

Saying that I met Cedric and Omar once upon a time and they were genuinely down to earth cool guys. 

PolarityMan

I think music can be pretentious when it is overly intellectualised rather than evolves intellectually. I'm definitely guilty of putting the odd pretentious section in my songs. 

richardhomer

PolarityMan;204646" said:

I think music can be pretentious when it is overly intellectualised rather than evolves intellectually. I'm definitely guilty of putting the odd pretentious section in my songs. 

See 'Radiohead'....

PolarityMan

meh i meant evolves instinctually...too amny beers for me

Fazer

Deijavoo said:

You are correct sir. 

I just find the term used a lot for music I love and it frankly pisses me off. 

Mogwai, (post Bends) Radiohead, Mars Volta, Godspeed You...., Isis etc....

ok, I'll give you Mars Volta.  

;-)

Saying that I met Cedric and Omar once upon a time and they were genuinely down to earth cool guys. 

yes, its a lazy term applied to anything has a bit of thought or subtlety to it, or songs with lyrics above the level of 'hey baby' and bog standard chords and riffs

ICBM

Fazer said:

yes, its a lazy term applied to anything has a bit of thought or subtlety to it, or songs with lyrics above the level of 'hey baby' and bog standard chords and riffs

No, it's more than that.

It's not always a bad thing though - I like Muse, and I'd say they're at least as pretentious as Radiohead... Queen too, and plenty of us like them.

I even have some Emerson, Lake & Palmer albums that I still like .

Grunfeld

Deijavoo said:

I'm going through an utterly obscene splurge on LOW and RETRIBUTION GOSPEL CHOIR....

Well, I hadn't heard of Retribution Gospel Choir and I am really enjoying this sound.

Cheers for the heads up.

Deijavoo

My pleasure @Grunfeld.

I'm single handedly putting their live performances at Party in the Garden and also the song Destroyer into the thousands. 

Deijavoo