Which is the least pretentious?

 

whether humanly (arrogance, pompousness,, etc..) or musically, ELP is from far the Universe champion of pretentiousness. Next come Yes in both categories(Anderson's lyrics and Squire's arrogance)

 

I never thought of Genesis or Crimson as pretentious (except for Fripp's conduct), nor VdGG.

 

However, musically speaking i find Gentre Giant quite pretentious: i mean these guys went out of their way to make complicated music, and it sounds like.... whereas, I never (or rarely) found it the same with other bands

 

 

I went with VdGG as my choice, but Tull was a close second, though I suspect if their line-up had remained more constant, it might have been a different business/ambiance

 

 

I do not find any of the listed artists pretentious.  They are writing and performing the music they love, in the way that they feel it should be done, and at the same time providing the audience with a good show.

 

What I find pretentious are the modern mega pop stars lip synching their way through songs that are ghost written for them by a very small number of songwriters working in music mills, and passing these off as their own.  This practice has been well documented for quite some time.  Just listen to Kelly Clarkson's "What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger" and Katy Perry's "Roar", and try to tell me that these "empowerment anthems" were penned by different people.   And speaking of Perry, is she doesn't perform "Shake It Off" without using a "Shake Weight" to demonstrate what she is singing about, that's pretention.