What's the deal about being pretentious?

Lozlan wrote: Oh dear.  I'm tired of slugging it out with people right now.  All I can say is that you're clearly speaking out of prejudice without doing any gorram research whatsoever.  You're perfectly content to rest on the laurels of your assumptions, so wev. Although...I sound like a textbook?  That might be the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me!

Heh.  Somebody has to write 'em!  

As far as the poster you are responding to....

I think we need a facepalm smiley.

Using the word pretentious is very pretentious. Why don't you just say "showy"? Noooo....you have to go on with your flowery language like anybody cares about how endowed with perspicacity you are.

I remember being in the punk scene in the 80's, sitting in a room with my friends 3 hours before a gig. One was ironing his mohawk that he had just sat for an hour while his girlfriend dyed it purple. My other friend was whining because the studs he had just put on his leather jacket were not in a straight row. But it was all cool because we were railing against rock and rolls excesses. 

To what is pretentious to you, might be solid gold for me. Different strokes for different folks.

For example, I am a huge fan of Glass Hammer and Spock's Beard. Both might be considered pretentious, in that they tend to overdraw out their solos...but that's the gold, man! That's what I want to hear, when I listen to them.

Some say Genesis was pretentious. To me, Genesis was always about balancing the pop with the prog. Same with Yes, same with King Crimson and Rush. Even Dream Theater isn't too pretentious, because they balance the mainstream rock with the prog very well.

If anything, I cringe whenever I hear a mainstream rap artist come on the air, or being blasted by some idiot around here. THAT, to me, is pretentious. 

I don't think fans of any genre should be pretentious...all genres have their crap. LOL!

Talking in hindsight regarding the bombastic or pompous nature of prog is post-tentious.

I like Keith Emerson's response about ELP being pretentious. "Of course we were pretentious."  That label is thrown around a lot like it's a bad thing but with music it's all just art. Sometimes art by the fact that it is art is pretentious. It's like expecting a dog not to bark or a cat to not have hair or a car to not have wheels. THere's different kinds of art. Sure some ELP and some prog was over the top. Some race cars drive really fast too and look really fancy. You could say a Lamborghini looks pretentious compared to the sports cars of the fifties or a volkswagon or even a Porsche 911. So what. WHo cares?

Pretentious in what sense, as in "Pretending to be better than it is", or "Pompous"? If pompous, I'd have to agree - a lot of "prog" is - but why would that be a problem for anyone?  

Ok so I think we should never use the word pretentious to describe someone's artful creative expression. It's a tired old cop out to try and articulate how you don't understand someone's music because it sounds too complicated. Since when has prog ever been simple in the true sense of the word? Rock critics are can be major scapegoats for flashing that ugly word around in music reviews. I remember reading some reviews about RUSH after they released HEMISPHERES. They were lambasted. Words like 'mundane' 'prosaic' 'hard to follow' and of course the dreaded PRETENTIOUS word was thrown about so loosely.

Here is my feeling overall. You are a moron if you describe music with the word 'pretentious.' pretentious is a word tang should be used to describe one's actions on a social means, not on a creative expressive level. It actually doesn't make sense to me. I also hate when people describe DREAM THEATER's music as pretentious. I've heard it before and I think it's a cheap, snarky underhanded comment that really should get you know where when discussing our passion for prog, especially on the website. I know we are better than that my fellow prog sisters and brothers.

Prog on!!!

Dictionary wrote: pre·ten·tious adjective /priˈtenCHəs/  Attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent, culture, etc., than is actually possessed

I can't personally think of any progressive rock musicians whom this term as defined in this manner would apply to.  I'm sure there are some, but I can't think of any.  Prog can be pompous, bombastic, and showy, but pretentious much less often, in my opinion.


Edited by Ambient Hurricanes - December 07 2012 at 23:28

Ambient Hurricanes wrote: Dictionary wrote: pre·ten·tious adjective /priˈtenCHəs/  Attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent, culture, etc., than is actually possessed I can't personally think of any progressive rock musicians whom this term as defined in this manner would apply to.  I'm sure there are some, but I can't think of any.  Prog can be pompous, bombastic, and showy, but pretentious much less often, in my opinion.

I can think of prog musicians that are pretentious as people, but I can't think of pretentious music in any genre.

On another note, I sometimes see things like "yes, it's pretentious, but it's justified" in reviews and the likes. Pretentiousness, by its very definition, is never justified.


Edited by HarbouringTheSoul - December 08 2012 at 03:29