Why are people pretentious about music?

What is the point of music? I believe it's ultimately about experiencing emotions. I think the different styles of music extant are based mostly on various types of emotions.

How does being pretentious fit with emotions? How can people believe that one form of happiness or any other emotion is more impressive than another (within the context of music)? Is there a logic to that?

Hardcore fans of bands that are widely believed to have "sold out" tend to get pretentious about music. Aerosmith and Metallica have had to endure hardcore fans who screamed "sellout" because the bands wanted to produce mainstream music. If the music makes people happy (or makes people feel another desired emotion), then it's successful in my opinion. How can people be pretentious about such a simple issue? Is it because many hardcore fans of the bands weren't satisfied (as if the hardcore fans owned the bands)?

I feel like this about a lot of things, if i like it i listen to it i don't care if its AC/DC or Beethoven!

Its the same with reading, movies, art and other forms of media.

The only thing i really do get a little pretentious over is Whisky.

a reply to: Profusion

Music is a device to communicate that which words fail. Lyrics accompanied with music help us understand a deeper insight to the writers emotions and a peek at his or hers perspective of the world.

The first offering from bands are most likely the true representation of what the band represents.

People are attracted and then indentify with the the writer or a member of the band. For many it is a deep emotional connection. Their music represent more than just being happy it is deeper than happy. It affects the soul.

When a band signs with a major label there is a fear the original sound and feel that attracted the listener will be forced or arificaly duplicated.

The motivation from the label is not because the label has deep emotional connection to the band but they have a deep monetary connection to the bands ability to attract fans who will buy albums.

Original art is rare these days and when you come across something that captured your soul like music can it's hard to share it with some one who has no soul.

I tend to like what I like, but I've never been a big music junkie.

a reply to: OtherSideOfTheCoin

I can appreciate that. I'm a bourbon guy, but a fine whisky is something to behold.

People are pretentious about music because what they and (especially) their group of peers listen to defines them. Pick any genre or sub-sub genre you like. They're secretly afraid of being ostracized, so they become an "expert" on the one thing that binds the group together.

I'm just some guy. I don't know crap. Makes sense to me.

Good taste is a burden....

a reply to: Profusion

How can people believe that one form of happiness or any other emotion is more impressive than another (within the context of music)?

Because the spirit should be translated properly. It is not healthy or good to purposely induce some types of spirit for pleasure or joy.

Take, for example, the spirit of sorrow. Sorrow should not be translated as something good or joyful in most instances. Like "emo" music, for instance, where it is often translated as being hip or cool to be full of sorrow.

Really it is the same for chick flicks, as well. There shouldn't be any pleasure seeking or longing for pleasure derived by a "good cry."

That kind of behavior is what causes solipsism* / egotism and mental illnesses like depression and others.



solipsism: extreme preoccupation with and indulgence of one's feelings, desires, etc.; egoistic self-absorption.


Edit: To make my point clear, the thought is that something is not being translated properly. Pretentious is fake or false spirited, and the spirit wants truth/proper translations. There is a proper way to translate. (I should have lead with this edit and then added the example above but I got ahead of myself.)

Edit2: I feel like I haven't made myself clear. Think about it like your spirit is to breathe - the desire to breathe in and breathe out your will. The way we do this is through conception or translations of the spirit. When you sit to listen to music, what you want to do is increase your spirit (your breathe), but if the translations (images/body) appear greater than they actually were when translated, then the images will not increase your breathe or be true to the spirit - it will be like tasting a knockoff brand when you were craving something authentic. Well, we can all sense this blandness when someone tries to present their images as more than what was translated (more than what was in their spirit), like a tv commercial that makes a pretty image but sells you something crappy. Now picture performers as actual sells men: if they play a role or present an image that is not genuine then the image of them will not satisfy your spirit because it will not increase it, or worse, it will pervert it (the truth of the spirit). Got it? Now go back to the top: the spirit should be translated properly. And yes, I was calling emo musicians pretentious (there is no glamour in sorrow and more, that kind of sorrow should not be pleasurable).

Edit3: If you are asking why we want truth, I guess it is because it is the spirit of truth that gives us life or it is the spirit we want to breathe / love is the spirit of truth.

The most pretentious I've run across were younger people and or listeners of mainstream music. These days Hipsters are pretty bad about it which is hilarious on it's own. IMO people are even more pretentious and annoying about art.

Myself, I am a Springsteen fan. Nothing better than a Bruce concert in my opinion. I actually started to and continue to almost hate most music.

That started in our metal shop. The local radio station played the same songs everyday. One day I actually heard the lyrics for the umpteenth time (metal shops are loud) it was maybe Rodney James Dio but the song was "last in line"... I'm sure most of you know it.

So I am hot and sweating, working in this metal shop listening to this guy crying about being "last in line".. I think, get over it, somebody will come up behind you....

After that I start listening to lyrics, most make no sense. they suck. they just try to rhyme .

a reply to: tinner07

After that I start listening to lyrics, most make no sense. they suck. they just try to rhyme.

That's truly a sad thing that happened to you. Go to YouTube and look up John Prine, Gillian Welch, Steve Earle, Shawn Colvin and see what you think about lyrics.

a reply to: dreamingawake

The most pretentious I've run across were younger people and or listeners of mainstream music. These days Hipsters are pretty bad about it which is hilarious on it's own. IMO people are even more pretentious and annoying about art.

I used to go to a lot of bluegrass jams. I'm a pretty decent guitar player after (Good Lord) 44 years on the instrument. Bluegrass flapicking is a blast. For the most part, everybody is cordial and welcoming. Some of the hard core traditionalists, however, can get a little uppity.

Prog Rock guys can be insufferable.

I don't know many jazz guys, but just look at 'em... all superior and big.

a reply to: Profusion

Put it this way Profusion

I do not listen to Metallica albums made after the Black Album. I only listen to Metallica albums written previously. This is for the following reasons:

1) I prefer the way their older tunes made me feel, the energy in them, the compositions, the drum sounds, the vocal pitch, the tonal structure of them, as well as their beat structure for that matter.

2) I dislike most of the work they have produced since the Black Album, and that album itself, because the music found therein does not make me feel alive, it does not fire my imagination, it does not hold my interest.

3) I do not know how it is where you are, but round my neck of the woods, their newer works are over played as all heck. Every metal night at a club or bar, every jukebox in every pub, and even some television and film events, will feature something from the Black Album, or after proving that it is one of the most accessible metal albums ever.

Now, there are artists who have managed to morph themselves and their style of doing business, who HAVE held my interest very well. Mr Devin Townsend, formerly the frontman of Strapping Young Lad, and project leader of The Devin Townsend Project, as well as the Devin Townsend Band, is a man who, whether we refer to the storming days of Alien and City (both amazing albums) during the SYL era, or the whimsical eclecticism of his work since, his passion and artistry, not to mention the way he goes about making music, continue to attract and hold my attention.

Townsends style has been through so many changes, so many phases, including two space operas, that one could easily lose the thread. And yet his involvement in a project always lends to it an enjoyability.

I should point out, that I have not even begun to speak of his other various projects, and will not, because the point has been made.

Of course, one of the things that keeps me coming back for more about Devin Townsends music, is that it is insane, and so is he. He makes the music he wants to make, and gives it to you live like no other human being I have seen before. His voice is amazing, his compositions are ridiculous, and his vision and craftsmanship as a musician are just astounding things to watch. He could write a polka, a blood gutted metal album, or a pop song, and I would listen to it, because it would be great and wonderful and majestic.

Metallicas output since their departure from thrash metal, does not inspire me. It does not move me, it does not impress or delight me. Do I hate them for stopping making thrash? No. But I am very sad that we will never see a Metallica album which inspires me in the way their old works did, because they moved away from making music which has the capacity to do so. It may move others, but it does not move me. There have been pop songs which had more capacity to move me than the Black Album and what came after it do between them.

Now, what must also be said, is that I am not a metal purist. I love classical music as well, folk, prog and so on from the seventies, bit of jazz if I am in the mood for it, big band, swing, blues. It is not that the style of music that Metallica started to play, does not appeal to me. It is that the way they did it does not appeal to me. I find no life in it.

a reply to: Profusion

IN the case of those bands, I wouldn't call that pretentious, as much as disappointed that a band they liked changed. That, I can understand. What I see as pretentious regarding music is when people look down on someone else, because of different taste in music. Disliking it, sure, but assuming some sort of superiority is a bit much.

a reply to: Profusion

Because all the music I listen to is awesome and all the music you listen to is absolute s#!t.

Oh and new Metallica sucks!



lol, okay, seriously, I have no idea why people get so pretentious about music. Passion maybe? People like to identify with songs a lot of the time so perhaps they take it more personally than other topics if you have a disagreement. There used to be loads of actual fights in my area between ravers and metalheads, though it wasn't just the music of each other's they hated. It was the fashion, lifestyle and everything.

a reply to: LadyGreenEyes

IN the case of those bands, I wouldn't call that pretentious, as much as disappointed that a band they liked changed. That, I can understand. What I see as pretentious regarding music is when people look down on someone else, because of different taste in music. Disliking it, sure, but assuming some sort of superiority is a bit much.

I shouldn't do that, but I do. When I hear some guy blasting New Country, his intelligence is immediately suspect.

originally posted by: bbarkow
a reply to: LadyGreenEyes

IN the case of those bands, I wouldn't call that pretentious, as much as disappointed that a band they liked changed. That, I can understand. What I see as pretentious regarding music is when people look down on someone else, because of different taste in music. Disliking it, sure, but assuming some sort of superiority is a bit much.

I shouldn't do that, but I do. When I hear some guy blasting New Country, his intelligence is immediately suspect.

I have done it myself, to be honest! Not often, but some choices, you just have to wonder how anyone could actually like the stuff! More a case of knowing we wouldn't get along, though, than "being better".

a reply to: LadyGreenEyes

That's a better way to put it. Good observation.

a reply to: Profusion

I’m not sure if I understand what you mean by ‘pretentious’. If you would explain, I might have an answer for you.

a reply to: Astyanax

I think (s)he's saying that, "musical taste is subjective, therefor musical criticism is arrogance."

"Musical criticism is pretentious and unfounded. Critics can't possibly be right. There is no truth in art because there is no truth to the spirit."

I think (s)he might be a borderline subjectivist where interpretation comes to quality.

Taste and aesthetics is a curious deal....

Personally I would rather hear some kid with a beat up 6 stg, struggle thru the changes and sing and play from his heart...

than listen to some shredder playing licks he learned in class on a 4k les paul his mommie bought him.