Is "pretentious" a valid criticism or a meaningless buzzword? discuss

Is "pretentious" a valid criticism or a meaningless buzzword? discuss

>Is "pretentious" a valid criticism

Yes, depending on who or what it is directed at.

Used to be a valid criticism, has now been reduced to a meaningless buzzword for the most part

It's a valid criticism as long as you can back it up.

Any concluding word, be it pretentious, boring, fun, whatever, can be valid if you back it the fuck up.

Of a person's character, sure. But not of music

Can be a valid criticism, almost never is. Also not a 'buzzword' which is another bad attempt at criticism.

/thread

I think that it is a valid criticism when it is not just arbitrarily assigned to any album that you do not understand.

Also, pretentious music and music that pretentious people enjoy are completely different.

Yes, however it has to be shown like all other arguments. To be pretentious means to draw greater importance than is actually deserved, which can be argued and if it is successfully argued, being pretentious would degrade ones creation for a good reason. However, some people will use pretentious without any sort of evidence with the intention of degrading something, however, that failure of criticism winds up giving the word negative connotations, which is probably why feels that way. It's not so much that a phrase or a word is a buzzword, its more that a bunch of people are willing and able to take an inherited trait within a word and miss use it to fit their narratives, until that word is left obsolete from a gained negatived overtone. In the case of pretentious, i see the word as on the tail end of said path.

buzzword is a buzzword

This

What does pretentious even mean when aimed at music and not actual people

yeah, this. not even necessarily, i'd rather have artists be pompous if it leads to them producing more adventurous and ambitious work. see: Liturgy

>not even necessarily,
i accidentally a word

not for music OP but that's a goddamn good album that I surely hope you're not trying to imply is pretentious.

Indulgent? Maybe. But it's excellent.

Yes, but 99% of the time it's used as a meaningless buzzword

It is, but people never say why they think something is pretentious so it just ends up being a meaningless buzzword
I doubt even the criticizers know why they think it's pretentious

>Is "pretentious" a valid criticism
not for that album, my guy

No.

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