Originally Posted by streetwaves

Some of you people seem a little bit confused about the way music, opinions, art, and all that good **** works. This isn't the first time I've been called 'pretentious' in music-related discussions, despite the fact that if you knew me in real life, you'd know that that's pretty much exactly what I am not.

Many complaints seem to come from me not including very particular albums in my top 5 for year X or Y or Z. What's not considered is what my opinion is of the album in question. Do I flat out hate it because it doesn't fit into my snobby image? Nah. The case with most of the albums complained about for being missing here is that I do like them - perhaps even love them - but they just don't make the top 5. That usually isn't an insult to the albums missing from my list, it's a huge compliment to those included.

Now, I find it a bit odd that I'm accused of being pretentious despite including some fairly big "no-no's" for pretentious *******s. The Beatles, for instance. Now, I do personally find I'm in the mood for Pet Sounds a lot more, but I ain't gonna pretend I don't like me some Revolver just because I've since discovered The VU, Beefheart, and King Crimson. Revolver's good **** and I'll argue with anyone who disagrees with that.

As for Led Zeppelin, they actually were the band that started my interest in music. No ****. For that reason, I have a lot of sentimental value attached to the band, but I'm not going to lie either and pretend I still enjoy them as much as I do when I was in high school. I genuinely do consider the albums mentioned above Zep's albums to be superior.

For the record, though, let's define what I mean by "superior". Actually, it should be known that the way I make lists seems to change every post I make. Sometimes I'm more likely to include albums I "enjoy" more, and sometimes I'm more likely to post albums that I think more highly of. These are two different things. I may turn on some Led Zeppelin and "enjoy it more" 70% of the time than Captain Beefheart, depending on my mood of course. With that said, there's no question which music impresses me more. And for the record, there are times when I genuinely enjoy more avant-gard or "difficult" stuff more. There's a time for everything.

I won't even bother going back and reading what albums I chose, because it's likely not going to agree with what I'd pick today. I'll probably make another thread, and abandon it halfway through like I always do. Also, for you pricks saying "I'm a poseur" and "I'm not coming back because I failed", don't flatter yourselves. I lose interest quickly but I'll occasionally come back and would be glad to argue with you on any subject. Including your favorite hard rawk album versus whatever I say is better. Let's have that conversation, and maybe we can learn something from each other. But please, present a better argument than "I'm pretentious", or I'll only see the need to respond with "you're an idiot."