David

“Why can’t a musician try to make a cinematic “state of the nation” poem told through dream imagery and pop music? They may fail miserably or they may fluke a masterpiece, but at least they tried to push their creativity. As Howard Devoto, of the bands Buzzcocks and Magazine, put it: “Pretentiousness is interesting. At least you’re making an effort. Your ambition has to outstrip your ability at some point.”
― Dan Fox, Pretentiousness: Why It Matters

“Try describing a few of the most wildly successful pop albums of the twentieth century without mentioning the artist and title. A concept rock album about a fictional Edwardian military band, featuring musical styles borrowed from Indian classical music, vaudeville, and musique concrete, its sleeve design including images of Karl Marx, Oscar Wilde, Marilyn Monroe, Carl Gustav Jung, Sir Robert Peel, Marlene Dietrich, and Aleister Crowley? That’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles, one of the biggest selling records of all time. How about a record exploring the perception of time, mental illness, and alterity? Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon, which has to date sold around 45 million copies worldwide. Ask any of those 45 million who bought a copy of The Dark Side of the Moon if they thought themselves pretentious for listening to an album described by one of the band members as “an expression of political, philosophical, humanitarian empathy,” and the answer would almost certainly be no.”
― Dan Fox, Pretentiousness: Why It Matters

“He told me it didn't really matter if it was true, it was what the story MEANT that was so important.”
― Lee Bermejo, Batman: Noël

“Sontag holds that camp reveals itself as things age. “When the theme is important and contemporary, the failure of a work of art may make us indignant. Time can change that. . . . Thus, things are campy, not when they become old but when we become less involved in them, and can enjoy, instead of be frustrated by, the failure of the attempt.” Accusations of pretentiousness fade the older something becomes. As works of art or styles of dress recede into the past, the historical forces that shaped them become legible. Familiarity lets us regard them fondly.”
― Dan Fox, Pretentiousness: Why It Matters