Perjoratives

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On the Patti Smith thread someone points out that pretentious needn't be a perjorative word. Fair enough. Then someone asks if pompous can be non-perjorative? Well, it's more difficult, but I can imagine 'good' pompous music (some power ballads)

so -

Are there any adjectives - aside from more flowery ways of saying 'bad' - that cannot be turned round in this way? What words can only mean something negative (the fun bit of course will be making a case for them too!)

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 15:33 (twenty-one years ago)

bleak as the middle of my asshole

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 15:36 (twenty-one years ago)

bleak as the middle of my asshole

well of course, but it loses so much in translation

― nothingleft (nothingleft), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 15:38 (twenty-one years ago)

smug?

― pete b. (pete b.), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 15:40 (twenty-one years ago)

It'd be hard to turn "preposterous" into a compilment, but I'm sure it can be done.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 15:42 (twenty-one years ago)

preposterous is similar to pompous surely, a good thing as far as rock excess is concerned

― pete b. (pete b.), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 15:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Hell, most of my favorite artists are completely guilty of being utterly preposterous at one point or another....which is often why I love them.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 15:44 (twenty-one years ago)

gullible

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 15:45 (twenty-one years ago)

exactly alex! but when is being smug a good thing???

― pete b. (pete b.), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 15:47 (twenty-one years ago)

When you're Frank Zappa?

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 15:49 (twenty-one years ago)

surely not even frank zappa's fans praise him for his smugness! 'i love that song, it's so smug!!!'

― pete b. (pete b.), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 15:52 (twenty-one years ago)

maybe not so explicitly, pete, but there is certainly quite often a "i love that song, it makes me feel like I'm better than other people" impulse at work.

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 15:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Does spelling the word "pejorative" incorrectly help to make one appear less pompous?

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 16:08 (twenty-one years ago)

twee

― pulpo, Tuesday, 2 December 2003 16:12 (twenty-one years ago)

but when the zappa fans are feeling that impulse aren't they more likely to use a word like 'clever' or 'challenging' to describe it? people might enjoy the feeling of being smug but would it ever be used as an adjective to praise something?

― pete b. (pete b.), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 16:13 (twenty-one years ago)

lots of people happily admit to liking twee music!

― pete b. (pete b.), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 16:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Trite.

― dave225 (Dave225), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 16:24 (twenty-one years ago)

"power pop." *ducks*

― fact checking cuz, Tuesday, 2 December 2003 16:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Pop Power (pop as in dad)

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 16:29 (twenty-one years ago)

"Crap" works for me. I haven't met many people who say "Ooooh, what I really love is crap music".... I've met plenty of people who clearly do love crap music but not one who's ever actually described their taste in those precise terms.

See also: "Shit"

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 16:32 (twenty-one years ago)

trite can be good. music that tries too hard not to be trite often ends up as pompous (haha)

― pete b. (pete b.), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 16:33 (twenty-one years ago)

If you think of Wilco or Flaming Lips as 'smug' then they start sounding pretty good! (also re 'smug', that's Jay-Z's appeal isn't it?)

― dave q, Tuesday, 2 December 2003 16:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Dave q JOTO re Jay-Z

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 16:38 (twenty-one years ago)

"Lame". "Godawful". "Fucking Stupid". I think those are pretty unambiguous.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 16:58 (twenty-one years ago)

'fucking stupid' as praise - gabba, happy hardcore?

― dave q, Tuesday, 2 December 2003 17:02 (twenty-one years ago)

"maybe not so explicitly, pete, but there is certainly quite often a "i love that song, it makes me feel like I'm better than other people" impulse at work. "

Yah, but that's true of this entire website, no?

― Dave Vinson (Gaughin), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 17:08 (twenty-one years ago)

"maybe not so explicitly, pete, but there is certainly quite often a "i love that song, it makes me feel like I'm better than other people" impulse at work.
"

Yah, but that's true of this entire website, no?

example of meta-hyper-smugness, smugness at being above the smugness of others who think they're smugger than Frank Zappa fans, who think they're clever v. smug

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 17:13 (twenty-one years ago)

get stupid happy

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 17:17 (twenty-one years ago)

I adore preposterousness and pretention. Ridiculous themes, extreme pathos, damaged syntax, risky word choices.

"Misguided" perhaps?

"Overblown"?

― Blood and sparkles (bloodandsparkles), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 18:44 (twenty-one years ago)

wrongheaded

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 18:47 (twenty-one years ago)

on that recent thread about biggie's "warning", 'moronic' was used non-pejoratively (well if we're being pedantic i think it praised the "moronicism" of the beat)

― mitch lastnamewithheld (mitchlnw), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 19:49 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm having a hard time imagining a context in which "misguided", "overblown", "wrongheaded" (unless the last one was a joke) wouldn't require some kind of qualifier - "gloriously overblown", "thankfully misguided" etc

― mitch lastnamewithheld (mitchlnw), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 19:51 (twenty-one years ago)

How about glib?

Or, along the lines of smug, "sanctimonious"?

And could plain "boring" (or "dull") ever be anything other than a pejorative?

― David A. (Davant), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 22:52 (twenty-one years ago)

'wretched': a compliment in Heavy Metal, or Emo-Core.

"Glib" can be a perjorative?

― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 22:56 (twenty-one years ago)

See also: "Shit"

Or not ("this is the shit")

― nate detritus (natedetritus), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 23:01 (twenty-one years ago)

"Overblown"?

Definitely not - Alex In NYC would consider that to be a positive recommendation!

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Wednesday, 3 December 2003 10:17 (twenty-one years ago)

'predictable'? (ILM's favourite diss, albeit applied to lists more often than records)

― zebedee (zebedee), Wednesday, 3 December 2003 12:49 (twenty-one years ago)

predictable - black sabbath, peaches
overblown - pirates of penzance, beyonce
wrongheaded - gg allin, early boredoms
misguided - shaggs, cardiacs
boring - neil hamburger, eno
smug - catatonia, pavement
lame - hawd gangsta rappuhs, emf
godawful - blue cheer, early britney
crap - ???????? i'm stumped on this one

geriatric? worthless? republican?

― mig, Thursday, 4 December 2003 01:11 (twenty-one years ago)

"this is a fucking stupid song!"

"word!"

Remember, all negative words become compliments when you're hip to the lingo.

― Debito (Debito), Thursday, 4 December 2003 01:19 (twenty-one years ago)

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