By championing somebody or something that has a cult following or is little-known, you open yourself up to being called 'pretentious'. When you claim that somebody making music is actually an 'important artist', eyebrows are raised and people get suspicious. After all, how can somebody who makes pop records be called an artist, right? This is something that Tom Waits fans have to deal with on a regular basis. After all, we are trying to make a case for somebody who sounds like they started their day by screaming into their pillow, followed that with a ten pack of smokes and topped it off by swallowing razor blades, as being a genius songwriter, a poet and a visionary. Waits, because of his close connection with the avant-garde, has himself been called pretentious (amongst other things). People assume that he is putting on an act and trying to be pretentious on purpose in order to attract the 'right' kind of fan base. Waits has commented on this, saying:
There's not much difference between what I appear on stag and what I am. I think people like that, that I'm not trying to pull a caper. It's easy for me, because it's not such a large jump...any image I have, it's just what I do, but it comes off as being very pretentious. When you're in the public astigmatism, anything you do seems like you did it so somebody would see you do it.
If you're going to profess your love for Tom Waits, make sure you're ready for the accusations of pretension that will inevitably follow.
