Poseur is a pejorative term which describes a person who copies the dress, speech, and mannerisms of a subculture without understanding the values or philosophy of the group they are mimicking. A poseur habitually pretends to be something they are not (an insincere person), or tries to impress others by behaving in an affected way (a pretentious person).
While the term is most associated with the 1970s- and 1980s-era punk and hardcore subculture, English use originates in the late 19th century. The English term is a loanword from French, where it refers to people who ‘affect an attitude or pose.’ One could say ‘poseur’ is merely the English word ‘poser’ in French garb and thus could itself be considered an affectation.
Music journalist Dave Rimmer wrote that the first punks in London used ‘terms in which they expressed their disdain for hangers-on and those whose post-hip credentials didn’t quite make it, [which] came straight out of the authenticity movements: ‘Poseurs’ was the favorite epithet.’ Eventually the Australian punk scene ‘opened the door to a host of poseurs, who were less interested in the music than in UK-punk fancy dress and being seen to be hip.’
The Clash film ‘Rude Boy,’ critics charged ‘was another sign of how The Clash had sold out – a messy, vain work of punk poseurs.’ Lester Bangs praised punk pioneer Richard Hell for writing the ‘strongest, truest rock & roll I have heard in ages’ without being an ‘arty poseur’ of the ‘age of artifice.’ Another critic argues that by the late 1970s, ‘punk rock had already, at this early date, shown signs of devolving into pure pose, black leather jacket and short hair required.’ In rock historian Legs McNeil’s ‘Please Kill Me,’ he includes interviews with punks in New York and Detroit who ‘rip their English counterparts as a bunch of sissified poseurs.’
The term poseur was used in several late-1970s punk songs, including the X-Ray Spex song ‘I am a Poseur’ and the Television Personalities song ‘Part-Time Punks.’ The latter ‘was a reaction to the macho posturing of the English punk scene.’ The lyrics argue that, ‘while Television Personalities were not themselves punks in the orthodox sense, neither was anyone else.’ The song ‘declared that either everyone who wanted to be a punk was one or that everyone was a poseur (or both),’ and it argues that ‘the concept of … punk rock authenticity, of Joe Strummer, was a fiction.’
An article in ‘Drowned in Sound’ argues that 1980s-era ‘hardcore is the true spirit of punk’ because ‘[a]fter all the poseurs and fashionistas fucked off to the next trend of skinny pink ties with New Romantic haircuts, singing wimpy lyrics…’ the scene consisted only of people ‘completely dedicated to the DIY ethics’; punk ‘[l]ifers without the ambition to one day settle into the study-work-family-house-retirement-death scenario.’
Dave Rimmer writes that with the revival of punk ideals of stripped-down music in the early 1990s, with ‘Cobain, and lots of kids like him, rock & roll … threw down a dare: Can you be pure enough, day after day, year after year, to prove your authenticity, to live up to the music [and] live with being a poseur, a phony, a sellout?’ Refused’s Dennis Lyxzén and Bad Religion’s Brett Gurewitz used the term to refer to early 2000s-era pop punk fans as ‘kids – more specifically the new wave of punk poseurs who came to the music via bands like Good Charlotte…’ They argue that these young listeners want ‘not to have to think and would rather use music as escapism and too many bands seem willing to comply.’
One writer argued that the Los Angeles punk scene was changed by the invasion of ‘antagonistic suburban poseurs,’ which bred ‘rising violence … and led to a general breakdown of the hardcore scene.’ A writer for ‘The Gauntlet’ praised the US Bombs’ politically oriented albums as ‘a boulder of truth and authenticity in a sea of slick poseur sewage,’ and called them ‘real punk rockers’ at ‘a time where the genre is littered with dumb songs about cars, girls and bong hits.’
Attaining authenticity in the punk identity can be difficult; as the punk scene changed and re-invented itself, ‘[e]veryone got called a poseur.’ Some performers ‘who in their time we thought of as schlocky pop poseurs’ are now seen as interesting and worthy of study.’ The punk scene produced ‘…true believers who spent long days fighting the man on streets of the big city [and living in squats who] always wanted to make punk rock less a cultural movement than some kind of meritocracy: ‘You have to prove you’re good enough to listen to our music, man.” When a group or scene’s ‘followers grow in number, the original devotees abandon it, … because it is now attracting too many poseurs—people the core group does not want to be associated with.’
The early 1980s hardcore punk band MDC penned a song entitled ‘Poseur Punk,’ which excoriated pretenders who copied the punk look without adopting its values. As part of MDC’s 25th anniversary tour in the 2000s, frontman ‘Dictor’s targets remain largely the same: warmongering politicians, money-grubbing punk poseurs (including Rancid, whose Tim Armstrong once worked as an M.D.C. roadie), and of course, cops.’ NOFX’s album ‘The War on Errorism’ includes the song ‘Decom-poseur,’ part of the album’s overall ‘critique of punk rock’s 21st century incarnation of itself.’ In an interview, NOFX’s lead singer Mike Burkett (aka ‘Fat Mike’) ‘lashes out’ at ‘an entire population of bands he deems guilty of bastardizing a once socially feared and critically infallible genre’ of punk, asking ‘[w]hen did punk rock become so safe?’
In the heavy metal subculture, some critics use the term to describe bands that are seen as excessively commercial, such as MTV-friendly glam metal groups. Ron Quintana wrote that when Metallica was trying to find a place in the LA metal scene in the early 1980s, it was difficult for the band to ‘play their music and win over a crowd in a land where poseurs ruled and anything fast and heavy was ignored.’
Damian Montgomery, frontman of Ritual Carnage, has been described as ‘an authentic, no-frills, poseur-bashing, nun-devouring kind of gentleman, an enthusiastic metalhead truly in love with the lifestyle he preaches… and unquestionably practices.’ In 2002, one critic argued that the ‘credibility of heavy metal’ in North America is being destroyed by the genre’s demotion to ‘horror movie soundtracks, wrestling events and, worst of all, the so-called ‘Mall Core’ groups like Linkin Park, SlipKnot and Korn, [which makes the]… true [metal] devotee’s path to metaldom…perilous and fraught with poseurs.’
In an article on Axl Rose, entitled ‘Ex–‘White-Boy Poseur,’ Rose admitted that he has had ‘time to reflect on heavy-metal posturing’ of the last few decades: ‘We thought we were so badass… [until] N.W.A came out rapping about this world where you walk out of your house and you get shot. … It was just so clear what stupid little white-boy poseurs we were.’
In the hip hop scene, authenticity or street cred is important. Rapper 50 Cent ‘earned the right to use the trappings of gangsta rap – the macho posturing, the guns, the drugs, the big cars and magnums of champagne. He’s not a poseur pretending to be a gangsta; he’s the real thing.’ Conversely, the late Russell Tyrone Jones, better known as rapper Ol’ Dirty Bastard, was not ‘a rough dude from the ‘hood” as his official record company biographies claimed. After Jones’s death from drugs, the rapper’s father claimed that ‘his late son was a hip-hop poseur.’ Jones’ father argued that the ‘story about him being raised in the Fort Greene [Brooklyn] projects on welfare until he was a child of 13 was a total lie’; instead, he said ‘their son grew up in a reasonably stable two-parent, two-income home in Brooklyn.’
As hip hop has gained a more mainstream popularity, it has spread to new audiences, including well-to-do ‘white hip-hop kids with gangsta aspirations—dubbed the ‘Prep-School Gangsters” by journalist Nancy Jo Sales. Sales claims that these hip hop fans ‘wore Polo and Hilfiger gear trendy among East Coast hip-hop acts’ and rode downtown to black neighborhoods in chauffeured limos to experience the ghetto life. Then, ‘to guard against being labeled poseurs, the prep schoolers started to steal the gear that their parents could readily afford.’
A 2008, ‘Utne Reader’ article describes the rise of ‘Hipster Rap,’ which ‘consists of the most recent crop of MCs and DJs who flout conventional hip-hop fashions, eschewing baggy clothes and gold chains for tight jeans, big sunglasses, the occasional keffiyeh, and other trappings of the hipster lifestyle.’ The article says this ‘hipster rap’ has been criticized by the hip hop website ‘Unkut’ and rapper Mazzi, who call the mainstream rappers poseurs or ‘fags for copping the metrosexual appearances of hipster fashion.’ ‘Prefix Mag’ writer Ethan Stanislawski argues that there ‘have been a slew of angry retorts to the rise of hipster rap,’ which he says can be summed up as ‘white kids want the funky otherness of hip-hop…without all the scary black people.’
Norman Mailer’s 1956 essay ‘The White Negro,’ lauded a ‘white hipster elite’ for talking, listening, and playing like black people. Some critics allege Mailer ‘comes off like a poseur attempting to articulate this minority mimicking a minority, these white kids’ existential attempt to deal with the ‘psychic havoc’ of the atomic age though jazz and dope.’ Mark Paytress writes that in 1977, Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger called singer/songwriter Patti Smith a ‘poseur of the worst kind, intellectual bullshit, trying to be a street girl…’
The skateboarding subculture attempts to differentiate between authentic skaters and pretenders. ‘Some first-time skaters drawn into the sport by catchy choruses or candy-colored sneakers are dismissed as poseurs’ who are ‘walking around with a skateboard as an accessory, holding it in a way we call ‘the mall grab.”
A ‘LA City Beat’ magazine writer argues that ‘dance music had its Spinal Tap moment some time around the year 2000,’ arguing that ‘the prospect of fame, groupies, and easy money by playing other people’s records on two turntables brought out the worst poseurs since hair metal ruled the Sunset Strip … Every dork with spiky locks and a mommy-bought record bag was a self-proclaimed turntable terror.’ A ‘Slate’ article argues that while the independent music scene ‘can embrace some fascinating hermetic weirdos such as Joanna Newsom or Panda Bear, it’s also prone to producing fine-arts-grad poseurs such as the Decemberists and poor-little-rich-boy-or-girl singer songwriters…’
The term ‘drugstore cowboy’ denotes people who dress up like cowboys or cowgirls but who are not involved in associated cowboy activities such as herding cattle, putting horseshoes on horses, fixing fences and working on ranches.
The Daily Omnivore 
Leave a comment