History Music / Pretenders

* TheLadette: Chrissie Hynde has said in interviews that she relates much more to men then women and has projected a tough, masculine appearance in her adult life.

* SillyLoveSongs: "Show Me," "I'll Stand By You," "Talk of the Town," "Don't Get Me Wrong".

* TheTheTitleConfusion: Just "Pretenders", but they are often called "The Pretenders". The band's Website/{{Wikipedia}} article is titled [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pretenders The Pretenders]] but they use "Pretenders" throughout. The history of the name is slightly complicated; they started out as "Pretenders", then from 1983-1987 they ''usually'' used "The Pretenders" (but kept the old logo, so when that was used on sleeves and labels instead of text, the "The" was absent), but afterward they went back to just plain "Pretenders".

* ExcitedShowTitle: ''Packed!''

* ''Music/{{Pretenders|Album}}'' (1980)
* ''Pretenders II'' (1981)
* ''Learning to Crawl'' (1983)
* ''Get Close'' (1986)
* ''Packed!'' (1990)
* ''Last of the Independents'' (1994)
* ''Viva el Amor'' (1999)
* ''Loose Screw'' (2002)
* ''Break Up the Concrete'' (2008)
* ''Alone'' (2016)
* ''Hate for Sale'' (2020)

* ''Music/{{Pretenders}}'' (1980)

[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Pretenders_7104.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:310:''I'm special, so special, I gotta have some of your attention--give it to me!'']]

''Pretenders'' is the first studio album by Music/ThePretenders. Released within the first breaths of 1980, the album often considered one of the foundation bricks of AlternativeRock and {{New Wave|Music}} as we know it.

The album was recorded in 1979, with the first track recorded being their cover of Music/TheKinks' "Stop Your Sobbing". However, the original producer, Music/NickLowe, found them hard to work with and quit production early on, so they replaced him with Chris Thomas, who stayed throughout the rest of the production. The band recorded 18 tracks for the album, of which four were released as non-album singles, and two were released as B-sides to "Brass in Pocket."

!!Tracklist:

[[AC: Side One]]
# "Precious" (3:36)
# "The Phone Call" (2:29)
# "Up the Neck" (4:47)
# "Tattooed Love Boys" (2:59)
# "Space Invader" (3:26)
# "The Wait" (3:35)
# "Stop Your Sobbing" (2:38)

[[AC: Side Two]]
# "Kid" (3:06)
# "Private Life" (6:25)
# "Brass in Pocket" (3:04)
# "Lovers of Today" (5:51)
# "Mystery Achievement" (5:24)

!!"It is time for you to stop all of your troping...":
* CoverVersion: "Stop Your Sobbing", originally by Music/TheKinks.
* EpicRocking: "Private Life" (6:25). "Lovers of Today" (5:51) falls just short.
* FadingIntoTheNextSong: "Space Invader" -> "The Wait".
* {{Instrumentals}}: "Space Invader".
* PepTalkSong: "Kid":
-->''Kid, my only kid\\
You look so small, you've gone so quiet\\
I know you know what I'm about\\
I won't deny it''
* PrecisionFStrike: "Precious" has two examples:
-->''But you know I was shittin' bricks 'cause I'm precious''
-->[...]
-->''But not me baby I'm too precious I had to fuck off''
** And also "Private Life":
-->''Attachment to obligation through guilt and regret\\
Shit that's so wet''
* UncommonTime:
** "Tattooed Love Boys" switches between 7/8 and 4/4 every measure.
** "The Phone Call" is at 7/4 in the verses.

Since its release, the album has received a ton of acclaim from music critics, appearing at #155 on ''Magazine/RollingStone'''s [[UsefulNotes/RollingStone500GreatestAlbumsOfAllTime 500 Greatest Albums of All Time]], and currently ranked at #159 on Website/AcclaimedMusic's [[UsefulNotes/AcclaimedMusicAllTimeTopAlbums compendium of various critics' greatest albums lists]].

* HomesicknessHymn: "My City Was Gone" by the takes a look at "home" being lost to the passage of time as opposed to physical absence: while the narrator does go "back to Ohio" where she is from, she laments that what she remembers of her home turf is lost to progress.

* UncommonTime: "Tattooed Love Boys" switches between 7/8 and 4/4 every measure.

The album was recorded in 1979, with the first track recorded being their cover of Music/TheKinks' "Stop Your Sobbing". However, the original producer, Nick Lowe, found them hard to work with and quit production early on, so they replaced him with Chris Thomas, who stayed throughout the rest of the production. The band recorded 18 tracks for the album, of which four were released as non-album singles, and two were released as B-sides to "Brass in Pocket."

[[caption-width-right:310:The first album. Left to right: Pete Farndon, Chrissie Hynde, Martin Chambers and James Honeyman-Scott.]]

->''Got brass in pocket,\\
Got bottle I'm gonna use it,\\
Intention I feel inventive,\\
Gonna make you, make you, make you notice.''
-->"Brass in Pocket"

Pretenders is a British-American [[NewWaveMusic New Wave]] band formed in 1978, and whose most famous lineup is made up of vocalist Chrissie Hynde, James Honeyman-Scott on guitar, Pete Farndon on bass and Martin Chambers on drums. Their first SelfTitledAlbum, from 1980, is often considered one of the foundation bricks of AlternativeRock as we know it.

Despite losing their guitarist and bassist at the peak of their success, the remaining living members went on with the band and released some more albums, got more singles on the charts... While at the same time changing members like one would clothes.

They were inducted (the original lineup only) to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005.

Not to be confused with the Filipino novel ''Literature/ThePretenders''.

Discography of studio albums:
* ''Pretenders'' (1980)
* ''Pretenders II'' (1981)
* ''Learning to Crawl'' (1983)
* ''Get Close'' (1986)
* ''Packed!'' (1990)
* ''Last of the Independents'' (1994)
* ''Viva el Amor'' (1999)
* ''Loose Screw'' (2002)
* ''Break Up the Concrete'' (2008)

!!"Back on the Trope Gang":
* ChristmasSongs: "2000 Miles" from ''Learning to Crawl'', as well as their cover of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" on one of the ''Very Special Christmas'' charity compilations.
* DrugsAreBad: Half of the original lineup died of drug overdoses within a year of each other.
* EpicRocking: "Private Life". "Up the Neck" also gets extended past the 6-minute mark in live shows.
* FingerlessGloves: Chrissie wears them on the cover of the first album.
* ForeverYoungSong: "Forever Young"
* GranolaGirl: Chrissie is vegetarian (she even owned a vegan restaurant in Akron, Ohio before it closed) and supports animal rights. It was her love of animal rights that caused her to allow Radio/RushLimbaugh to continue using "My City Was Gone" after initially balking at it; she donates the licence fees to PETA (who Rush sided with against the EPA on animal testing).
* GriefSong: "Back on the Chain Gang", about fallen member James Honeyman-Scott.
* IAmTheBand: Chrissie Hynde was the only official member on ''Packed!''.
* PrecisionFStrike: "Precious" is a famous example.
* RevolvingDoorBand: Between ''Learning to Crawl'' (the first album after JHS and Pete Farndon's deaths) and ''Last of the Independents'', no two studio albums had the same lineup. Their record of holding a lineup is three albums, between ''Last...'' (1994) and ''Loose Screw'' (2002), with guitarist Adam Seymour and drummer Andy Hobson joining the other two original members.
* RockStarSong: The third verse of "Middle of the Road"
->In the middle of the road\\
Is no private cul de sac\\
I can't get from the cab to the curb\\
Without some little jerk on my back\\
Don't harass me\\
Can't you tell I'm going home I'm tired as hell\\
I'm not the cat I used to be\\
I've got a kid, I'm thirty-three baby"
* SelfTitledAlbum: The first one.
* SillyLoveSongs: "Show Me," "I'll Stand By You," "Talk of the Town," "Don't Get Me Wrong"
* TheTheTitleConfusion: Just "Pretenders", but they are often called "The Pretenders". The band's Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} article is titled [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pretenders The Pretenders]] and write it as such in the infobox, but only the word Pretenders is bolded at the beginning of the article. The history of the name is slightly complicated; they started out as "Pretenders", then from 1983-1987 they ''usually'' used "The Pretenders" (but kept the old logo, so when that was used on sleeves and labels instead of text, the "The" was absent), but afterwards they went back to just plain "Pretenders".
* WhatTheHellHero: A lot of feminists had this reaction to Chrissie Hynde after she made some comments saying that [[UsefulNotes/VictimBlaming rape victims were responsible for what happened to them]] in her memoir.
* WhenSheSmiles: {{Gender Flip}}ped in "Don't Get Me Wrong":
->"I'm thinking of the fireworks\\
That go off when you smile"
* WorkingOnTheChainGang: Though not literally about this, "Back on the Chain Gang" does reference Sam Cooke's [[TropeNamer trope-naming]] tune in its chorus. (''"Hooh! Aaah!"'')
* YouAreNotAlone: "I'll Stand by You".

!!Pretenders provide examples of the following tropes:

* IAmTheBand: Chrissie Hynde was the only official member in ''Packed!''.

* TheTheTitleConfusion: Just "Pretenders", but they are often called "The Pretenders". The band's Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} article is titled [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pretenders The Pretenders]] and write it as such in the infobox, but only the word Pretenders is bolded at the beginning of the article. The history of the name is slightly complicated; they started out as "Pretenders", then from 1983-1987 they ''usually'' used "The Pretenders" (but kept the old logo, so when that was used on sleeves and labels instead of text, the "The" was absent), but afterwards then they went back to just plain "Pretenders".

* YouAreNotAlone: "I'll Stand By You"