How Anthony Fantano, aka The Needle Drop, Became Today’s Most Successful Music Critic

spin.com/featured/anthony-fantano-the-needle-drop-profile-interview/

Thoughts?

Anthony is a perfect saint.


That is all.

H

his second channel is the best thing that hes ever done

Good for him. Glad one of us made it big.

...

perfect

>At 15, he weighed more than 300 pounds

how does that even happen?

T H I C C
H
I
C
C

I can see why he went vegan

so happy 4 dad

>In a review of Swans’ 2013 record To Be Kind, one of three albums that have received perfect scores from Fantano–Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly and Death Grips’ The Money Store were the others–he didn’t accentuate the record’s heaviness by comparing it to “the Sisyphean boulder,” or something convoluted. Instead, he practically growled as he pronounced the word—heavvvvviness—while flaring his eyes. It communicated that, yes, the record did rock.

I like him in some fleeting ways, but should we really be encouraging this kind of journalism?

>Daddy, what was music like before Fantano was there to tell us what was good or not?

His family was pretty well-off. He could afford to gain 300 pounds.

That quote was describing how his video reviewing style differs from print criticism, and how a visual communication of criticism can have a different effect from reading something. I don't think it was meant to "encourage" anything.

We encourage it by saying "Yes, these videos are good," pressing "subscribe," recommending to our friends, etc.

good article t b h

did you ever consider that maybe it's better this way

>It’s a refreshing approach to his viewers, who are young, scattered across the globe, and 94 percent male.

oh god, are we that generic?

I've always figured that Sup Forums only has a 5-15 % female userbase so it makes sensel

A lot of reviewers make obscure references and connections in their writing to seem smarter than they are, so the reader A) thinks of them as someone who's opinions are valuable and informed to the highest artistic level and B) to make the reader feel smarter for reading it and agreeing. Fantano may try a little hard to be funny with his memes and wacky edits but he never tries to present himself as more than just a really big fan of music. It isn't any kind of "journalism." It's just thoughts.

marcel is better than fantano in so many ways at this point

i can't believe people even still give this hack the light of day anymore

go away marcel i honestly wouldn't care if you died

did marcel rape your mother or something

> Later, she told Fantano she’d accidentally swiped into the stranger’s photos folder and found it full with photos of him, portending ominous usage of the new pic.

OKAY WHICH ONE OF YOU WAS THIS

honestly this

fantano started to go downhill around last year desu

he might as well have

ok edgelord

The thing is—and when I say this you must keep in mind I like him as a person—while I appreciate a more conversational reviewer, there is something of a false dilemma that goes on here. You don't need ornate metaphors every other line, no. But some nuanced language can be a good thing.

Now, maybe he's not a "critic" per se. But the way he reviews, which he describes as a "workmanlike" approach, is devoid of real analysis. You can tell he's intelligent just by listening to him, he doesn't need the language for that. And sometimes he comes to a conclusion that I agree with, that demonstrates to me he has this kind of mental acuity, but he doesn't "show his work" so to speak. I can intuit on my own how he got there at times, but that's purely coincidental. So what do I get out of his reviews? Basic entertainment? If that's so, "reviewing" is just a subsidiary category.

I agree. We should be more diverse, its just boring otherwise! Its 2016.

Kind of pathetic that fantano is recognised as a critic. I dont think I've ever heard any insightful or unique opinion from him. He just describes everything with buzzwords with a pretense that implies him knowledgable. I thought he was at 14 but revisiting some videos I can tell he doesn't know what hes talking about.

Mostly just shits on le popular generic music to stroke and validate the average underage mudrone's ego of being le real music fan.

I was a fan of his before I frequented Sup Forums. I don't always agree with him and am often baffled by his taste but there's no denying the man has found a winning formula.

Congratulations, Anthony on getting some well deserved recognition.

>Sup Forums made him

>YouTube's most successful music critic
>not even 1 million subscribers

>He just describes everything with buzzwords
>Does the exact same thing


Way to go buddy.

>winning formula.
>Provide absolutely minimum substance or insight whilst spouting ironic memes in hoping that will substitute it instead
>Build a online presence of using buzzwords to describe surface level music for teenagers to copy and post on their steam/rym profiles to feel special

I'm not a critic, faggot. I am giving a passing opinion- not an insightful analysis.

If you say "that's the point", in his defense then you're just discrediting him as a supposed critic further.

A stupid hypocritical opinion to say.

You're dumb. I'm over with you.

Hey Anthony

Whew you sure showed him

>Most Successful Music Critic

I didn't realize the bar was so fucking low.

>t.never seen TheNeedleDrop video

fantano seems like a good enough guy. he makes money doing what i assume he loves (or loved), so that's great for him. i don't think you can warrant basically averaging a review a day. but if it gets people to listen to something new and to have fun engaging with cool shit, i'm all for it. there's not much someone with an above-average understanding for music can gain from him though.

he's just another guy you can reminisce with in a record store, essentially.

THIS

Anthony this is the second time you've posted itt please stop.

I remember when he was shilling his shitty channel when he first was trying to make it big. Back then he at least tried to be insightful. Lord knows he wasn't but he tried. Now it's exclusively memes with bare minimum actual analysis.

>most generic record collection on earth
>reminisce in a record store

>Now it's exclusively memes with bare minimum actual analysis.

>What's TPAB review??

>What's TBK review??

>What's Rodeo Review??

anthony please fuck off

Yeah but the bar is contemporary journalism

kek

...

The worst part is he can't even admit to being a talentless hack. He'll just write this off as being ironic and ignore the fact he has nothing meaningful to say. I'm so fucking sick of irony being legitimized in its useage like this.

What did they mean by this?

Shut up hater.

Everyone I have time to play csgo competitive there is often a faggot or two wirh 2009 mu memes and fantano plastered all over their steam profile

Gives you an idea of how insightful his criticism is and what his audience is as well

"a potential album review show on Adult Swim, brokered with the network by a mutual friend, was perhaps not. (“I don’t know if TV is where I see my format working.”)"
Is this referring to Sam Hyde? He went on Fantano's podcast.

i mean he literally came out of Sup Forums and got his start thanks to us
what do you expect?

>Some underage is so pathetic he pretends to be Anthony fantano in his spare time

No he didn't.

Yes he did. How long have you been on this board man?

>This triggers user

Nice anger issues

fantano has jack-all to do with Sup Forums except for the fact that a lot of people here are obsessed with him.

he probably doesn't even know we exist.

Proof?

Stop stroking the dick of Sup Forums as if it has any relevance.

>he probably doesn't even know we exist
empirically wrong

>pathetic
>Implying everybody here isn't pathetic enough on Sup Forums
>being a normie scum

You're either a bad baiter or incredibly new

Are you so insecure you deleted your own post?

No. I deleted it because I'm not Anthony Fantano.

Down Sydrome

Dude. Ur a kid.

Why is he so popular to begin with?
It's not like he's interesting or have interesting things to say?

we don't want to promote someone who's actually better than ourselves

K

I'm really proud of Quentiny Quantano

Watch out Is stupid and lives in his parents basements.

It's much better than something like Tiny Mix Tapes reviews, where the authors compete to see who can be more obscurantist

Shut up.

does mr bandana visit /mu?
was ther ever any mentioning of Sup Forums during a review?

Yes. You face.

Is he still married to a black woman? I haven't seen her on his channel in a while

No yes ur fave

Yeah, I agree. I enjoy his videos, but it's really his charisma and self-presentation that make it.

It's interesting to hear the podcast he did with Chris Ott, for example - it kind of brings out the contrast between Fantano's style and other critics'. Fantano might not have any really crazy/idiosyncratic opinions, or really deep technical knowledge, or deep on-the-ground involvement with particular music scenes. Instead I think he reflects the average music listener who's more casual about jumping into new music they heard about through the internet. I think this article nicely brings out that point, that Fantano is more relateable than your average ivory tower / webzine critic.

And honestly, most music journalism these days is just painful to read, written in really laborious and pretentious ways. That Fantano's stuff is easily digestible is definitely to his credit imo.

:-)