Anthony Fantano

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Video icon of the infobox
The needle drop
Anthony Fantano (2016)
Anthony Fantano (2016)
YouTube channel ( music review )
language English
founding 2009
channels theneedledrop (main channel)

fantano (second channel)

Subscribers over 2,200,000 (main channel)
over 1,100,000 (second channel)
Calls over 630,000,000 (main channel)
over 240,000,000 (second channel)
Videos over 3,200 (main channel)
over 800 (second channel)
(updated Aug. 2020)

Anthony Fantano [ fænˈtænoʊ ] (born October 28, 1985 in Connecticut ) is an American web video producer and music critic . He is known for his YouTube channel The Needle Drop , on which he has been commenting on and critically assessing releases of various musical styles since 2009. Fantano describes himself as "(the) internet's busiest music nerd".

Life

Anthony Fantano was born in 1985 in the east coast state of Connecticut . His parents divorced at an early age, so that as a child - during long car journeys - he enjoyed intensive radio enjoyment . In his youth he wanted to become a cartoonist , which is why he still has a preference for cartoon series such as Adventure Time or Regular Show . As a teenager, Fantano moved to Wolcott with his mother . He heard his first albums (including Dookie from Green Day and Evil Empire from Rage Against the Machine ) with a radio recorder .

After high school , he studied Political Science , Broadcasting Communication, and Journalism at Southern Connecticut State University . He also worked in a pizza parlor and began getting involved in college radio . After graduating, a professor put him in charge of a pitch at WNPR , where he successfully presented a podcast called The Needle Drop . While he was already on YouTube was active, he continued his work for WNPR to 2014 continued and perfected using a former MTV -Mitarbeiterin the cutting of videos.

Fantano has been playing the electric bass since he was around 14 years old . In college he formed a duo with a fellow student on drums . The two wrote a handful of songs together and recorded a few demos , but did not pursue their musical ambitions any further. At the age of 15, he said he weighed more than 300 pounds , which he was able to lose continuously thanks to a strict diet. Fantano is married and lives vegan .

YouTube

The needle drop

The Needle Drop logo

In order to reach more people and have more control over its work, Fantano moved its WNPR podcast to the video portal YouTube . Since 2009 he has been running the channel The Needle Drop , which had more than 1.9 million subscribers as of November 2019. The name is derived from the stylus of a record player , which enables the playback of a vinyl record . He employs an employee who is entrusted with editorial tasks .

Fantano's videos follow a simple scheme. He uses a tripod to record himself giving his opinion on selected music albums , while in the left part of the picture he fades in the cover of the corresponding sound carrier on a green screen. Like most written reviews , he goes into the instrumentation, text and interpretation and highlights highlights and weaknesses. He spices up his lectures with jokes in the style of Monty Python , Adult Swim and Tim Heidecker . As a special stylistic device, he uses radical cuts with flashing colors and sound effects that are not only intended to entertain, but also to compensate for any slip of the tongue. Initially, his reviews also contained music excerpts that were later waived due to a lack of licenses . At the end of the review, Fantano awards a score from 0 to 10, which is displayed in large comic letters. Occasionally, albums are rated NOT GOOD instead of a score if Fantano does not consider a comprehensive review to be worthwhile.

Occasionally he embodies his alter ego Cal Chuchesta with a painted mustache , who appears as his roommate and sidekick with an alternative taste in music. He has already published several singles and mixtapes in digital form under this pseudonym (see discography ). Anthony Fantano's reviews cover a wide range of popular music and cover genres such as pop , rock , hip-hop , metal and electronic music . Most of his videos are devoted to current publications, in exceptional cases he talks about genre classics. On his second channel, fantano , he publishes uncut video comments , which he often records with his iPhone and presents in different categories ( Let's Argue , Stinkpiece etc.).

Top marks

year Interpreter album Genre (s)
2012 Death grips The Money Store Experimental hip-hop
2014 Swans To be child Experimental rock, noise rock
2015 Kendrick Lamar To Pimp a Butterfly Hip-hop , jazz-rap
2018 Kids See Ghosts Kids See Ghosts Hip-hop, rap-rock
2018 Daughters You won't get what you want Noise rock, industrial rock

Year lists

At the end of each year, Fantano presents several lists of what it considers to be the best and worst releases, including albums, EPs and singles.

year Top albums Worst albums
2009 1. Fever Ray - Fever Ray
2. Sunn O))) - Monoliths & Dimensions
3. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion 		-
2010 1. LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening
2. The Books - The Way Out
3. Four Tet - There Is Love in You 		-
2011 1. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
2. Death Grips - Exmilitary
3. Battles - Gloss Drop 		-
2012 1. Death Grips - The Money Store
2. Kendrick Lamar - Good Kid, MAAD City
3. Ondatrópica - Ondatrópica 		-
2013 1. Tim Hecker - Virgins
2. The Knife - Speaking the Habitual
3. Altar of Plagues - Teethed Glory and Injury 		-
2014 1. Swans - To Be Kind
2. Iceage - Plowing into the Field of Love
3. Sun Kil Moon - Benji 		-
2015 1. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly
2. Death Grips - The Powers That B
3. Kamasi Washington - The Epic 		1. Kid Cudi - Speeding 'Bullet 2 Heaven
2. Miley Cyrus - Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz
3. Dance Gavin Dance - Instant Gratification
2016 1. Danny Brown - Atrocity Exhibition
2. David Bowie - Blackstar
3. Death Grips - Bottomless Pit 		1. Corey Feldman - Angelic 2 the Core
2. Six Feet Under - Graveyard Classics IV
3. Brokencyde - All Grown Up
2017 1. Father John Misty - Pure Comedy
2. Brockhampton - Saturation , Saturation II and Saturation III
3. Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked at Me 		1. XXXTentacion - 17
2. Eminem - Revival
3. Chris Brown - Heartbreak on a Full Moon
2018 1. Daughters - You Won't Get What You Want
2. Kids See Ghosts - Kids See Ghosts
3. JPEGMAFIA - Veteran 		1. Lil Xan - Total Xanarchy
2. Jaden Smith - The Sunset Tapes: A Cool Tape Story
3. Nav - Reckless
2019 1. Charli XCX - Charli
2. Tyler, the Creator - Igor
3. Richard Dawson - 2020 		1. Nostalgia Critic - Nostalgia Critic's The Wall
2. Chance the Rapper - The Big Day
3. Nav - Bad Habits
year Top singles Worst singles
2010 1. LCD sound system - I Can Change
2. Gorillaz feat. Lou Reed - Some Kind of Nature
3. Beach House - Take Care 		-
2011 1. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
2. Death Grips - Takyon (Death Yon)
3. James Blake - The Wilhelm Scream 		-
2012 1. Death Grips - The Fever (Aye Aye)
2. Spiritualized - Hey Jane
3. Gorillaz feat. James Murphy & André 3000 - DoYaThing 		-
2013 1. The Knife - A Tooth for an Eye
2. Pusha T - Numbers on the Boards
3. Ariel Pink & Jorge Elbrecht - Hang On to Life 		-
2014 1. Liars - Mess on a Mission
2. Swans - Oxygen
3. Timber Timbre - Hot Dreams 		-
2015 1. Kendrick Lamar - The Blacker the Berry
2. Death Grips - On GP
3. Jamie xx feat. Young Thug & Popcaan - I Know There's Gonna Be (Good Times) 		-
2016 1. David Bowie - Blackstar
2. Injury Reserve - Oh Shit !!!
3. Danny Brown feat. Kendrick Lamar , Ab-Soul & Earl Sweatshirt - Really Doe 		1. Le Tigre - I'm with Her
2. Corey Feldman feat. Snoop Dogg - Go 4 It
3. Lena Dunham - Sexual Pantsuit Anthem
2017 1. Father John Misty - Pure Comedy
2. Kirin J Callinan - Bravado
3. Brockhampton - Gold 		1. Hopsin - Happy Ending
2. Jake Paul feat. Team 10 - It's Everyday Bro
3. RiceGum feat. Alissa Violet - It's Every Night Sis
2018 1. Childish Gambino - This Is America
2. Sophie - Ponyboy
3. Daughters - Satan in the Wait 		1. Tom MacDonald - Whiteboy
2. R. Kelly - I Admit
3. Eminem - Venom
2019 1. Alex Cameron - Far from Born Again
2. Dorian Electra - Career Boy
3. Tyler, the Creator - Earfquake 		1. Lil Dicky - Earth
2. Vin Jay - Mumble Rapper vs. Lyricist
3. 93 Punx - 3 Years Sober

thatist the plan

Even before he turned to music rating, Fantano ran the YouTube channel thatistheplan , on which he satirically dealt with political issues and memes from 2007 onwards . In October 2017 he was confronted by an article in the New York music and culture magazine The Fader with the accusation that he was flirting with the alt-right movement. Fantano represents racist and anti-feminist standpoints in his videos and attacks so-called social justice warriors . He wanted to distinguish himself as a right-wing "Edgelord" and emulate greats like Paul Joseph Watson . Fantano responded with a response video defending himself against the allegations and seeing his humorous films, including some parodies of African American rappers, taken out of context. In fact, the YouTuber has repeatedly taken liberal positions, made negative comments about Donald Trump and right-wing opinion leaders like Watson, and for various reasons refuses to say the " N word " out loud.

The channel has been offline since then, which, according to Fantano, has nothing to do with the allegations, but rather with the changed contract policy of the video platform. Although he was able to refute the allegations, some live performances planned for fall 2017 in Los Angeles , San Francisco and Boston had to be canceled. The author Ezra Marcus, meanwhile, received threats from Fantano's fan base, including those of an anti-Semitic nature. In March 2018, the article was finally removed from the Fader's website .

reception

The specialist magazine Spin named Anthony Fantano the first “superstar” in music criticism and, in this category, the vlogger with the highest recognition value. Despite trained specialist vocabulary and adjective-rich language, Fantano is not always taken seriously by experienced music critics. For example, he sometimes lacks the understanding to see publications in an overall political and emotional context. Fantano owes its great popularity above all to the lively contact with its fan base via social media . According to Spin, his "enthusiastic, personal" nature resonates perfectly with his predominantly male and worldwide fans.

Fantano explains his success with the fact that he does not shy away from representing unpopular opinions and thus differs from similar music websites. For example, he awarded Kanye Wests , My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy , which many consider to be a masterpiece, with only 6/10 points. Sometimes artists react upset to negative reviews of The Needle Drop . The British electronic musician Zomby referred to Fantano in 2013 in a tweet that was later deleted - alluding to its rounded head shape - as "melon" ( melon ). The background was a mediocre 5/10 rating for his LP With Love . Since then, Fantano's fans have been using the abuse as a nickname . Post Malone , whose debut album Fantano had found “not good” apart from its scoring system, returned the favor in 2018 with the lyrics “Your new shit sucks, I feel like Anthony Fantano (ooh)” in his song Sugar Wraith . The critic gave the accompanying album 7/10 points.

On October 2, 2015, the Australian television broadcaster SBS misleadingly used a screenshot from a Fantano video in its coverage of the rampage at Umpqua Community College to identify the perpetrator, Christopher Harper-Mercer.

Awards

In November 2011 Fantano won for The Needle Drop the on MTV awarded O Music Award in the category Beyond the blog .

Discography

Singles

  • 2013: Cal 2 Be
  • 2015: Mykey Come Back
  • 2016: Panda (Remix) (feat. Pink Guy & NFKRZ, original artist: Desiigner )
  • 2018: Slap Chop
  • 2018: Coin Star
  • 2018: Don't Talk to Me (feat.Fellatia Geisha)
  • 2018: I'm in the Club (feat.Joycie)

Mix tapes

  • 2013: $ CALxTAPExONE $
  • 2013: # CALxTAPExTHREE #
  • 2013: ∆CALxTAPExTWO∆
  • 2014: Cocoa
  • 2015: The New CALassic

Web links

Commons : Anthony Fantano  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Itemized list

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Jeremy Gordon: How Anthony Fantano, aka The Needle Drop, Became Today's Most Successful Music Critic. In: Spin .com. November 2016, accessed on August 6, 2018 .
  2. ↑ a b c d (I) NTERVIEW: Anthony Fantano. CPBN Media Lab / YouTube, January 15, 2013, accessed August 6, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Anthony Fantano: Is NOT GOOD Worse Than a 0/10? YouTube / fantano, September 14, 2019, accessed on July 13, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Cal Chuchesta. In: Discogs .com. Accessed August 8, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Visualizing The Needle Drop. Statstano.com, November 2017, accessed August 6, 2018 .
  6. ↑ The Needle Drop Videos. Anthony Fantano / YouTube, accessed January 20, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Ezra Marcus: The Needle Drop pioneered music review vlogs. His lesser-known channel was a bid to win the alt-right. In: The Fader. October 3, 2017, archived from the original on October 4, 2017 ; accessed on August 6, 2018 .
  8. ↑ a b Anthony Fantano: The Fader Response. The Needle Drop / YouTube, October 6, 2017, accessed August 6, 2018 .
  9. ↑ Paul Resnikoff: Anthony Fantano's Entire Tour Canceled Over Racist, Old Right Allegations. In: Digital Music News. October 10, 2017, accessed on August 6, 2018 .
  10. ↑ Anthony Fantano. In: Know Your Meme . Accessed August 6, 2018 .
  11. ^ Post Malone - Sugar Wraith. In: Genius.com. Retrieved June 8, 2018 .
  12. ↑ Dan OZZL: NewsChannel mistakenly Uses Photo of Music Vlogger to Identify Gunman in Oregon shooting. In: Noisey . October 2, 2015, accessed on August 6, 2018 .
  13. ^ O Music Awards Take Over Halloween's Largest Street Party. In: MTV .com. November 1, 2011, accessed August 8, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Fantano, Anthony
ALTERNATIVE NAMES The needle drop; Cal Chuchesta (stage name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American web video producer and music critic
DATE OF BIRTH October 28, 1985
PLACE OF BIRTH Connecticut