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But an editor’s headline on a story he wrote, which inflamed Bob Dylan fans, convinced Fantano that he only wanted to work for himself. Graduating into the dawn of a recession, he worked at a pizza place and interned at a local NPR station, where he briefly wrote about music and helmed a little-heard podcast that anticipated The Needle Drop. “But I feel like I can break an artist - I do have the power to do that.”Īt Southern Connecticut State University, Fantano threw himself into the college radio station, eventually becoming its general manager. “There’s no number of negative reviews I can give to Nav that can end his career,” Fantano said, referencing his takedowns of the slyly popular rapper. He referred to what he does as giving a “synopsis or CliffsNotes” for an artist or album, but also obviously values his role as a curator and tastemaker, too. Predictably, The Needle Drop’s most popular videos take on polarizing stars like West, Eminem and Chance the Rapper, but Fantano often avoids big-ticket Top 40, which could bring him more views, in favor of proselytizing for something smaller or stranger. The only five albums to earn a perfect 10 from him are by Kendrick Lamar, the noise-rap trio Death Grips, the Kids See Ghosts duo of Kanye West and Kid Cudi, the aggressive rock band Swans, and Daughters, which he praised for its “nuclear bomb of cathartic hideousness” and “vile displays of auditory abuse.” His critical voice - earnest, adjective-heavy enthusiasm mixed with boyish, 4chan-inflected internet humor - and his taste, which can be eclectic but skews toward heavy rock, outré and experimental pop and rock-influenced rap, are also reliable. (“The more content you’re dropping on a single channel, the less likely it is that YouTube is going to appropriately promote all of it,” he said.)
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His output is regular and optimized: a review almost every weekday, plus immediate reactions to new tracks, music news and other recurring features on his second channel, which he started in 2017 to circumvent the YouTube algorithm. Such consistency, a result of his type-A workaholism, has been crucial to Fantano’s success. Over the years, Fantano has professionalized - working with a managing editor, a video editor, a booking agent and an entertainment lawyer (whose son was a fan) - but the look and feel of his videos has hardly changed since he started The Needle Drop in 2009, with a plain backdrop and a digital representation of the album cover in question over his right shoulder. Fantano, Fields said, was an early influence on his knowing and silly insidery content. “There’s so much more personality,” she said.Īnother college student and musician, Ethan Fields, 20, has used his time at home during the pandemic to build a TikTok fan base, savvily interpreting popular songs in the style of other musicians. “I know so many people that just won’t listen to something because Anthony Fantano was like, ‘It’s not worth your time,’” she said, noting that she has “looked into Pitchfork before,” but mainly consumes video reviews. With more than 900 million views across his YouTube accounts, Fantano, who functions as an entertainer as much as a critic, has become a touchstone among music-focused, millennial and Gen Z content creators even as they refine and expand upon his format on platforms like TikTok.ĭev Lemons, a musician and college student whose account does bite-size criticism by-way-of music theory and news, called Fantano “a celebrity and an authority” among her cohort.