Music Criticism in Video Form

The Pains of Being Pure at Ballot

I am happier since I abandoned any efforts to curate or cram-listen for polls. I also had the second-loneliest ballot.

Ha, I have enough problems making a full ballot in the general ILM poll to curate anything. If it's from last year and I heard it, it's on my ballot.

complaints abt other ppl pretending to like stuff for cred reek of insecurity, & the notion of real/fake taste is a curious bit of authentocracy

The NY Times climbs aboard the Fantano bandwagon.

Another 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. Fantano, Fields said, was an early influence on his knowing and silly insidery content.

“I don’t think there’s anyone else like him, who’s had that reach,” Fields said. “If you told somebody on the street, ‘Name a music critic right now,’ if they’re under the age of 25, they’ll say, ‘Anthony Fantano.’” (Asked if he could even name another music critic, Fields had to take a moment. “Ummmm, let’s see … honestly … I’m trying to think. There’s a guy from Rolling Stone who loves U2?” he said. “David Fricke?”)

The old guard has not exactly embraced Fantano. Robert Christgau, a rock critic for more than half a century, has called Fantano’s career an “achievement,” but sniffed, “I don’t ‘watch’ reviews. I read writing.” In an email, Christgau added, “I literally never think about Anthony Fantano and would probably have trouble recalling his name. This isn’t a dis — I don’t know his work well enough to dis it.”

...

Having spent a lot of time on the vulgar message board 4chan, Fantano infused his internet presence with winks, contrarian irreverence and attempts at humor, like a recurring “roommate” character that is just Fantano in a fake mustache. He became a favorite of the 4chan music forum known as /mu/, but Fantano’s flirtation with that world also led to controversy when he was accused in a 2017 article in The Fader of courting the alt-right with a spinoff channel that reviewed memes instead of music. The article was later deleted amid a settlement, and both sides are bound by a nondisclosure agreement.

Fantano said he started that channel to make more money from YouTube, and acknowledged that there were some “grubby, close-minded, young, aggressive male types hovering around the content.” (The Needle Drop’s audience on YouTube is only 6.5 percent female.) He said 4chan was “toxic and problematic,” yet also “where most internet humor draws back to — all of us are guilty of that original sin, in a way.”

In the years since, he has become more vocal on social justice issues, adding, “My politics have become, as a result of reading things online, more intersectional.”

lmao at choosing to ask robert christgau about anthony fantano, powerful journalism

solid use of "sniffed"

The old guard has not exactly embraced Fantano. Robert Christgau, a rock critic for more than half a century, has called Fantano’s career an “achievement,” but sniffed, “I don’t ‘watch’ reviews. I read writing.”

What is Writism?

He said 4chan was “toxic and problematic,” yet also “where most internet humor draws back to — all of us are guilty of that original sin, in a way.”

lol, this guy is so awful.

Robin Pecknold asks Fantano a few questions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05BEJCR-jaI&t

gen z are terrible

spider-man: into the fantano-verse: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/tiktok-music-journalism-1103594/

lol, I was not expecting this:

https://thequietus.com/articles/29417-anthony-fantano-interview-favourite-music

fuck this

http://s3.amazonaws.com/quietus_production/images/articles/29417/AnthonyFantano__1610474624_crop_550x735.png

He's got the LCD Soundsystem stan look down pat.

what is this 2003

why do kids love this prick

interviewing someone with bad taste, curious

good for the Quietus, should get them a healthy amount of hits

I think it's a reasonably good selection of albums and a reasonably good commentary on them?

The real dean of rock critics

oh damn sorry fantano's good now

he does not have the taste of someone unfrozen in 2010 i'll hold off clowning him

i also def didn't read the commentary bc i don't believe he's capable of insight, just a character flaw of mine

anyway i'd prefer the baker's dozen feature be reserved to musicians and not given to very bad critics who hate women ymmv

hate women

I missed this part. What did he do?

listen i'm just making a judgment based on having observed his criticism over a period of ten years, he hasn't "done" anything

anyway whatever, good for the quietus, totally meaningless thing to get worked up over

if you feel the need to "minority opinion, but" about lcd soundsystem albums in 2021 to your sizable fanbase i feel like you should at least mention the juan maclean

Hates women, music, life

I was hoping to hate this, liking it would have been my second choice, disappointing that I feel neither.

Is ILM the internet's foremost Fantano hate club?

RYM is both his hateclub and his fanclub

Fantano Discourse has I think receded very slightly at least

if i disentangle myself from the magnetic field of fantano hate i am constantly exuding i can look at this list of records and think "yeah some of these choices are pretty sick" but in the universe where i have actually observed his criticism it is impossible for me to think that

pretty good list of albums, do not read the blurbs. unless you want to learn that "daft punk is playing at my house" is "almost satirical in a way"

These Quietus lists seem to have four approaches

* Genuine list of their favourite records
* List of records designed to present the person in a certain light
* As above but with added trolling
* A curated list to introduce some records they think need more exposure

This list is the second option, the most boring one, was hoping he would at least go for option three.

I mean

Fantano hates me personally, arbitrarily. I don't have any feelings toward him, but as they say, "the opposite of love is not hate, but indifference". That said, I read his Quietus entries this morning and felt, for the first time ever, an twinge of affinity for both his choices and an appreciation for the things he was expressing, that's all! The twinge has passed. I still don't care about him

why doesn’t this guy ever push his fucking glasses up

I don't know his choices because I refuse to click through but even if I like some of them they're bad choices because they're his

it's good to have occasional reminders of how conditional the current vague social justice orientation of alt music media really is. this is just good business for them, much like it was good business for this guy to have certain associations which it's now good business for him to deny

xpost - OEO, I always have the same thought!

My favorite 13 records would be an incredibly boring list

it's good to have occasional reminders of how conditional the current vague social justice orientation of alt music media really is. this is just good business for them, much like it was good business for this guy to have certain associations which it's now good business for him to deny

― as#d,.F:ddz;,c#,;;,;,;,sdf' (Left), Wednesday, January 13, 2021 12:52 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

social justice commitments are fleeting, but apparently click-maxing paginated galleries will always be with us :(

I don't like Fantano's videos but I thought the Quietus article was good. I enjoyed his description of the guitar sound on Plastic Surgery Disasters .

My favorite 13 records would be an incredibly boring list

― Whiney G. Weingarten, Wednesday, January 13, 2021 2:26 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

otm

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMRsgcdER/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jUr57dIMq4

I only know him as a meme but this popped up - I assume it's not his best work or anything but... he doesn't say really anything? Point to their influences and "they've got some good hooks here."

Ha ha

Drake somehow loses in feud with Fantano

a low point for dignity

it's like two complete morons trying to outsmart each other. i feel like we're the real losers for giving them our attention. oh well.