Anthony Fantano

Anthony Fantano
Personal information
Born (1985-10-28) October 28, 1985
Wolcott, Connecticut, U.S.
Nationality American
Residence Middletown, Connecticut, U.S.
Occupation Music journalist
Website theneedledrop.com
YouTube information
Also known as Cal Chuchesta[1]
Channels
Years active 2007–present
Subscribers 1.6 million+
Total views 386 million+
100,000 subscribers 2012
1,000,000 subscribers 2017

The Needle Drop
Type of site
 Music reviewing
Available in English
Created by Anthony Fantano
Alexa rank Increase 51,991 (May 2018)[4]
Commercial Yes
Launched 2007 (2007)
Current status Active
Subscriber and view counts updated as of June 11, 2018.

Anthony Fantano (/fænˈtænoʊ/; born October 28, 1985) is an American music critic, video producer, and journalist best known for creating The Needle Drop, a music-related video blog. He is self-described as "the internet's busiest music nerd".[5] Fantano's website and YouTube channel review a variety of music genres, including hip hop, rock, metal, indie, electronic music, folk and experimental.

Early life

Fantano grew up in Connecticut and spent his teenage years in Wolcott.[6] As a child he had a desire to become a cartoonist, stating he was a fan of The Simpsons and that he still enjoys cartoons from today such as Adventure Time, Bob's Burgers, and Regular Show.[7]

Career

Fantano started his career in the mid-2000s as a music director for the Southern Connecticut State University college radio station. He stated, "I've always loved music, but working there got me turned onto a lot of different styles, and got me pushing my tastes into different areas".[8] In 2007, Fantano started working at Connecticut Public Radio in which he hosted The Needle Drop.[9] That same year, he launched The Needle Drop in text reviews, eventually starting as video reviews in 2009. At the time, he was working on The Needle Drop at the college radio station, as well as at a pizza restaurant. In late 2011, he decided to pursue The Needle Drop full-time.[8][10]

He was interviewed at SXSW in 2011 about the rise of music vlogging, along with Matt Galloway of the Rock It Out! blog and Michael Roffman, president and editor-in-chief of Consequence of Sound.[11] In March 2011, he was featured in an article from The Guardian also about the rise of music vlogging.[12]

In October 2017, Fantano was accused of promoting alt-right and racist sentiments in videos on his lesser known YouTube channel "thatistheplan" in an article by The Fader. The Fader also accused Fantano of targeting feminists and belittling the work of black musicians.[13] Fantano uploaded a video to The Needle Drop YouTube channel in response, claiming that the article was a "hitjob" and that the videos in question were "satirical". He disputed the idea that he had aligned himself with the far right, claiming that his videos actually have a "pretty obvious liberal slant" and responded to accusations of racism stating that he had "harshly critiqued and clowned on white artists and rock musicians in the past". He also posted on social media his displease with future edits of the article, including one claiming he laughed at the murder and rape of a woman being changed to "violence towards a woman" after the video.[14]

Following the video, the article's writer, Ezra Marcus, claimed some of Fantano's fanbase sent threats and verbal to him, including antisemitic abuse and alleged doxing.[15] The article was later deleted by The Fader.[16]

Personal life

Fantano lives in Middletown, Connecticut. He is a vegan, having grown into the diet since becoming vegetarian around 18–19.[8] He is married.[6]

Politically, Fantano is an anti-war social democrat.[17] He supports raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour as a "living wage"[18] as well as single-payer healthcare.[19]

Reviews and ratings

Fantano rates albums and tracks on a scale from 0 to 10, with an accompanying adjective, either "light", "decent", or "strong", for further qualification of its score. Occasionally he will do parody reviews of albums such as I'm Gay (I'm Happy) by Lil B,[‡ 1] Born This Way by Lady Gaga,[‡ 2] Unknown Death 2002 by Yung Lean,[‡ 3] Mastermind by Rick Ross,[‡ 4] Dark Sky Paradise by Big Sean,[‡ 5] August 26 by Post Malone,[‡ 6] Ether by B.o.B,[‡ 7] Gold Cobra by Limp Bizkit,[‡ 8] and Sketches of Brunswick East by King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.[‡ 9] Fantano has only given four perfect 10/10 ratings in his reviews so far (The Money Store by Death Grips, To Be Kind by Swans, To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar, and Kids See Ghosts' self-titled album). Additionally, Fantano will also review albums that are considered "classic" music releases. These are reviewed without a rating during a yearly segment known as Classics Week. Also during Classics Week is another segment called Lists Week in which Fantano lists his top albums of the year as well his worst albums of the year, this segment traditionally happens near the end of the year.

In July 2016, a new rating dubbed "Not Good" was introduced, which is not based on a numeric score and is assigned to albums which Fantano does not feel like giving a proper negative review on.[‡ 10] The first album to receive the rating was Desiigner's New English.[‡ 11] He also did a near-unedited 50-minute "Not Good" review of Angelic 2 the Core by Corey Feldman, in which he dubbed the album the worst of 2016.[‡ 12]

Awards

Needle Drop won the 2011 O Music Awards in the "Beyond the Blog" category.[20]

Discography

Albums

  • Taiga (2009 as bass player) [21] [22]
  • Anthony FanFiction Vol.1 (2015)
  • The New CALassic (2015, as Cal Chuchesta)

Singles

  • Cal 2 B (2013, as Cal Chuchesta)
  • Mykey Come Back (2015, as Cal Chuchesta)
  • Panda (Remix) ft. Pink Guy & NFKRZ (2016, as Cal Chuchesta)
  • Coin Star (2018, as Cal Chuchesta)
  • Don't Talk To Me ft. Fellatia Geisha (2018, as Cal Chuchesta)
  • Slap Chop (2018, as Cal Chuchesta)
  • On Deck Freestyle (2018, as Cal Chuchesta)
  • I'm In the Club (Lookin' For Some Love) ft. Joycie (2018, as Cal Chuchesta)
  • Advice ft. Rob Scallon (2018, as Cal Chuchesta)

Mixtapes

  • $CALxTAPExONE$ (2013, as Cal Chuchesta)
  • ∆CALxTAPExTWO∆ (2013, as Cal Chuchesta)
  • #CALxTAPExTHREE# (2013, as Cal Chuchesta)

References

  1. ↑ "Interview: Anthony Fantano (The Needle Drop)". The Mancunion. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
  2. ↑ thatistheplan (2017-10-03), terminated, retrieved 2017-10-22
  3. ↑ "A Primer On The Almighty Shitstorm Surrounding The Needle Drop's Anthony Fantano". Junkee Media. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
  4. ↑ "theneedledrop.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved April 23, 2018.
  5. ↑ Veronin, Nick. "The Hardest Working Critic in Show Business Never Stops Hunting for New Music". wired.com, February 18, 2014
  6. 1 2 Gordon, Jeremy (November 30, 2016). "How Anthony Fantano, aka The Needle Drop, Became Today's Most Successful Music Critic | SPIN". Spin. Retrieved December 22, 2016.
  7. ↑ (I)NTERVIEW: Anthony Fantano. YouTube. January 15, 2013.
  8. 1 2 3 Elabbady, Ali (October 30, 2013). "Interview: Anthony Fantano of The Needle Drop". Green Room. United States. Archived from the original on May 26, 2014.
  9. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on January 3, 2014. Retrieved May 26, 2014.
  10. ↑ "Anthony Chuchesta Wants to Turn You On". Consequence of Sound. October 9, 2014. Retrieved September 4, 2017.
  11. ↑ "Interview at SXSW".
  12. ↑ Jonze, Tim (March 18, 2011). "SXSW 2011: The rise of the music vlogger". London. Retrieved September 4, 2017.
  13. ↑ "Popular music vlogger accused of promoting alt-right sentiment - NME". NME. 2017-10-04. Retrieved 2018-08-23.
  14. ↑ "Nothony Meatano on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 2018-09-28.
  15. ↑ "Anthony Fantano Responds To Accusations Of Racism & "Pandering" To The Alt-Right". Music Feeds. 2017-10-07. Retrieved 2018-08-23.
  16. ↑ "Fader Removes Article Amid Settlement With Anthony Fantano". Spin. 2018-03-21. Retrieved 2018-08-23.
  17. ↑ Fantano, Anthony [@theneedledrop] (June 27, 2018). "wrong. a social democratic shift is what this country needs. enjoy being wrong" (Tweet). Retrieved September 9, 2018 – via Twitter.
  18. ↑ Fantano, Anthony [@theneedledrop] (June 7, 2017). "😂😂Atlanta has to go out and vote😂😂 Karen Handel: "I do not support a livable wage"" (Tweet). Retrieved September 9, 2018 – via Twitter.
  19. ↑ Fantano, Anthony [@theneedledrop] (May 9, 2017). "If Dems put as much effort into healthcare as they do RUSSIA RUSSIA RUSSIA, we'd have single payer by now" (Tweet). Retrieved September 9, 2018 – via Twitter.
  20. ↑ "O Music Awards Take Over Halloween's Largest Street Party". MTV News (Press release). 1 November 2011. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  21. ↑ https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/taiga/taiga/
  22. ↑ https://anthonyfantanoricharddalbis.bandcamp.com/releases

Primary sources

In the text these references are preceded by a double dagger (‡):

  1. ↑ "Lil B- I'm Gay (I'm Happy) ALBUM REVIEW". The Needle Drop. Retrieved September 10, 2017.
  2. ↑ "Lady Gaga- Born This Way ALBUM REVIEW". The Needle Drop. May 24, 2011. Retrieved July 15, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Yung Lean – Unknown Death 2002 MIXTAPE REVIEW". The Needle Drop. July 17, 2013. Retrieved July 15, 2015.
  4. ↑ Rick Ross – Mastermind ALBUM REVIEW. YouTube. March 9, 2014.
  5. ↑ Big Sean – Dark Sky Paradise ALBUM REVIEW. YouTube. February 24, 2015.
  6. ↑ "Post Malone – August 26th MIXTAPE REVIEW". The Needle Drop. Retrieved May 16, 2016.
  7. ↑ "B.o.B – Ether ALBUM REVIEW". The Needle Drop. Retrieved May 20, 2016.
  8. ↑ "Limp Bizkit – Gold Cobra ALBUM REVIEW". The Needle Drop. Retrieved July 18, 2016.
  9. ↑ "King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard w/ Mild High Club – Sketches of Brunswick East ALBUM REVIEW". The Needle Drop. Retrieved August 25, 2017.
  10. ↑ "NOT GOOD". The Needle Drop. Retrieved March 1, 2017.
  11. ↑ "Desiigner's New English: NOT GOOD". The Needle Drop. Retrieved August 7, 2016.
  12. ↑ "THE WORST ALBUM OF 2016 (Corey Feldman's Angelic 2 the Core) [NOT GOOD]". The Needle Drop. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
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