I do not do it the first time I saw a video of Anthony Fantano. Also known as “The Needle Drop” and “The most busy music of the Internet”, Fantano appeared only one day, approximately a decade, in my YouTube flow. (If you pay attention to music or look at music similar to the platform, he actually also showed himself in yours). I did not intentionally look at Fanto. It has just appeared. And he stayed. I have the impression of constantly seeing those individual review albums with 39 -year -old glasses since then.

Fantano is one of the maximum musical criticisms followed on YouTube, and the famous maximum. This can be shown with several other measures, adding the number of chain subscribers (more than 3 million), the media policy (The New York Times nicknamed “the only musical critic that counts (if he is less than 25 years of age)”, a point of view to his young people and incredibly online), and the quality of the trolls (Drake has previously admitted the sending of the fantastic “Light 1” His reference to his reference to his reference to his reference to his reference to his reference to his reference to his reference).

Among his critical colleagues, Fantano can be a lightning rod. In a 2016 Spin profile, editor Jeremy Gordon said that “every editor we communicate is at least aware of Fantano’s paintings, some of them place him in silence and, in any case, they do not need to communicate about it in the file. ” Meanwhile, their detractors in the registration procedure fell into several offenses, adding their incredibly male male task, its complicated position as a white critic at the end of the thirties that criticizes the taste of black hip-hop and its effects on the cultural context (such as me) has a tension to worry about the favor of music.

I am not always, or often, according to the technique of Fantano or his opinions. (Give MJ Lenderman, Manning Firepintings, a “light 3”, a capital crime opposed to the musical complaint in my own non -public court). But respect what he does and the public he has built. Given the thousands, if not tens of thousands, of videos that he created since the beginning of his YouTube channel in 2009, almost none of his enemies can claim to have such a strong ethic. In addition, you will have to identify that talking about music in front of the camera in a way that feels herbal and attractive (unlike the rigid and pedant) is very complicated, much more complicated than Fantano makes it look like in a different way.

Above all, I really appreciate the way this guy says what he thinks despite the fact that whatever opinion is, an intelligent internet component will bother. Each complaint with a platform faces the hostility of readers and artists sometimes. This is a component of the paintings, and this is the value it pays to have a great mouth in public. But there is no musical complaints that the paintings at this time only face Guffe that Fantano, in a way that is not fair.

It is a time for musical criticism. There is more than ever, especially if it counts (like me) the millions of amateur criticisms that share their online taking every moment of the day. At the same time, making a living in those catches is more complicated than ever. Since Fantano is still booming in this difficult environment, and his prestige of involuntary symbol of online trends that experience internet sites and classical publications, I was very curious to communicate with him. By whim, I sent him a DM on Twitter and asked him if he sought to have a verbal exchange about the “musical critic. ” (We have exchanged messages several times in the past, however, we have no appointments otherwise). Fortunately for me, he agreed to speak.

A giant component of what they said align with what I and many others: a set of rules and various forces of other market forces oppose anyone who tries to do something in intelligent moderation or considered online at this time. However, what surprised me was Fantano’s genuine alarm against how established media establishments, in musical journalism and other places, they were reduced, even if this inadvertently strengthened its own brand.

Let’s start with questions about the big photographs and start from there. What are your emotions about the long presentation of musical critic? Where do you see what we do in life in five years?

There are many judicial cases of the existing musical complaint state that is very aimed at individual elections, either through enthusiasts or journalists, and a minimization in quality and general conservation. And I think it’s one thing. For the maximum part, the fall in quality is there. However, this is largely to market incentives and tactics in which the Internet and the music industry work. You see a building to polarize and polarize opinions, and not much in the deep discussion and analysis. You can end up making an investment a long time and think about writing anything that no one can see, because it is not the kind of things that will cause a strong negative and angry reaction. The set of rules does not inspire it.

I will not deny that I wrote many negative complaints of my day. I am not afraid to give a negative complaint of things when I don’t like them. This is nothing I doubt. Unless it is a super negative vision of a super dark artist, who, I don’t think, has a purpose for anyone.

I agree.

But the negative criticisms that they do not even constitute part of my content. Most are things that fascinate me positively. But it is not the belief that other people have. With the way the Internet is working recently, it is controversy and polarization, and negativity is literally what it sells and maintains other people involved in those platforms. And, consequently, I believe that a lot of musical speech and canopy are very on the surface, and in very debatable or fundamental terms, because everything that can really cause the fact that the public was sitting, thinking and digested is not so monetizable.

GOOD. I think everyone will be what you just said with precision describes social networks. In terms of classic “ancient media” Internet sites, it is strange to call something like the “ancient media” of Pitchfork, however, it is in terms of the Internet, there is a lot of anxiety in my corner of the global to locate whether these platforms will exist much longer. I am curious to hear your point of view on this subject.

In many ways, social media platforms have eliminated the model. If you look to pass out in the Global of Music and build your own Lopass around musical comments, you are probably more likely to believe a Tiktok that you are yours at this stage.

Without fail. It is difficult to believe that a 20 -year eye that decides to start its own edition of Pitchfork in 2025.

This replacement has happened or happens slowly. But it was more forced more than agreed. The explanation of why I say this is because Seek engines became a whole shit, especially in Google. When you are looking for something given on Google, what you place are necessarily advertisements that have been paid to seem in the most sensible page. If you place things in these studies on Google that are not ads, they are only Sloat. Then, you face a lot of shit that possibly would not be true, perhaps not real, or even if it is real, it is not written through a person.

The other way in which this replacement has been forced to be the IndoteMPT cash models that, at some point, made an online page like pitchfork, has been eliminated in all those online pages. I think there is a request for the type of speech, culture and network that platforms such as Pitchfork or Stereogum serve or consult to create. It is not that the network or the public is not there, however, the ability to monetize it and keep the soft suavization accessories well is distanced.

You have done some of those same problems in a video that you published a few weeks ago, about the way in which online musical speech has decreased in the beyond 10 years. And while communicating the defects of the classic media of “ancient”: the insularity, the policy too close to the safe artists and genres, the general “out of contact”, also deplores the decline of those platforms. And I was a little surprised by that. Because when the personalities of the Alt -global media, I mean other people such as you who are on YouTube or low level, among other platforms, communicate about it, sometimes they have an attitude “we opposed them”, where the disorders of the “old” media industry are acclaimed as a victory for the “new” media. But you seem alarmed through the possible disappearance of your “competition”, so to speak.

I love what I do. I mean, not to suck my own cock, however, I revolutionized musical criticism. But simultaneously, there are things about the musical discourse that cannot be transmitted rather on a YouTube video. My content has a safe charm and a safe intelligent fortune due to the format. But to be honest, there is a lot of time, resources and efforts with each exam that is carried out in the fact that we generate video content. Time and effort and effective that, if writing an article, can enter other things. Perhaps more studies and Revery that are presented to people, and obtaining more general information, making more deep dives. Because you can take your time writing an article and reading an article. This is where I started, in fact. I started writing about music mainly, and this is where I started eating a lot of musical speech, through forums and text messages. There are many intelligent things that can be greater transmitted in this format and rather.

Obviously, I like to do what I do. But not necessarily in my center is the most productive way to do so. “If you don’t do this this way, you stink. ” I don’t believe that. I only make my specific form that works for me. And honestly, I have the impression that if everyone sought to make musical comments in the same format as me, I would aggravate the speech. It would be terrible. There are a variety of tactics of which these problems and concepts can be shared and cross, and some of those modes are underutilized and sub -financed.

I have seen that you have made more published in your last time. News, comments, etc.

You paint with boys from Lamb Goat, who approached me with this concept of making a textual place not only for my own pieces, but also to open the opportunity to other writers. Just an opportunity to set foot on the door, roll the ball, cut the teeth into the global musical writing and see where it can happen from there. When I started, I wrote for the NPR Music Song of the Day Chronicle and made pieces for weekends and there, and I was executing my own music blog. It happened that it ended up going to a very different place, but it was a valuable way to start.

Is this a thing?

Yes, we have begun to happen in this direction in the year beyond the year. He did many considerations for some of my viewers, such as: “Oh, Anthony retires or something? Prevent criticism?” One of the inadvertent disorders I have is to know how singular my voice has for many music fans. And I need to remember that other musical reviews are also valid. My opinion about things is not the end, everything in everything. There are other people in this area that also do great things, organizing and celebrating artists, with music to which it would not possibly turn. Check out to give other voices to shine.

I have been working in the media for 25 years. And for all types of media, daily newspapers and weekends with internet sites and podcasts. And I would say that the general history of this time implies the decrease in establishments and the emergence of some, not all, however, some individual voices. The public has gradually moved away from publications and Internet sites and towards individual users they feel known and having confidence. This has happened in every media corner, adding musical journalism and complaint. And in this express corner, possibly the visual logo of a single visual man is possibly. And I sought to have his point of view on this subject. I think it is fair to say that the 20 -year average that is interested in the musical complaint probably does not think: “I will local staff on a music website. ” This user thinks about doing what you do. As I see, the right thing about this replacement is that it allows other people to be their own logos, which means that they are not indebted to a boss who can also simply discard them by whim. The bad thing is that many other intelligent people who are not necessarily aimed at the “user” (editors, copying editors, designers, etc. ) actually have no space in this model. And that other assistance of the people makes the “good” speech that you and I appreciate. As the maximum productive one-man logo-man logo in this global musical complaint, how does it feel about it?

The way it characterizes it is true, in which other people perceive it. But I feel that YouTube, Instagram, Tiktok, whatever the poison you choose, at this level, those positions are institutions. Many other people perceive them as those bastions of artistic freedom of the content, where you can do what you want. But the fact is that if you are anchored on those platforms, enough time, knows and perceives that the issues and safe trends will not fly. No one from YouTube will tell himself: “Hey, don’t communicate about that. ” You can communicate on the subject you want. But if the rules have made a decision that what is being communicated was not relevant, it will not be percentage. As what is happening in Palestine at this time, for example. If this issue technique safely or communicates too much about it, get a shadow on safe videos. Because he looked bad for advertisers. Then you feel a type of rejection. It is not a rejection before the article of an editor has written that would possibly tell him that it is a bad direction to enter and not do it. It is no longer a rejection after doing the thing and the website, essentially, he tells you: “Oh, I’m sorry, it turns out that we are not cautious. “

I hope other people, the youngest, especially examine these platforms with the same skepticism they have for CNN or Fox News. Like: “Oh, it is an old classic media space, where you get controlled reviews and perspectives of a society that has or that is not what you can listen or see. ” YouTube makes those same decisions. Maybe it’s not so simple for you, because you feel a feeling of freedom that you go to YouTube and you’re looking for express things that interest you. But even when you do this, there are so many content on those platforms at this time that you cannot be blindly without presuming that this content is selected for me.

How does this do what you do?

When I built the chain, there is more consistency in terms of commitment to all my videos, no matter what I published. Either an album by Rick Ross or an underground punk group. In fact, there is a hole in terms of commitment between these two types of videos, but even more consistency. And things happened to the point where I began to feel very consolidated with the cash I obtained, and I told myself: “Maybe I can transmit conventional exits and the family outings here and there, if I am not interested in them. ” But the way in which the set of rules is being carried out recently, today there is more difference than ever in terms of review of the popular popular albums applicable of the week and the maximum difficult to understand underground records. I saw this regarding anything like the new Weeknd album, for example, where the perspectives will be made of the juice on the roof and will only be a horn and intense commitment.

But when it comes to the most difficult underground things, it is as if it were so not to make the video. The views are just a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the maximum popular artists of the week. It begins to seem that it probably will not be a viable option if I need to continue doing what I do in some way. The way in which the set of rules works lately, I have to worry about customer music, at least a little, to bring my eyes and ears to the channel.

This does not mean that all classical music is bad and seeing it is a task. In fact, this is not the case. I like to do what I do. And those days, I find that there are many classic artists who, I think, do great things. I like to see Tyler the Creator. I like to pay attention and review anything like Beyoncé’s new album. But there deserves to have as much attention to the album as Deerhoof has just fallen. They do some of the most productive music of their career in this new LP. But unfortunately, it will underestimate.

Is it that an Deerhoof review is deliberately buried through the YouTube algorithm?

I would not say that deliberately buried as much as they were not deliberately approved. Now more than ever, when I am on YouTube and only look at things, the content I see advises me to look more at television. If you see a given video of Mr. Beast, aesthetically and conceptually, what is another on this topic, I don’t know, an X game screen that I would have seen in the past before 90 or 2000? Perhaps the problems are superior and there are prices of loop species, however, it is necessarily the same slope.

Reprograming the musical complaint, one thing that I appreciate about your subject is your ability to resist online hostility, your unsatisfied audience and your enemies not visible towards the artists themselves. Each complaint with a platform has to face a safe hostility, but I think it’s just saying that you deal with superior hate degrees and more excessive than any music critic at this time. How do you handle this, only from the point of view of natural intellectual health?

In fact, he does not feel as bad now as at any given time. I am a voice and a voice so established now that, on the maximum part, even the other people who do not really look at me or do not follow me what I am. There is a more general understanding of going to the Internet and just panicked on me is not the maximum rational or flattering movement for an artist. But that said, it can take place for me in terms of other people who communicate about me, where you really don’t feel like communicating for me. I have the impression that they are communicating more about a character founded on a belief that says: “Oh, he hates everything. “

People know that if they publicly publish in their account of the nameless music fan, this will obtain tons of commitment and will obtain at least effective in their pocket. Therefore, they will only publish a debatable score or clip, only for other people to react. And even if I maintain everything that can potentially be cut from a video, it is not a complete symbol of my hobby and my perspectives as a music fan.

In my world, there is safe distrust when it comes to reviewing a new album through an artist with a giant Stan army. It is not even a question of writing a negative criticism. Some of those crazy people will go to Loopy if you don’t like an album enough. For many writers, this is not a value worsening. Have you ever had an apprehension about it?

No. Because at the end of the day, I do it for myself, for my own brand. I perceive why an editor would have doubts there, because in many cases, you have fewer payments and you are undervalued to start. And then you are asked to be grounded for an opinion widely exposed on the platform of some other user that you don’t even have. In some cases, the editor does not even have his opinion about the album score. When I started writing for websites, before being on YouTube, I had the same experience, and it was enough for me: “Well, just stinks. ” Because I put all my center and my mind when writing this specific thing, however, the way it was appointed was in the general designer to what I was looking to cross in the article. And now other people only see the name and leave with a safe belief of what I tried to say, when I did not have the name to begin.

This is an internal type of consultation, but I am curious to know their commitment to the publicists. I think that obtaining a revision of Fantano is a great challenge for an artist. Has the attention of publicists intensified, because some of those other musical complaints fell?

Obviously, I am not a subject for me. But the vast majority of the emails I receive are only emails in chain, as I am sure you get, where it is like, “Oh, this artist threw this album”, so “there is a new single”, Yada, Yada, Yada. That said, there are many publicists who will personally play if I did everything imaginable to review anything and say: “Would you like to communicate them?”

In addition to the publicist space, there are many direct emails that I gained from the labels that are fair: “Hey, we review to bring this new artist and create a call for them. Could we pay you to make a reaction in your channel?” This is a development challenge in my field. I say no, but I know very well that there are many other people who say yes. There are many creators in YouTube’s musical reaction space, if you need to call it, that you take those offers. And when they do, they don’t come out and say: “Oh, hey, on the way, they pay us to communicate about it. “

Not accepting effective for an exam is a central ethic of the “old” media, although it turns out that you do not continue for young YouTube criticism.

He postponed, because none of them has been in journalism schools.

One last question. You said previously, and I agree with you, that you revolutionized the review of the online video album. For a long time, you have been an upstart of musical criticism. But are you yourself now as the establishment?

I think of my way, yes. YouTube is more than ever scheduled in the same way that its favorite television station may have returned during the day. And I have covered many other artists over the years, and it is the exposure line that many other people have for me. They are looking for a lot of musical content on YouTube, and they are in my Tyler complaint, the creator of Flower Boy or Mi Kendrick Lamar, to assign a butterfly review.

Again, it is almost as scheduled as television. In fact, I am the music channel on YouTube. If youtube television, I would be the MTV.