Anthony Fantano

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About

Anthony Fantano is a music critic known for his YouTube channel "theneedledrop," which has developed a cult following in the /mu/ (music) board on 4chan.

Online History

On September 9th, 2007, Fantano launched his first YouTube channel titled "thatistheplan."^[1] On January 20th, 2009, Fantano created a YouTube channel titled "theneedledrop,"^[3] where he began uploading music review videos. That month, the @theneedledrop Twitter^[11] feed was launched. On September 3rd, Fantano created a Facebook page titled "The Needle Drop." In the next five years, the Facebook page gained over 62,000 likes and the Twitter feed received more than 4,200 followers. On March 17th, 2010, a Tumblr^[12] blog for The Needle Drop was launched.

Online Presence

According to Encyclopedia Dramatica,^[13] Fantano has been called "The King of /mu/," referring to the /mu/ (music) board on 4chan. According to "The Needle Drop" entry on TV Tropes,^[14] Fantano's popularity on /mu/ is due to Fantano's participation on the board. In August 2012, the /r/fantanoforever^[15] subreddit was created for discussions about Fantano's YouTube videos.

Notable Videos

Fantano often uploads full album reviews, usually talking about indie artists, though he has reviewed mainstream artists that receive interest from other sites such as /mu/ and Pitchfork, including Kanye West ^[5], Coldplay ^[6] and Future^[7] as well. He has only given five albums a perfect 10, including The Money Store by Death Grips, and To Be Kind by Swans. As of August 2014, his most popular review is for the 2015 hip hop album by Kendrick Lamar, which he gave a 10, with over 1,000,000 views and over 10,000 comments (shown below).

Cal Chuchesta is a character presented as Fantano's roommate, who is known for his poor taste in music. Once a year he releases a "Best Music of the Year" list (shown below, left). In his "Y U No Review?" videos, Fantano discusses recently released albums he chose not to review (shown below, right). On April 1st, Fantano released a video stating that Cal had died. From that point forward, it had become a running gag that Fantano killed Cal, and that he had burned to death. However, later in the year, Fantano revived Cal, as well as released his mixtape, The New Calassic, based off of Iggy Azalea's debut album.

In the "Letter From a Fan" segment, Fantano answers questions about music sent from YouTube viewers. For "Lo-Fi Tano" episodes, Fantano records the video with his iPhone. Many Lo-Fi Tano videos are uploaded onto his second channel, thatistheplan.

Meme Review Series

On his thatistheplan channel, Fantano frequently posts "Meme Review" videos, in which explains a trending meme and reviews the quality of the internet phenomenon. On May 25th, 2016, Fantano uploaded the first episode in the series, in which he discussed the Chewbacca Mom. On May 31st, Fantano published a review of the Dat Boi meme. On June 4th, a meme review for the Primitive SpongeBob series was uploaded to the channel. On June 8th, Fantano released a review for the Trigglypuff meme. Over the next three months, 12 more meme reviews were uploaded to the channel. Other series on the channel include "The List With Mr. List", where Anthony takes on the role of the eponymous Mr. List as he parodies countdowns and lists, and his "Greatest Rappers" series where he pokes fun at a certain rapper or hip-hop artist.

Channel Removal

On October 3rd, 2017, Fantano posted a video titled "terminated," featuring a short clip displaying only the YouTube monetization logo (shown below).

That day, Fantano posted several tweets explaining that the channel was dead due to YouTube demonetizing all of his videos "regardless of tags, content, titles" (shown below).^[17]

That evening, the arts and entertainment news blog Fader^[16] published an article about the channel's removal, which accused Fantano of "pandering to the alt-right " by putting 4chan memes in videos, using image macros containing the n-word in his "Deep Fried Meme Review" video, authoring a post criticizing feminist videogame critic Anita Sarkeesian in 2014, having YouTuber Sargon of Akkad on his podcast in 2015 and comedian Sam Hyde on the podcast in 2016. Additionally, the article criticized Fantano for releasing episodes on the channel mocking Trigglypuff and "social justice warriors". That day, Fantano replied to a tweet asking if he would comment on the article, saying he would respond in a video (shown below).

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Review

Anthony Fantano's Review of "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is an infamous review uploaded on theneedledrop YouTube channel. The infamous nature of the review is credited to Fantano's lukewarm reception of the album, despite critical and fan praise. As such, the review was met with a largely negative reception.

Squatting Anthony Fantano

Squatting Anthony Fantano is an exploitable image series where a photo of Anthony Fantano squatting down on the ground is photoshopped into various album covers for humorous effect.

Melon

Melon is a term used as a nickname for Anthony Fantano. The term was originally used as an insult directed toward Fantano from British producer Zomby after closing off a rant towards him regarding the 5/10 rating Fantano gave for his album "With Love", remarking at Fantano's balding head. Since then, the term has been used as a nickname and as a term of endearment for Fantano.

Nickthony Nametano

Nickthony Nametano refers to a snowclone of Anthony Fantano's name, often with names of musicians, memes, and other topics. His name has been remixed several times in his community and has later become his signature introduction for his reviews.

Colored Flannels

The Colored Flannels refer to the red and yellow flannel shirts he wears in some of his reviews that, most of the time, represent his enjoyment of a record, with yellow being a positive experience and high score, and red being a negative experience and low score.

Ridge Wallet Advertisements

Ridge Wallet Advertisements refer to Fantano's sponsorship by and advertising of The Ridge, a manufacturer of metal wallets.

Old Town Road Remix

On July 16, 2019, Anthony Fantano as featured in an official music video for one of the many remixes of Old Town Road (left). His explained this occurrence in a video the following day (right).