Anthony Fantano

Anthony Fantano (/fænˈtænoʊ/; born October 28, 1985) is an American YouTuber, music critic, journalist, vlogger, and musician known for his music-related YouTube channel The Needle Drop.

Anthony Fantano
Fantano in October 2016
Personal information
Born (1985-10-28) October 28, 1985
Connecticut, U.S.
ResidenceMiddletown, Connecticut, U.S.
Occupation
  • YouTuber
  • music critic
  • journalist
  • vlogger
  • musician
Spouse(s)Dominique B. Boxley
Websitetheneedledrop.com
YouTube information
Also known as
  • Cal Chuchesta[1]
  • The Internet's busiest music nerd[2]
  • Melon/Melonhead[3]
  • The Best Teeth in the Game[4]
Channels
Years active2009–present
Subscribers2.22 million (theneedledrop)
1.14 million (fantano)
Total views627.22 million (theneedledrop)
237.76 million (fantano)
100,000 subscribers 2012
1,000,000 subscribers 2017
The Needle Drop
Type of site
Music reviewing
Available inEnglish
Created byAnthony Fantano
Alexa rank 194,876 (April 2020)[7]
CommercialYes
Launched2009 (2009)
Current statusActive
Updated July 21, 2020

His website and YouTube videos discuss and review a variety of music genres, including, but not limited to pop, hip hop, rock, metal, indie, electronic, folk, jazz, and experimental.

Early life

Fantano was born in Connecticut, on October 28, 1985. He spent his teenage years in Wolcott.[8] As a child, he had a desire to become a cartoonist because of The Simpsons.[9]

Career
Fantano in February 2010.

Fantano started his career in the mid-2000s as a music director for the Southern Connecticut State University college radio station.[10] In 2007, Fantano started working at Connecticut Public Radio in which he hosted The Needle Drop.[11] That same year, he launched The Needle Drop in the form of written reviews, eventually launching his series of video reviews in early 2009, starting with a Jay Reatard record.[12][13] Fantano's review for Flying Lotus' 2010 album Cosmogramma appearing next to other Flying Lotus videos in YouTube's "Featured Videos" section gave him the "hint" to continue making video reviews.[14] In 2010, Fantano took down older reviews that contained music clips in order to avoid DMCA violations.[12] 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, but kept affiliation with WNPR until 2014.[10][12][14]

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.[15] In March 2011, he was featured in an article from The Guardian also about the rise of music vlogging.[16] The Needle Drop won the 2011 O Music Awards in the "Beyond the Blog" category.[17][18] Fantano was offered an album review show on Adult Swim but did not go through with it.[12]

Fantano had a cameo in Lil Nas X's video for the Young Thug and Mason Ramsey remix of "Old Town Road", appearing as a worker for the Area 51 military installation (a reference to the "Storm Area 51" meme).[19]

Response from other media

In order to earn enough money to pay his editor Austin Walsh, by November 2016, Fantano had recorded more regularly on a secondary YouTube channel, "thatistheplan", on which he reviewed memes and recorded "often irreverent videos that don't fall into the record review format," according to SPIN.[12]

In October 2017, an article in The Fader accused Fantano of promoting alt-right and racist sentiments in videos on "thatistheplan". Fantano was criticized for the use of Pepe the Frog memes (which had recently been labeled for being an alt-right symbol), targeting feminists, and belittling the work of black musicians.[20] Fantano produced a video response calling the critical article a "hit job." He disputed accusations of far right sympathies and stated that the videos in question were "satirical". The article was later deleted by The Fader, with both parties saying that the claims were settled.[21]

When asked about the merits of Fantano's reviews, Robert Christgau—admittedly 'barely recognizing' Fantano's name and having only 'glanced over' his Wikipedia page—said in 2019, "he seems to have arrived at a plausible brand of 21st-century rockcrit taste."[22]

Personal life

Fantano and his wife, Dominique Boxley,[8][23] reside in Middletown, Connecticut. He is an atheist[24] and a vegan, having swapped to the diet after first going vegetarian in his late teens.[10]

Discography

Albums
  • Taiga (2009, as bass player)[25][26]
  • 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)
  • "Rubber Duck (Pickup Truck)" (2019, as Cal Chuchesta)
  • "Best Teef?" (2019, as Cal Chuchesta)

References
  1. "Interview: Anthony Fantano (The Needle Drop)". The Mancunion. Retrieved May 4, 2018.
  2. Veronin, Nick. "The Hardest Working Critic in Show Business Never Stops Hunting for New Music". wired.com, February 18, 2014
  3. "Anthony Fantano Responds To Alt-Right & Racist Accusations". Kill Your Stereo. Retrieved May 29, 2019.
  4. "BEEFING WITH ANDERSON PAAK". Youtube.com.
  5. thatistheplan (October 3, 2017), terminated, retrieved October 22, 2017
  6. "A Primer On The Almighty Shitstorm Surrounding The Needle Drop's Anthony Fantano". Junkee Media. Retrieved May 2, 2018.
  7. "theneedledrop.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved April 23, 2018.
  8. 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.
  9. (I)NTERVIEW: Anthony Fantano. YouTube. January 15, 2013.
  10. Elabbady, Ali (October 30, 2013). "Interview: Anthony Fantano of The Needle Drop". Green Room. United States. Archived from the original on May 26, 2014.
  11. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on January 3, 2014. Retrieved May 26, 2014.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  12. "How Anthony Fantano, aka The Needle Drop, Became Today's Most Successful Music Critic". Spin.com. November 30, 2016. Retrieved August 4, 2019.
  13. Johnston, Maura (April 28, 2015). "Anthony Fantano brings Needle Drop to Middle East". The Boston Globe. Retrieved August 4, 2019.
  14. "Anthony Chuchesta Wants to Turn You On". Consequence of Sound. October 9, 2014. Retrieved September 4, 2017.
  15. "Interview at SXSW". Archived from the original on June 11, 2011. Retrieved May 9, 2011.
  16. Jonze, Tim (March 18, 2011). "SXSW 2011: The rise of the music vlogger". London. Retrieved September 4, 2017.
  17. "O Music Awards Take Over Halloween's Largest Street Party". MTV News (Press release). November 1, 2011. Retrieved May 17, 2018.
  18. "Robyn Wows MTV O Music Awards; Bjork & Marilyn Manson's Butt Win Big". Billboard. Retrieved September 8, 2019.
  19. "Area 51 remix video proves it's the summer of Lil Nas X". The Daily Dot. July 19, 2019. Retrieved July 21, 2019.
  20. "Popular music vlogger accused of promoting alt-right sentiment - NME". NME. October 4, 2017. Retrieved August 23, 2018.
  21. "Fader Removes Article Amid Settlement With Anthony Fantano". Spin. March 21, 2018. Retrieved August 23, 2018.
  22. Christgau, Robert (January 15, 2019). "Xgau Sez". Robertchristgau.com. Archived from the original on January 16, 2019. Retrieved January 15, 2019.
  23. "Wayback Machine". June 11, 2015. Archived from the original on June 11, 2015. Retrieved October 18, 2018.
  24. fantano (November 5, 2018), LET'S ARGUE: Greta Van Fleet DOESN'T Sound Like Led Zeppelin, retrieved November 6, 2018
  25. "Taiga by Taiga". Rateyourmusic.com.
  26. "Taiga, by Anthony Fantano and Richard D'Albis". Anthonyfantanoricharddalbis.bandcamp.com.
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