{"id":1610712,"date":"2024-04-15T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-15T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecreativeindependent.com\/people\/writer-and-journalist-anthony-fantano-on-finding-what-it-is-you-love-to-do"},"modified":"2024-04-15T07:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-04-15T07:00:00","slug":"writer-and-journalist-anthony-fantano-on-finding-what-it-is-you-love-to-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/04\/15\/writer-and-journalist-anthony-fantano-on-finding-what-it-is-you-love-to-do\/","title":{"rendered":"Writer and journalist Anthony Fantano on finding what it is you love to do"},"content":{"rendered":"

You\u2019ve been doing YouTube reviews since 2007. How do you maintain your enthusiasm for new music, for discovering new things, and about what you\u2019re doing?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

I really have no clue, honestly, I\u2019m sorry if that\u2019s a terrible lack of an answer. I\u2019ve always been interested in music in general for as long as I can remember, but there was definitely an a-ha moment ever since in the early 2000s when I first got a hold of the internet and gained the ability to illegally download songs.<\/p>\n\n

I was always interested in music prior and I had my ways of getting it either through saving up money for a cassette or copying songs off the radio. I feel like once I was on the internet, downloading any number of songs off of Kazaa or LimeWire was still way more music than I would\u2019ve had access to otherwise.<\/p>\n\n

That became a really convenient exploration mechanism for me and showed me there\u2019s an insatiable desire here, that there really seems to be no bottom to. I\u2019m always looking for something new, something different, something surprising, something that\u2019s going to challenge me, something that\u2019s going to make me think of sound and music in a different way.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

What I need to will myself to continue doing sometimes is something new, like making content for TikTok. I need to be streaming and I need to talk about this thing and that thing or this other thing. I\u2019ve found it doesn\u2019t really matter how humorously or lightly a certain opinion is in a review. It\u2019s going to piss people off and have them jumping down my throat.<\/p>\n\n

I figure I\u2019m at a point where I\u2019m just embracing it. I\u2019m not here to be likable. I\u2019m not here to be everyone\u2019s friend. I\u2019m not here to make people admire me. I\u2019m here to just give my two cents about a song or a record.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

I worked at Pitchfork for a long time. We never had a comment section on the site. One thing I think you\u2019re quite good at is creating a dialogue. People feel like they have a voice and it\u2019s less of a one-sided thing.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

You mentioned TikTok. Have you had to adapt? The form you do fits so well with YouTube, for instance, and you\u2019re doing stuff on Twitter, too. There\u2019s a different way to talk on each platform. With Pitchfork, we\u2019d make our comments and just disappear. But for you, it\u2019s this ongoing dialogue.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

It\u2019s important for me to have that dialogue, because a pivotal part of what I do is trying to meet people where they\u2019re at. I don\u2019t want to engage people with a conversation that they\u2019re not trying to have.<\/span> For example, I did not necessarily anticipate that people would start arguing against a point that I\u2019m not even making. But the thing is, your average person is not a commentator. Your average person is not a reviewer. At the end of the day, I\u2019m doing it for me.<\/span> I don\u2019t know if personally I would undergo this kind of headache or take on this kind of vitriol for somebody else\u2019s sake or another website or platforms or whatever\u2019s sake.<\/p>\n\n

If I\u2019m doing it for me and it\u2019s my content, it\u2019s my decision at the end of the day to do what I do and say what I say and post it when and where I post it<\/span>. It\u2019s a lot more agreeable to me to go about it that way. As opposed to doing it for somebody else. It\u2019s that side of things that I need to be able to will myself to stay engaged with it sometimes because unfortunately, some of the reactions and commentary can be really negative, can be really hateful and can be super personal.<\/p>\n\n

There are so many people doing YouTube reviews. Why do you think your format rose to the top of that? When you first started doing this, did you have an intuition, or was it a lucky accident? My kids, for instance, are really into MrBeast. I read a lot of stuff about him, about how he studied the form and figured out things like, \u201cthis is how long a shot should be,\u201d \u201cthis is the type of thumbnail people respond to,\u201d etc. Did you do any of that kind of background work?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

It\u2019s, in part, a happy accident. I didn\u2019t do this thinking, \u201cOh, this is how I\u2019m going to hit it big.\u201d I never foresaw getting to a point where I was considered, I guess you could say, the most relevant music critic of my generation. I didn\u2019t think things could ever get that far.<\/span> Not just to that point, but to where I\u2019m probably reaching a greater audience than some of the classic publications that did at a certain point.<\/p>\n\n

Who the heck knows? It\u2019s a difficult thing to engage.<\/p>\n\n

That\u2019s not to say that no effort or research or evolution went into what I do.<\/span> I used to work in radio for an NPR station and did college radio and a music show. I used to write for NPR Music and ran a music blog. I was trying to get my foot in the door of the industry in a certain way. I was trying to climb up certain ladders and make connections with people and write for certain outlets. I reached a point where I was just like, \u201cThis just feels like I\u2019m contributing to a greater saturation going on here.\u201d I wasn\u2019t really breaking through or connecting with an audience of people in a genuine way.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

On top of that, I felt like as long as I was continuing to just do podcasts and blogs, that I was going to continue to be at a disadvantage because I didn\u2019t have the budget or the presentation or the networking advantages that some people had. I didn\u2019t have the budget or the internet know-how to build the most tricked out website, or whatever.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

The only thing I could think of was to make it so easy to recognize me over my competition.<\/span> At that time that I started uploading to YouTube in 2009, there were no other music reviewers. There were a few other dudes that I discovered. We all mutually discovered each other maybe several months in. One of them was a metal reviewer, another guy reviewed a lot of underground loud rock and hip hop. I mostly just stuck to indie stuff because that felt like my niche at the time.<\/p>\n\n

I didn\u2019t quite go into YouTube and try to understand the platform to the degree that MrBeast did. But I did look at my greater competition in the music publication world, and I was like, \u201cWhat are these platforms doing? What are these sites doing? How can I present my own version of that, but through a camera?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n

I thought associating my face with what I do was maybe one of the only ways to effectively create some kind of connection with anybody who might want the kind of content that I was making.<\/p>\n\n

I still don\u2019t really see myself as a YouTuber as much as I see myself as a music commentator. I\u2019m not dependent on one single music community or genre. The fact that I\u2019m able to cover such a wide variety of things has helped me a lot over the years.<\/p>\n\n

You\u2019re a largely YouTube-based version of that sort of Pitchfork eclecticism. I thought about talking to you and reached out recently because I was hanging out with my old friend Ryan Schreiber and we were talking about all that\u2019s happened with Pitchfork<\/a> recently.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

It feels like as that site scales back and other written publications are shutting down, music criticism is moving into a different territory. There always will be critics, there always will be written criticism in one form or another. But when Pitchfork started, there was no social media. It was a different thing. We had no Twitter, Instagram, etc. Now it\u2019s like these platforms have taken over the more staid website that just uploads the interviews.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

I think that there\u2019s still good content analysis going on out there on the internet. One of my favorite content kicks as of late has been a lot of these Zoomer girls on YouTube doing super negative reviews of completely awful books that then go viral on TikTok.<\/span> Really terrible garbage romance novels with absolutely preposterous narratives where, I don\u2019t know, for example, some teenage girl has her parents die and she goes to live with her uncle and his two hot sons, who are her cousins. But of course not by blood because she\u2019s adopted. And she ends up having sex with all of them at some point. Just completely ridiculous shit.<\/p>\n\n

The thing is they\u2019re really good reviews.<\/span> They\u2019re funny, they\u2019re in detail. A lot of them go over an hour. Some of these videos are being watched by millions of people. The effort that some of these creators go to really communicate effectively how terrible the content of the book is\u2014it\u2019s actually entertaining, in depth, substantive.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

This is what I aspire to do<\/span>\u2014I see myself in this one. I\u2019m tearing something apart, like Doug Walker\u2019s The Wall<\/i><\/a>, the parody album, or something like that. \u201cThis is one of the most garbage things I\u2019ve ever heard. I\u2019m going to go over every single detail and tell you why it\u2019s the worst thing ever.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

These creators have positive reviews too, where they go over books that they really like and they think are great. Hearing their analyses and the way that they go over this stuff and how they pull it apart is interesting.<\/p>\n\n

I saw you tweet<\/a> that you wanted to review every record ever recorded. When I first started The Creative Independent, my dad was like, \u201cYeah, are you ever going to run out of people to interview?\u201d And I was like, \u201cNo, you\u2019ll never run out.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

You\u2019ll never run out of music to write about, When we started out, you\u2019re saying you\u2019re basically fueled by your passion for it and your excitement for the music itself and obsession with the music. Will you ever reach a point where suddenly you\u2019re like, \u201cYou know what? I\u2019m just not.\u201d How do you know when to stop? I guess you haven\u2019t reached that point yet, but how do you know when you\u2019ve reached your last review?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

If I ever stopped doing reviews, I think it\u2019ll probably because I just get sick of the process of actually reviewing.<\/span> I can still very much see myself still wanting to hear new things. Say hypothetically, I was in a position where I just didn\u2019t need to anymore because I found another job or I retired\u2026I could see myself still listening to new stuff and because I\u2019m not reviewing, I would have more time to listen. If I hear something I think sucks, I won\u2019t have to listen to it 10 times to finish a review of it. I could go on on to and listen to other things that I think are more interesting.<\/p>\n\n

Reviewing music is very much a young person\u2019s game. I have friends of mine who were in their mid to late 30s who used to watch my channel regularly when I was starting out and used to be into music as much as me. But now they approach me and they\u2019re like, \u201cMan, I don\u2019t know who any of these bands are anymore that you\u2019re talking about. I don\u2019t know. What is this Black Country, New Road<\/a> thing? What the fuck is a Billie Eilish?\u201d They\u2019ve just moved on and that\u2019s fine. That\u2019s how most people are.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

I will admit, it does feel like a bit weird in a sense, to be almost 40 really enjoying the new Yeat<\/a> album and knowing that when I upload that video, most of the people watching it are going to be around half my age.<\/span> It\u2019s also further weird a bit knowing that when I review something like that or the Billie Eilish record, it wasn\u2019t exactly made with me in mind.<\/p>\n\n

But I guess in my own head, the way that I justify that is there\u2019ve been so many albums that I\u2019ve reviewed over the years, even when I was young, that that was not the case. It\u2019s like fucking Tim Hecker\u2019s Virgins<\/i><\/a> wasn\u2019t made with me in mind. Kendrick Lamar\u2019s To Pimp a Butterfly<\/i><\/a> was not made with me in mind. It doesn\u2019t really matter what age I come at that album with, that record was not made for me or made to appeal to me. There are lots of albums that I enjoy that were never made or intended to be appealing to me, and yet I managed to enjoy them and find something in them worth talking about.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Relatability isn\u2019t the only way of enjoying art; it only feels that way when we think about music because there\u2019s so many things with music that come down to demographics and marketing and so forth. Once you take all of that crap, throw it to the side and talk about it for what it actually is, art, it seems less weird.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

You\u2019ve done tons of reviews. Have you ever thought of putting the text of these things into a book? Or do you think what you do for relies more on the reviews being spoken?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

I have been approached multiple times over the course of my career to do a book and I got a more recent offer that I\u2019ve been considering. I\u2019ve always thought myself just a little bit too busy to accomplish this as a goal. But now I\u2019ve reached this milestone where the main YouTube channel that I run, The Needle Drop, with all the main reviews on it and everything, just hit a billion views.<\/p>\n\n

Oh, wow. Congrats.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Thank you. And obviously I\u2019ve had this run of my YouTube channel where we\u2019ve gone all the way from 2010 to 2020 and now several years deep into this decade. I think it would be cool to do a book where I\u2019m talking about some of my favorite albums of that era.<\/p>\n\n

Music coffee table books go over certain artists and over certain records, but a lot of them tend to favor and spotlight the same artists and same areas of music, many of which I love and think are great, but a lot of that stuff is not very favorable toward or shifting much focus to the 2010s. When you do see it, a lot of these publications begrudgingly shoehorning in Kendrick, Drake, or Cardi B. There\u2019s more important stuff that happened over the past 10 years of music than that. Especially when you start considering there\u2019s loads of underground music we\u2019re not really appreciating.<\/span> And how a lot of those artists who we tend to worship from those eras, the \u201960s, \u201970s, \u201980s, those were youth culture artists, many of whom didn\u2019t really build up the untouchable, bulletproof, classic critical reception that they have today. They didn\u2019t have that to the extent that they did then. That built up over a period of years and years.<\/p>\n\n

I feel like we\u2019re not really considering what artists of the past 10 years are going to be coming up in that way. We\u2019re just throwing up onto these lists, a few new things that are very popular as a means of proving, yeah, we\u2019re with it, we\u2019re hip, we\u2019re contemporary. Here\u2019s a few things that top the charts and have maybe from what we can tell some artistic merit to it.<\/p>\n\n

I guess what I\u2019m trying to say here is rarely are these types of lists bringing up a group like clipping<\/a>, for example, which is totally insane, crazy conceptual, ambitious in so many ways. In ways that frankly, I think will continue to keep their music interesting for years to come. We need to write things about those artists and those records that are still going to be worth thinking about 10 years from now. Not just what\u2019s popular now and isn\u2019t the worst and most annoying thing that we could think of.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

I definitely do want to do a book where I\u2019m covering that decade of music. I would much rather come through with the book where I\u2019m spilling ink about Death Grips<\/a> and what their music represented for the turn of the internet age and social media. I would much rather do a book where I\u2019m talking about Lingua Ignota<\/a>, Sinner Get Ready<\/i>, and do a big bird\u2019s eye view of this era of music. To go over what makes it interesting, what makes it special, what makes it significant, and the things that truly, to me stood out as highlights and important moments.<\/p>\n\n

\n\n

Anthony Fantano Recommends:<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n

Nikki Carreon<\/a> \u2014 scathing, smart, in-depth book reviews i\u2019m kind of obsessed with at the moment.
<\/p>\n\n

DJ RAMEMES<\/a> \u2014 frantic brazilian funk with grooves for days.
<\/p>\n\n

cold brew coffee<\/a> \u2014 tastes great, so easy to make. it\u2019s been my culinary kick for the past 6 months.
<\/p>\n\n

Andrew Huang\u2019s new book<\/a> \u2014 great for anyone looking for guidance on how to succeed at being creative for a living.
<\/p>\n\n

Sleepy Peach Cardigans<\/a> \u2014 new fashion obsession. they\u2019re so colorful, creative, quirky, fun.
<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

This post was originally published on The Creative Independent<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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