Anthony Fantano: Why are we letting one man decide what is good?
Anthony Fantano, or TheNeedleDrop on YouTube, made his fame for his brutally honest album reviews. With a cult following and a plethora of controversies under his belt, I want to know why he is considered an influential voice within music criticism.
Some of his 10/10 albums include the sound of summer 2024, Charli XCX’s Brat (2024). Along with this, is the genre bending To Pimp a Butterfly (2015) by critically acclaimed rapper Kendrick Lamar. Both of these albums are no surprise to me. They’re inventive, whilst still dominating the mainstream. Songs like ‘360’ by Charli and ‘King Kunta’ by Lamar were popular with old and new fans alike. They also both performed well in the commercial charts and wider public sphere. ‘Brat’ peaked at number 1 in the UK Official Albums Charts as did ‘To Pimp a Butterfly’.
In contrast to these well-loved popular records, is Death Grips’ album The Money Store (2016) which was also awarded a 10 from Fantano. As a big fan of the comedian James Acaster (this is related I promise), I became quickly familiar with many experimental albums from 2016. For those unfamiliar with Acaster’s podcast and book project, he became obsessed with finding, listening to and rating albums made in 2016. One of these included ‘The Money Store’, an experimental, aggressive, hard yet rewarding listen. The experimental nature of this album clearly strays away from the mainstream with a peak at number 18 on the UK Albums Charts. Although Death Grips have their fan base, a cult one at that, they haven’t particularly made it to the mainstream unlike other artists with albums that Fantano deems 10/10.
I understand the notion that music critics are supposed to challenge listeners and highlight underground artists however, with Fantano it seems that his views are extremely personal to him rather than his intentions being to introduce new music to followers. Instead, he mass reviews new releases and decides what he likes about them and if he thinks it is deserving of a high or low score. In a way, I suppose that’s the point and that people have become accustomed to waiting for his own personal review of the work of their favourite artist. However, with a following of over 2 million, it feels that many may have fallen into the trap of swapping their own opinions for his. In order to understand how he has this enormous sense of authority as a ‘tastemaker’, it’s important to look towards another dominant force in the music review scene: Pitchfork.
When some borrow from Fantano for their opinions, others look to Pitchfork. The popular music website scores albums from a 0-10 to one decimal place. When I was first attempting to understand the larger music scene (aka when I started listening to 6 Music instead of Heart), I took Pitchfork’s word as gospel. I trusted what they had to say because they were professionals and their position as critics is respected (mostly). But even they get it wrong. In 2021, they published a list of scores they wished they could change and included the rescores. There are many big names on the list including Lana Del Rey, PJ Harvey, The Strokes, Grimes and Wilco.
However, the one which stands out to me is Charli XCX’s EP Vroom Vroom (2016). It probably comes as no surprise that I have been a fan of Charli’s work since her inception. Firstly, I managed to link almost every point in this article to her and secondly, I have taste. Her finally getting the respect she deserves in her industry warms my heart. However, her earlier, trailblazing work in the hyperpop sphere was largely looked down on as too leftfield. She worked tirelessly for people to finally understand her and a large part was this EP. Produced by the late SOPHIE and including other large names in the PC music scene such as Hannah Diamond, this EP helped popularise the genre that Brat (2024) took large parts of its inspiration from. The score given to Vroom Vroom (2016) was a 4.5 and Pitchfork wished they could change it to a 7.8 claiming that there was ‘nothing more homophobic’ than the original score, which is true. The issue with the flat number scoring means that there is no room for interpretation. A long form review of an album, EP or single can celebrate the successes and failures combined. However, when that nuanced review is paired with a score out of 10, people look at the score first. The scoring system makes it seem like a pass or fail test system. There shouldn’t be a mark scheme for artistry.
The popularity of these scores is largely ‘rage bait’. People online, mostly on Twitter (now X) and Reddit, will likely disagree with the marks to some capacity. This conversation can obviously be a useful publicity tool by getting the fans and reader to do the work for the writer and artists. When a fan speaks on a score, this includes highlighting the artist and song as well as the writer and publication. Why should music fans trust scores that even the reviewers can’t get right? And why should we let one man decide what’s good? In my personal music utopia, Anthony Fantano is dethroned as a sort of ‘music god’ and stripped of his power. Instead, there are a variety of voices which are widely accessible and the work of artists isn’t distilled down to one number.
Words by Kate Moxon
