Doomscroll: Anthony Fantano

Welcome to Doomscroll. My guest is Anthony Fantano, the internet’s busiest music nerd. Fantano is the voice behind The Needle Drop, a YouTube channel that began in 2009. His album reviews are among the most popular and prominent music criticism that exists today.

Quick reminder that this is a listener supported project. If you like this program you can show your support by becoming a paid subscriber and unlock this week’s bonus episode. This is a fully independent show that is made by myself and a few friends. We need your help to keep it going:

Episode #21 with Anthony Fantano is out today. We discuss:

• Fantano’s political origins in the post-9/11 anti-war punk era

• Is Kanye an actual nazi? We explore the subtext of highly nuanced tweets such as “Hitler is cool” and “I am a nazi”. What could he possibly mean by this?

• Transgressive art — from Lil’ Nas X to Tom MacDonald, is shocking art a progressive or reactionary force? Has this dynamic shifted in the past decade?

• The role of politics in art and music. What are its strengths and limits?

Some years ago, I was listening to Majority FM with Sam Seder and I heard a familiar voice call in on the phone. Anthony Fantano is well known for his popular music reviews but up until then I had not been aware of his left-wing political views.

Music scenes often serve as a gateway to anti-establishment politics (less so today than in previous generations). In the era when Anthony and I grew up, it was common to find DIY anarchist zines at a local punk show and to discover pockets of radical subcultures. Today, these political groups exist almost entirely online and radical scenes have largely dissolved into the chaos of the platform newsfeed.

Anthony joins me to explore how social media fractures collective action and solidarity. Our conversation is an attempt to reframe today’s political struggle beyond the narrow scope of the online attention economy. Through cultural criticism we can better understand the world and perhaps even how to change it. Episode #21 is out now:

Anthony Fantano: Music, Art and Radical Politics | Doomscroll

In addition to today’s public episode you can also find a bonus episode for subscribers only below. We dive deeper into the ethics of criticism, the role of politics in good art and the hyper-extractive economic model of Spotify:

Doomscroll: Anthony Fantano II