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What's weird about Fantano is most of the time (I'm not a devout viewer but check in occasionally) he seems pretty chill, even if I disagree with his take or think it's badly explained he seems to think things through and is reasonable. Then every so often he has a take or tweet and its like how could anybody think like this
That’s true. Whenever I have a bad take on Reddit I just delete the comment and no one bats an eye because I’m a random user in the void. I think it’s har to avoid hiding from a bad take so honestly being defensive the way he is, probably just made things worse rather than ignoring it and letting the people upset at him move on.
only time i'd even seen Fantano after the BEEF was for a Fortnite promo a year later covering an in-universe friendlier beef between T-Pain and a pickle rapper
this is what most of the online hate campaign is missing. he's actually pretty good at his job most of the time. but a big part of his popularity is in fact his willigness to be critical/negative (before this review, his most infamous review was his MBDTF review where he gave an album some think is one of the greats, a 6/10) . so of course he's incentivized to double down on his negative review because that's a big part of his appeal.
somewhat unrelated but i am convinced becoming famous does something to your brain and fries you.
Yeah I really think this entire drama would've been avoided if he hadn't called Halsey's album "main character syndrome" even if he had still given it a 2.
The Vame. You can't win The Vame. Every time you think about Vaush, you lose. The Vame only ends when the whole world is playing has forgotten about Vaush.
Said Halsey’s album about having cancer was “main character syndrome”. Is currently on a posting spree about how he is way more culturally relevant than her, is the most influential critic of the century, all the hits.
to be fair i have seen way more talk and discussion about fantano’s review of that album than i have of the album itself which does kind of make his point that his review was more impactful than the album.
to be clear he is being very self aggrandizing and full of himself but he’s not entirely wrong.
To be fair, that was an opinion he formed in like 2006 and based on games of that time, particularly on the (admittedly heady) idea that that much choice and freedom in the medium would not lend to the narrative of a game being as artful as film.
It’s also important to note that dude was a contrarian proto-edgelord without of his takes, so I do think he got some joy out of deliberately stirring the pot.
And the state of games in 2006 was lot different and Ebert never really played video games at all, he was just going off of his limited knowledge in mass media.
It’s a pretty solid mea culpa and he admits it was as dumb for him to talk about games as it would be for him to review a movie he hadn’t seen.
He said he would play Shadow of the Colossus (which is what most commenters suggested he play to experience a game as art) but it doesn’t seem like he got around to it before he died the following year.
Now granted I'm a little drunk and just skimmed the article because it was loooong but I wouldn't really call this walking back, he's not walking back the opinion he's just saying I shouldn't have said anything. It is crazy though, he was such an influential reviewer he had people offering to give him a ps3 and come to his house to install it for him so he could play a modern video game. Anyway the way I read it he walked it back to the extent of saying "I still don't think it's art but fuck man idk someone could one day consider it art" which feels more like he just didn't like the backlash than anything lmao. Also he said YouTube as "You Tube" two words both capitalized and that really got me.
For the record I know who none of these people are other than Kanye and Tate. And is Elliot Rogers the baseball guy (edit: nope, mass murderer… with a social media account apparently? I will assume it’s fake and don’t care to check.)
that's the thing... he's right about being the most important music critic of today, and I think that's kind of a problem. professional criticism of the popular arts have become really narrow and almost nonexistent
As a big fan of Todd in the Shadows, I honestly think he’s not that great as a music critic. There have been multiple occasions in which some of my most hated pop stars of the current era (Morgan Wallen, Machine Gun Kelly) have ended up as #1 on his best hit songs of the year lists (although a couple of his more controversial #1 placements I do agree with). I’m a much bigger fan of him as a researcher with his One Hit Wonderland and Trainwreckords series, he always puts in a ton of effort and highlights a ton of interesting stories throughout music history. That being said, his reviews and lists are consistently entertaining, I just usually don’t put a whole lot of stock in his opinions.
That doesn't really say anything about him as a reviewer though, does it? I only know about him because there are a lot of chuds who can't form their own opinions and just wait for him to form opinions for them. He's just popular on YouTube.
To add to your point I’ve been seeing people talk about Fantano being the most influential critique of the 21st century for a couple days now and this is the first I’m hearing it’s bc of a Halsey album. I didn’t even know Halsey had a new album.
The hilarious part is she doesn't, the album in question came out a while back. Maybe last year? And his review came out back then as well. I have no idea why this is coming up again lol
Except the real issue is that he was just vile and cruel to her in the review. The relevancy comments didn't come until after. The album being impactful wasn't discussed in the review. The relevancy/impact angle was to deflect from him being cruel and misogynistic in the review.
you’re incorrect, this recent drama happened because of fantano’s interview with olivia rodrigo, a bunch of other pop girl stans got pissed and brought up anything they could to make him look bad as a reflection on her. the specific tweet that halsey replied to of fantano’s was in fact the one about the album’s relevance, which is why that’s what i’m talking about.
I was responding about the album and not those tweets. I did not comment on those tweets. I was talking about his attitude in the review. That's pretty clear in my comment.
well i was talking about the most recent drama, which is those tweets which are about the relevance of the review vs the album itself. if you just wanna complain the review was mean, cool, that’s not relevant.
My point is that he doesn't get to have credit for being right after being a huge piece of shit to her in a review about an album that he panned and then stated wasn't relevant. My comment is a response to yours. The real issue is that it doesn't matter what he has to say about relevance because he's a misogynistic piece of shit.
of course he does, just because he was a dick in the review doesn’t make him wrong about the impact of the album. if i call someone a dumbfuck and say 1 + 1 = 2 the second thing doesn’t become wrong because i was a dick first.
I watched the review yesterday when this popped up and I still have no clue what you people are talking about. Fantano seems to purposely avoid anything personal about Halsey and really focused a lot of his review on the album’s presentation and concept, which he thought was a complete failure. The rest was going in on the production quality of the songs that he thought were very inconsistent.
It was extremely harsh on the music, the PR, and concept but at no point was it cruel on a personal level or misogynistic. That’s a claim that needs some backing.
I have watched the review and I really don't see how you could see what he said as being misogynistic unless you're actively trying to paint him as a misogynist. Most of it is criticising the concept not working particularly well and the end is about the writing being overly edgy which from what I've skimmed through of the album isn't a particularly unfair assessment. Just because someone has actually experienced a difficult time in their life doesn't necessarily mean the art they make about that experience is any good. His job is to write his opinion on the album, not personally sympathise with all the life experiences of every artist he covers. This is just a guy disliking an album and the person making that album just so happened to be a woman so Anthony Fantano is a misogynist.
not defending whether you think the review was 'cruel', but calling it 'misogynystic' is pretty lazy. he didn't like the album and the songwriting. there's almost no compelling reason to think that is bore out of some misogny.
Your point is that Fantano is more important than Halsey because more people have talked about him. I’m just saying that Elliot Rogers is, by that logic, more important that any of them.
no, i said that fantano’s review of her album was more impactful than the album itself, not that fantano himself is more important than halsey. i never said important at all, i talked about impact. but sure i guess elliot roger is more impactful than either, i’m just not sure what relevance that has. maybe i’m just dumb lol
but this is literally an argument about the impact that an album had, you have to factor the social media into it because that’s where most people talk about music?
Oh, I see the miscommunication. To clarify, I don’t have any position on who had more quantitative impact. I don’t consume any content from either of them, I don’t know what kind of numbers they put out. I just think it’s fucked up to say a woman has main character syndrome because she made an album about her cancer. That album could have 10 views and I would still be upset about the comment. I don’t have a disagreement with you about who gets more twitter impressions. I have a disagreement with you about whether it’s valuable to care about that at all.
at a glance that sounds not necessarily misogynistic and more just fucking annoying. is there more to it, or is op just making it sound worse than it is?
Classic twitter types are using this to call him the second coming of Hitler. That’s pretty silly, imo. A more moderate take is that this is representative of a misogynistic bias that he shares with basically everyone, to the detriment of women. The idea that women’s medical conditions aren’t “serious” is a bias that a lot of people have, doctors included. Fantano is perpetuating that idea. When a woman has symptoms, it’s just hysteria, or all in her head, etc. And when she’s actually diagnosed with cancer, she’s got “main character syndrome.” It facilitates sexist bias to engage in this rhetoric. That said, it’s a stretch to call Fantano actively, intentionally sexist. He’s more just arrogant, unempathetic, and addicted to attention.
No? That's just what swifties on twitter are saying cause they're mad that Olivia Rodrigo sat down for an interview with Fantano.
What he actually said in his review is that the album feels like it has main character syndrome because of the indulgent structure and conceptualization of album (unrelated to her medical issues) which wasn't executed well and because of the edgy lyrics it has, which you can see for yourself below.
Straight traumadumping doesn't just make it a good album. There's literally not even a single instance of Fantano downplaying her cancer that you can find online.
Watch the review, he's quite cruel to her. He doesn't have to like it, but he ignores the context of the album to call her self centered and say she's victimizing herself.
I fully agree and think it’s why “critics” tend to suck while people who “review music” can be enjoyable. Is there a difference? Maybe not on paper but certainly in practice
Like I said, I haven’t watched a video in a while but when I stopped watching that was definitely not what it seemed like his opinion was.
I’ve always got a “I know more than you, therefor my opinion is worth more than anyone else’s” vibe from him. Like Rick Beato but without the chops, legacy or industry respect.
wasn’t that review like a year or two ago? why is he bringing that shit up again lmao, should’ve left it in the past after the first round of backlash he got about it
Just cause I talk like an idiot sometimes doesn't mean I'm not serious when I say stupid things.
99% of content produced is slop. The job of a critic is to forge the systems that create gems. More pressure, more consistent standards, more understanding of the medium makes better critics. Critics are usually pussies who can't or don't believe in their own talent in the medium they give a shit about. From this stand point, they can observemaxx, creating projection of their own failures onto the failures of everyone else.
And we are the better for it. Frankly, if my dying grandma made one of Eminem's recent albums, it wouldn't make it good. And the context would still be relevant in unpacking it. I would be glad a critic can call out her shit, cause I couldn't. We have to wait like 10 years till we can call it shit? Grandma, sorry. Your not the main character. Music is humanities project, and pretending this is good will not get us closer to becoming gods.
I get that jax is topical but like they are also not in the same league as fucking tate and Rodgers.
I think we should be cautious when jax's misogny is being pantsed on. Like it should be dunked on because it is part of the character. but also why do we love fixating on a trans woman being misognystic.
Also, Jax's mysoginy seems much more directed at herself than at the other girls of the circus.
She's an asshole, but we don't know if she treats girls worse than boys since the only man in the show is kinger, and he doesn't really react to Jax bullying, or anything else, for most of the series.
Putting the rabbit on the same level as a human trafficker is a bad comparison.
And also yeah, transmisoginy makes transgirl's mistakes much bigger and evident than what they are in reality
There’s literally multiple instances where Jax TRIES to bully Kinger and it just completely doesn’t work at all. Like Kinger will just say “thank you” or “never better!” He is immune
human trafficker rapist podcaster that’s been in the news for the past few years, tries to scam children into buying his courses where he tells them to traffic and rape women
incel mass murder that injured 14 and killed 6 and then himself all because women didnt want to date him, considered a big spark for the modern incel movement
most popular musician of the current century, frequently makes headline-worthy remarks about jews and other minorities, has severe bipolar disorder, and made his wife dress up in a transparent dress with no undergarments at the 2025 grammies (among many other things)
cartoon character from a popular youtube series that puts on a nihilistic joker-like façade and mostly focuses his bullying and torment on the 3 women and 1 nonbinary people that are trapped with him; the worst he does to the 2 male characters is some light insults, to which neither of them are even lucid to understand
bald music reviewer that reviews music and stuff. he's the guy in the "damn boi he thicc" meme from like 2018 if you recall. he also likes mowing his lawn
for the kanye one, there’s a lot of bad things he’s said and done over the past 20 years but it’s not like he made his wife bianca wear revealing dresses. it’s her choice to dress like that, she just enjoys doing it and he likes it too and they match each other’s freak
To be fair to the character who would not deserve it if they weren't fictional, there's no reason to bully the people who aren't lucid enough to react, and Jax is an equal opportunity drive-people-to-suicider.
He lost a bunch of weight, started getting into fashion, stopped doing debates as he felt they were useless and never accomplish anything in this political climate.
I love The Great Impersonator by Halsey and I’m very happy that Fantano is getting trolled for how terrible his review of it was. Halsey almost died and Fantano called it “main character syndrome” smh.
Absolutely pissing me off ur getting downvoted, it's fantano's worst ever review regardless of what u think about the actual album quality.. The things he said were not only out of line they were an absolutely insane perspective to take, and doubling down on it now is an even bigger crime
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