My Fans Can't Think for Themselves 

You're so right Anthony!!!! I totally agree with everything you've said here!!!!! I love how in-sync we are HAHAHAHAHAHA

You’re very fun to disagree with, Melon. You’re also fun to agree with.

I was going to like this album, but Anthony said it's a 6/10. Now I have to hate it.

"I'm just a resource for you to use however you want to" damn shorty ok

When Melon pulls out the Williamsburg Soccer Club shirt you know the summer season has officially started

"I used to like Logic, you know the rapper? But the needledrop reviews him so poorly, I just don't care for his music anymore."

'people listen to and mindlessly agree with what Fantano says' Meanwhile Fantano fans: bully him for 10 years foe giving MBDTF 6/10

I just like your reviews because I like the way you talk about music, you have broad enough tastes to be a good resource for stuff outside my comfort zones, and I've been watching since the early early days, so I generally can get a good sense of whether I'll agree with you about an album or not pretty quickly. It feels unhealthy and weird to get up in arms about this. Like even IF there's an army of drones taking your word as gospel and mimicking your taste, you have pretty broad tastes, so at least they're getting a lot of variety!

I'm glad you've finally addressed the Fantano drones that have been spotted over Afghanistan

I thought he was gonna talk about drone music that sampled his voice

I think the biggest example of the so called “Fantano drones” are the live chat whenever streaming. A lot of the time the chat’s opinion on the poll will almost immediately switch once Anthony voices his

RYM is a great resource for finding interesting releases, but a shit resource for finding opinions that exist outside of the music snob gestapo.

People: "Fantano fans will regurgitate whatever Melon says, what a bunch of drones" Me: *watches Fantano reviews and keeps listening the same shit i've been listening to these last 5 years*

Your drones are the reason Olivia Rodrigo - Sour went from a 2.84 before your review to a 2.87 after your review. You clearly have a tremendous influence on those charts melon! The only "fantano effect" I have ever seen is that you just give exposure to a band/artist that may have otherwise been ignored (Otoboke beaver comes to mind). The ratings usually follow their typical downwards trend as more people rate them, with or without your review.

If I have to say anything about Anthony he basically started my entire dive into listening to music when he recommended BROCKHAMPTON. Before that review I never listened or even cared about music, I listened to what my dad liked Beatles, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, etc. I never fully engaged with it though it was just background music for me. So just browsing youtube and seeing the review and his strongly positive rating I checked the album out on pure curiosity, and at first it didn't hit me, but I kept coming back to it over and over and over again (some could say SAT 1 was like a skin infection lol) and it was legit how I started to listen to rap/hip hop, and indoctrinate me into the culture of music as a whole... Now I have listened to wide varieties of music and have since entered an entire new world of music that I never knew existed. I do use RYM quite a bit as it houses a ranking of almost everything made in music and its quite convenient to just go there and pick a top rated album at random and try it out, and for the most part I agree with most of the rankings. I however, rate something based on my opinion and I have since watched many Fantano vids and TheNeedleDrop reviews, but most of the time I disagree with Anthony like the new Everything Everything record (8/10), the new Black Midi record (10/10), and the new Saint Vincent record (6/10) just to name a few. Basically I typed this to mainly thank Anthony for his hard work and dedication that led me to discover one of my favorite bands ever as well as start to engage in the entire culture of music as a whole. Its really opened my eyes to the structure of albums and also soundtracks that accompany video games and movies and how important they actually are in the grand scheme of things as well. Also yeah the so called "Fantano Effect" is pretty dumb and doesn't impact the scores as much as people on the site think it does.

"At the end of the day, I'm just a resource for you to use, however you would like to" -Fantano, 2021

Would always listen to Corey Feldmans masterpiece, “Angelic 2 The Core” but after Melon’s review I love it even more.

fantano fans/drones: I AGREE W/ EVERYTHING HE SAYS & I WILL ONLY LISTEN TO WHAT HE LISTENS TO fantano enjoyers: i respect his opinion no matter if it coronates with mine or not and form my own opinions on these projects

People get way too damn obsessed with a score, especially given RYM has its fair share of meme and troll accounts that'll throw around numbers with completely different or arbitrary metrics. People should not need a goddamn number or scorecard to validate their opinions on art. I really think RYM users take themselves or the site to seriously sometimes

I don’t ever see fantano drones on RU-vid. But I see a TON them in twitch chat.

Fantano: “RYM top 40 chart is just rolling stone” King Crimson: “am I a joke to you?”

/mu/ people /fantano fans are honestly just the most annoying people possible. They all have the most common and boring perspective with music. it’s cool to be a fan of music but to FORCE it to be like your main thing just cause it’s “different” is stupid. Just listen to what you discover/enjoy and be happy please

imagine caring so much about some numbers going down that you write a seething novella about the perceived cause

Thank you for being a resource of a way to keep up to date on new music. I have found a routine that works for me of a good way to find a bunch of new records every week in the genres I am interested in better than just watching you or other reviewers, reading Pitchfork etc now. But I appreciate you for helping me back around 2013-2015 or so when I wasn't as savy with using my resources to find new stuff.

I just started really listening to music I guess, and I don't really use rate your music, mainly cause I have Spotify accessible, and I just come here to find stuff I like from the stuff you provide. For me, the fact that you give these reviews is awsome for me not because I can be "right" when arguing against someone who also likes music, they just let me find things I may have an interest in, and I think what you've done for me at least has been really cool, awsome, and sweet!

Shit, They’re onto us!

you know you've made it as an artist when 'tano gives your album a 6

I think if you have any influence on what I think about an album, it's because you brought to my attention something I hadn't noticed or thought about. I disagree with you all the time lol

Very bold of Anthony to share his robot world domination plan even at the risk of being stopped.

This is the video that activates his army known as the drones

You're 100% right Anthony, I can't STAND the Fantano drones. Once again I completely agree with you.

Anthony, I'll never be your mindless servant. I only like what rateyourmusic tells me

Thanks for this video now I can finally know how to think about thinking for myself

After starting to use RYM I became obsessed with ratings and listening to as much as possible. I quickly became self aware of that habit and have done my best to slow down. It's hard not to judge something after seeing the average score or the rating that Fantano gives but I think people need to start focusing on music for themselves and stop caring whether others like it or not.

been waiting on this from your twitter announcement

Fantano's channel introduced me to JID. My Hip Hop listening experience was pretty barebones prior to my watching of this channel, but my taste in music in general has gotten so much more varied since I started watching these videos. I don't even focus all that much on the score of the reviews, I just like the way he describes the listening experience of albums and songs with so much detail. It makes it easier to figure out whether or not I'll like an album by an artist I've never heard of if I can get some kind of description of what it's like without having to listen to the entire album. I don't have the patience for that sort of thing ngl

I’m not part of the fandom. I just like the comments where your fans roast you

I got pulled over for speeding antnee. I told them I had to rush home to watch the new theneedledrop video. They laughed in my face and said just for that their giving me the maximum penalty. Thanks melon

Melon is a person as much as each of us and personality is a wonderous thing. While he holds value to his opinions because of his years of experience in music, that will never be a reason to incapacitate your own experience. We all start somewhere.

I credit your reviews with getting me into three artists, and only one of those was particularly positive. Those reviews were Comedown Machine by the Strokes (5/10); Are We There by Sharon Van Etten (6/10); and Infest The Rat's Nest by King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard (8/10). I think that Comedown Machine review was the first thing I saw of yours. You really did not like that album, but you still took the time to go over its strong points and some of that sounded like my sort of thing. I checked it out, I liked it, and I now own every Strokes album. The SVE review was barely more positive (your video description calls it "patience-testing") but you still praised some aspects and also made comparisons to The National, IIRC suggesting that it might be up the alley of fans of that band. Well, I was (and am) a National fan, so I checked that out too. I liked it, and now own every SVE album. The only really positive review was the KGATLW one, which is the one time I can say that I wound up a fan of something because you were enthusiastic about it. Once again, I now own everything that band has released, so if your plan was to get your viewers to invest in artists' entire back catalogue, it's a huge success. As far as turning us into mindless drones whose plasticine brains conform to your every opinion, though, I'm afraid you're going to have to step up the brainwashing.

The only time I've seen the fantano effect is in relation to death grips. I would have never given music like this an honest try without fantano.

People should understand that completely objective music reviews don’t exist. Music is greatly a personal taste

Nobody ever gives Albumoftheyear enough love.

RateYourMusic helped me discover so many artists and albums and I'm really thankful for that. I think the community can be very obnoxious and snobbish, but that's just how every music corner of the internet's like, you'll always have your elitists and Radiohead stans

sometimes i think for myself and then i see some random reaction video on youtube disagreeing with me and it makes me feel insecure and then i go to you, wonderful melon, for some of that external validation. it's nice.

"Fantano's viewers just eat up any opinion he gives them." People that watched his review of The Ooze: 👀

I only watch you because you clearly just know what you're talking about. You give bands like Nails honest reviews. I disagree with you tons but who cares. My favorite band is Weekend Nachos and 99% of people will tell me to turn that shit off yet it's the best thing i've ever heard haha.

If I was ever having a bad trip, I would 100% trust you to comfort me.

watching a fantano video is like hearing a friends opinion on music except its well informed and whether you agree or not is part of the enjoyment

It really does all comes down to exposure. I remember when you reviewed Portal's ION and you gave it a 9/10, but on RYM it's the lowest rated of their main albums (despite being generally considered by fans of the band to be one of their best if not their best) as well as having the most ratings. All that's happening are people are getting exposed to material that is not their cup of tea, or a very extreme, high-density or otherwise left-field style of a genre/sub-genre they may not be familiar with.

Anthony ,planned this all out very long ago, from when he first started calling us his “needledrops” he knew this day would come, after a bit more than a decade on youtube, Anthony slowly but surely built a pretty large following. His opinions on albums started to have more of an impact on others. People started to follow everything Anthony said, had the same opinions as him, praised him! Anthony’s army is almost complete, he has a cult of drones ready to place the world under the Fantano regime, we are the warriors, the “needledrops” he has always dreamed of having. These events are inevitable, we let this happen right under our noses..

This is the first time I’ve seen the comment section have something worthwhile to read about in awhile.

I believe that the reason why audiences hate negative reviews from their favorite RU-vidr is that fans rely on youtubers for in-depth arguments that justify what they like. For example, Kendrick fans love Anthony’s reviews because he goes extremely in-depth about why the albums are great. That strengthens the listener’s appreciation of the album. So we as listeners tend to want Anthony to agree with us on “every” album we like so that he can elaborate on why *we* like the album. So when he dislikes an album we like, we’re screwed, because not only can Anthony not strengthen our appreciation, it starts to undermine our appreciation because we rely on his thoughts so heavily on albums we like. To put another way, listening to Anthony’s reviews is like drinking wine with a sommelier. The sommelier can of course taste everything at levels that a layperson cannot and they can pick up on a million tastes. So if the sommelier likes a wine that we like, it’s great because they can expand our appreciation of the wine. But if a sommelier hates a wine we like, we start to wonder what’s wrong with our own sense of taste. Anthony says his fans can’t think for themselves. But if we could taste wine at the same depth and skill as the sommelier, well…we’d be one too, and we wouldn’t be relying on them, would we?

there's no authority in music taste, music critics are entertainers, getting upset with a music critic's view is not worth the time and effort lmao

I'm not basing my music taste in your opinnions. I'm more of using your taste to discover new music, and so far I'm loving everything you rated high regarding hiphop.

I love how this was recommended to me after the new 10

Thanks for the shout out to the site and supporting the funding drive. Hopefully the Fantano affect can help kick in the needed funding for the site.

Fantano: My Fans Can't Think for Themselves. 5,5 fantano fans: we like

Thanks for the opinion, Fantano. Now I know how to feel about Fantano Drones.

Anthony, my house can't take many more blasts. Please call off your drones. I promise I'll buy a Ridge Wallet.

I'M A DRONE RETURNING TO MY QUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN

"You're god damn right"

Thanks for supporting RYM!

We very rarely agree on anything, especially on twitter. That being said, my musical library would be far smaller if you hadn't helped me broaden my horizons with new music and you often have great criticisms of albums I'd otherwise blindly fanboy over.

fantano: raves about RYM also fantano: abandoned RYM like 5 years ago

And this is why I use Album Of The Year

RateYourMusic always underrateds every fucking Weezer albums that is not the first two! - fantano, while listening to OK Human for the first time via Twitch

RYM recommendation algorithm is the most wildly accurate ish I've ever seen. Honestly, some streaming platform should pay for rights for it

i didnt even know rateyourmusic was a thing until this video. Time to find me some new tunes!

Tangent here but you should check out *Arooj Aftab’s* latest record, *Vulture Prince.* Reddit put it in my radar and now I’m hooked on seeking similar complex minimalist records.

….finish each others sentences! hahahahaaha anthony totally agree with you😂

They took it away from a 3.69! They stopped it being nice! I suggest we bump it up to a 4.20 to compensate.

"These are my shitty fans!" "Anthony, this is the 7th week in a row you've shown your shitty fans in class."

"The most Pitchfork-approved albums of the 90s and 00s" damn that stung

I subscribed to Anthony Fantano and now I can’t make an opinion on music without you

I want to emphasize, RYM drones are equally as prevalent. If an album with a few hundred ratings and a high score a really positive score charts really high on the RYM charts, especially if it’s above another big record, RYM users will do everything in their power to lower that score significantly. Example: MIKE’s weight of the world 4.00 with around 1k ratings a week after its release wotw charts at #2 of 2020 RYM users drop the rating significantly from a 4.00 to a 3.7 with 2k ratings few weeks later Fantano’s review comes out wotw drops from a 3.7 to a 3.47 with 3k ratings It’s not really a Fantano thing, music fans in general dislike when an album isn’t accepted by a majority opinion. I don’t particularly believe this is a thing that will change, but I think calling out this is very healthy for the music community and Fantano making this is a very good thing. Also fuck you Fantano for wotw tf was that smh

I've been using rym since 2018-ish and I have to give it all the praise it deserves because I never would have found all these great albums without the website. Of course it's not perfect, the community can be quite snooty at times. But it's still a great tool for finding new music.

I think music hipsters on the internet accusing music hipsters on the internet of following an internet music hipster instead of their favorite internet music hipsters is the dorkiest shit

Don’t know why you made a 5 min video praising the 2015 masterpiece Drones by Muse but you do you hun xoxox

Sheeple gonna sheep. I like roughly 5% of music talked about on this channel, but the content is entertaining. I don't expect most people to like the shit I like. And by shit, I mean only the best, highest quality music. Keep it up, Fantonio!

People should see music criticism as a means to DISCOVER new music, not rate the best. The best will always be subjective anyway.

The only Anthony drones that should be out there are the ones melon flies around from his bedroom to terrorize his neighborhood.

Unfortunately this can have an impact on smaller and midsize bands. People give a lot of credibility to rankings and scores. Sadly it can be the determining factor for some people if they should listen to an album or not. We think the Wolf Alice album is amazing, but if people are ranking it low just because you/he did that could turn people off to it. He’s right that people need to think for themselves in regards to writing reviews, but also just to the music itself. Just because he doesn’t like it doesn’t mean it’s not good, and Vice versa. Listen for yourself, decide for yourself.

“I dont want to influence the scores here” *proceeds to directly influence at 3:55

Found it hilarious and kinda badass how he tongue in cheek gave some ideas for the fantano clones while addressing the (mostly non) issue. Yr good stuff fantano i think you've grown a ton as a reviewer and personality in the 10+ years youve been on my radar

My favourite RYM moment from last year: On Paysage D'Hiver's 'Im Wald' page, the top two reviews at some point in time were: 1. Fuck you RYM (0.5 stars) 2. Fuck you Fantano (5 stars) Entertaining to say the least (incredible album btw).

That Anthony gave it a 6 it's a classic meme is great because you've given most of my favorite albums 6s

I liked Death Grips the second time I heard them. About a year later, I learned about melon and came to find that Death Grips are only a good band because melon said they were good. Thank you for making Death Grips good.

I agree with what you're saying fantano... But if you give it a NOT GOOD That's how we know it's a classic

bro i hate some of your reviews but i still got mad love and respect for what you do and some of the stuff you put up with

When I see people on RYM complain about the alleged "Fantano Effect", I don't ever see a solution to this supposed problem. It's almost as if they just hate the hell out of Fantano for the sake of it. If someone is going to hate, at least have concrete reasons to do it.

This is the reason I stopped rate the music there, but the albums that come out in front page reviews are still pretty good. I'm just using it for listening.

I mostly watch Fantano for his cultural criticism and rarely agree with his review scores even if I think his reviews are stylistically good and he does put thought and effort into them. For instance, Protest the Hero is one of my favorite metal bands and one I'd argue is one of the best ever in terms of songwriting, lyricism, virtuosity, and aesthetic sensibility but Fantano says they're a band so obnoxious and terrible he refuses to even review any of their work. Plus he also gives mid to low reviews to Aesop Rock, also hates Lamb of God, and only reviewed Metric once they put out an album bad enough it was actually worth the scathing review he gave them while saying their previous work was mediocre, all while giving monumental praise to alot of mainstream acts whose art value is notably subpar when compared with alot of equivalent projects in various underground scenes. I probably watch more Fantano reviews than I do any other music critic on RU-vid, but by no means does that mean that I strongly conform to his opinions on music.

This was a great album review, might even be one of my new all-time favorites for you. Thanks Anthony for all you do and your hard work.

Already subbed to RYM, I have discovered many albums and artists I've never heard of through them

Silly internet needs to hydrate and nap more...

If Fantano says that I can’t think for myself then I can’t think for myself

I don't stan Anthony but I appreciate the new music I discover thanks to him.

Fantano said I'm the best twice 😁

RYM is one of my favorite websites but it's filled to the brim with insufferable suburbanites that take the scores way too seriously.