Here’s a wild concept. Maybe he’s hated so people express that in the threads about him leading to a lot of pages?

Saw this thread earlier and kept scrolling past it.

Just realized he said "any generation".

I dont think even Fantano himself believes that bullshit lmao

It’s arguable he’s more popular and impactful than past greats like Christgau ever were ngl. Especially when you consider how much he got the young gen into music criticism on the internet. Not saying he undoubtedly is but there’s a fair argument to make given how much reach the internet has compared to the newspaper /magazine outlets

who else is there

I like Mark Fisher

Christgau isn't even that impactful.

I'm thinking people like Lester Bangs, whose style and general persona is still being emulated and iterated on by a ton blog contributers today (and Fantano).

Or the figures from theoretical/academic fields that introduced things into music criticism that have been ubiquitous ever since. People like Adorno, who wrote extensively on music & genres as socioeconomic and political critique. That has since been watered down and widespread in commercial publications for decades. Even his detractors agree that there is value in employing similar lines of questioning in music criticism, despite not agreeing with his conclusions.

As someone who has never liked Fantano, I can definitely agree with him being in the running for most impactful music critic of the past 10-15 years. I would also nominate entire websites as good candidates, due to the homogenous style so many digital age media blogs adopted despite their many contributors. TinyMixtapes (RIP) definitely comes to mind as a relatively niche blog that really had its finger on the pulse of how people on the internet would end up talking about music on largescale platforms like Twitter.

But of any generation? No. Fantano is saying s*** just to say it here. Likely just to troll/bait people like me that don't like him lmao

Edit: Wanted to say I didnt mean to be so dismissive of Christgau's impact with that first sentence. He's another one I've never cared for, but he definitely had a hand in shaping how people have written about popular music since. And certainly another example of someone far more impactful than Fantano.