Anthony Fantano, also known as ‘The Needle Drop’ and ‘The world’s busiest music nerd’, will be gracing down under yet again to deliver a speech at this year’s leg of Face The Music – Melbourne’s annual music industry conference.
Previously delivering an insightful speech at Big Sound, another very well established music conference, Fantano is very eager to be returning for Face The Music.
“I am excited – not only because I had a lot of fun when I came down to Australia the last time, but also because I find the music industry you guys have down there really interesting,” Fantano says.
“What I think is so interesting is the quality of the scene; you guys really have to make it happen. You are really on your own out there, and as a result what you guys do have out there is super unique, super tightly knit. You guys have your own sounds that you are chasing after. You’re not trying to chase after whatever the Americans are doing, you guys really have your own thing going on and I like that a lot.”
During this year’s speech, Fantano will be deliberating topics such as ‘unhinged rants about indie and the destruction of music discovery via music streaming services’ as well as looking deeply into the online ‘meme’ culture and how that is now used to shape the industry.
“I think memes are an interesting way that a lot of artists, some of the most successful artists, are using to promote their band, or to promote their album or their image. Not that memes are 100 per cent necessary, and it’s not even like regularly interacting with the internet is 100 per cent necessary. There are plenty of artists who don’t take to the whole social media thing all that well, but they still have very vibrant careers.
“But that being said, some artists that do take to social media and meme culture are artists like Drake. I don’t want to say his entire career, but there was originally a point where Drake was pretty much considered music for women and was pretty much the butt of the rap industries joke,” Fantano says.
“I’m thinking about all those memes about how Drake is too soft, how he is too emotional and effeminate, and I feel that he almost stayed around for so long that those memes found him to be endearing and people wanted him to stick around because the memes were so entertaining.”
Also using the example of Death Grips with their interactive efforts online Fantano says that these “are really interesting and creative ways that I think artists are using the internet and meme culture to their own promotional advantage.”
Face The Music is being held over two days in November and features an array of different speakers and performers within the music industry. You will be able to catch Anthony discussing these topics in greater detail at the conference.
Written by Alex Callan
When & Where: Face The Music, Various Locations in Melbourne – November 17 & 18
