Louder: The Only Music Critic Who Matters (if You’re Under 25)

October 2, 2020

By Caryn Ganz

Pop Music Editor

If you are reading this, chances are you are quite familiar with our pop music critics. But, if we are being (painfully) honest with ourselves, there are many people who don’t glean their stream-it-or-skip-it advice from the written word, but from the video reviews pioneered by Anthony Fantano on his YouTube channel The Needle Drop. The 34-year-old critic has more than 900 million views across his various accounts and, like most popular things on the internet, lots of fans and plenty of haters. Joe Coscarelli explains.

Jon Caramanica caught up with Jawsh 685, a teenage producer in New Zealand who saw one of his songs explode into a global phenomenon. But his song wasn’t just a random hit; it was an international arrival for siren jams, a recent youth culture phenomenon in Pacific Islander, or Pasifika, communities in New Zealand and surrounding areas.

Plus: Giovanni Russonello on Ella Fitzgerald, who sparkled onstage; Jon Pareles on Sufjan Stevens’s “The Ascension” (a Critic’s Pick); a big statement from Maren Morris on the Playlist, and much more.

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The Only Music Critic Who Matters (if You’re Under 25)

Anthony Fantano reviews albums and songs on his YouTube channel, The Needle Drop, bringing an old art to a new medium — and perhaps ensuring it has a future.

By Joe Coscarelli

Cornell Tukiri for The New York Times

A Teenage Producer With a TikTok Hit Brings New Zealand to the World

Jawsh 685’s “Savage Love” became a global pop smash. Next up: graduating from high school and, hopefully, getting on a plane.

By Jon Caramanica

David Lee/Netflix

First Look: Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman in ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’

Opposite Boseman in his final film, Davis delivers a star turn in another August Wilson adaptation produced by Denzel Washington, this time directed by George C. Wolfe.

By Kyle Buchanan

THE CRITICS

Rolf Ambor

Critic’s Notebook

The Special Place Where Ella Fitzgerald Comes Alive

The singer’s concert recordings have always had a power that her studio outings could only imply. “Ella: The Lost Berlin Tapes,” a newly unearthed 1962 performance, magnifies her legacy.

By Giovanni Russonello

Evans Richardson

Critic’s Pick

Sufjan Stevens’s Cry of Despair and Prayer for Redemption

The singer and songwriter’s new album, “The Ascension,” addresses a convergence of crises with synth-heavy songs filled with counterpoint and no easy resolutions.

By Jon Pareles

Tyre Grannemann

The Playlist

Maren Morris Pleads With America, and 8 More New Songs

Hear tracks by Halsey, Priya Ragu, Jorja Smith and others.

By Jon Pareles, Jon Caramanica and Giovanni Russonello

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Panic! at the Disco’s Flourishes Weren’t Just Dramatic. They Were Theater.

A look back at the band’s 15-year-old debut, “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out,” a commercial success that simultaneously satirized and celebrated staged spectacles.

By Maya Phillips

art review

A Countercultural Dreamland From Tokyo Flickers at MoMA

In 1969, Shuzo Azuchi Gulliver created a moving-image environment with 18 projectors. Now his and other expanded cinema works from Japanese pioneers are in New York.

By Jason Farago

Will Pop Music of the Future Rely on Actual Musicians, or Avatars?

The pandemic has sped up how digital look-alikes are reshaping stardom.

NEWS

the charts

Taylor Swift’s ‘Folklore’ Returns to No. 1 for a Seventh Week

Propelled by full-album sales, the singer and songwriter’s surprise LP moved 87,000 copies, nearly double its haul from the week before.

By Ben Sisario

YoungBoy Never Broke Again Arrested on Drug and Firearms Charges

A lawyer for the rapper, whose latest album, “Top,” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts this month, said his client is innocent.

By Ben Sisario

Chrissy Teigen and John Legend Lose Baby After Pregnancy Complications

“Driving home from the hospital with no baby,” Ms. Teigen wrote on Twitter. “How can this be real.” She said she and her husband had decided to call the infant Jack.

By Mike Ives