Anthony Fantano's Pretentious Music Snob Stare

About

Anthony Fantano's Pretentious Music Snob Stare is a reaction image of music critic Anthony Fantano staring forward with his hand on his cheek and a guitar to his right, popularized through a series of image macros in which the image represents the ultimate music snob by attaching jokes about using a more technically correct term for something music related as opposed to the more casual alternative, like calling a song a "track" or an album an "LP." The meme was popularized on X (Twitter) in early December 2023, with the photo originating from the Southen Connecticut State University, of which Fantano is an alumnus.

Origin

On August 15th, 2022, the Southern Connecticut State University Facebook^[1] page posted a photo of Anthony Fantano posing with his hand on his cheek and a guitar to his right alongside a caption about Fantano's achievements as a music critic (shown below). Fantano is an alumnus of the university.

On December 10th, 2023, X^[2] user @ollyp_2411 posted the photo under the caption, "how i feel after calling an album a ‘record,' garnering over 5,500 likes in a week (shown below). This is the earliest known iteration of the meme.

Spread

The meme spread across X over the following days, inspiring similar memes. On December 10th, 2023, X^[3] user @mfdoomstan1 posted a version reading, "how i feel after calling an album an ‘LP,'" garnering over 46,000 likes in a week (shown below, left). Later that day, X^[4] page @mosthiphop posted a version of the meme reading, "How I feel after calling an artists 2nd project their 'sophomore album,'" garnering over 40,000 likes in the same span of time (shown below, right). That same day, X^[5] user @gothamhiphop posted a version of the meme reading, "How I feel calling a rapper an 'MC,'" garnering over 10,000 likes.

On December 11th, X^[6] user @turningthetbles posted a version of the meme reading, "every time I tell someone the plural of vinyl is still just vinyl," garnering over 3,800 likes in a week. On December 13th, Fantano reposted one of the memes through his X^[7] account @theneedledrop, writing, "that is how i feel it’s true," garnering over 20,000 likes in five days (shown below).

On December 16th, Fantano posted a collection of the memes to his Instagram^[8] page, afantano, garnering over 149,000 likes in two days. On the same day, he posted a video to TikTok^[9] @theneedletok reacting to the meme and several examples of it, garnering over 245,000 views in two days (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable

External References