Todd Rundgren has invited the ire of Swifties everywhere. In a recent interview with Vulture, the crabby rocker claimed Taylor Swift has “ruined music” and added that she is the “apotheosis of mediocrity.”
After touching on how Rundgren’s production work on Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell was meant to spoof Bruce Springsteen, writer Devon Ivie asked which artist he would target today if he helmed an album.
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“Taylor Swift, of course. There’s an argument to be made that she ruined music,” Rundgren responded. “It’s just that, to me, Taylor Swift is the apotheosis of mediocrity.”
Hypothesizing that it is the “era of the female artists” because boys started spending money on video games instead of music in the ’90s, Rundgren continued, “That left the music market with, ‘Well, where do we go here?’ And they said, ‘Well, there’s all these young girls and they’ve got their allowances, too. Why don’t we start making music for young girls instead of Pearl Jam or something like that?'”
He then praised Lady Gaga as a “real musician” and “classically trained piano player” before turning his ire back to Swift. “Taylor Swift doesn’t do anything particularly great except grow hair,” Rundgren huffed. “She’s not a great singer. She’s not a great songwriter. She’s not a great dancer. She’s a role model for what was a very young generation of women, and now for those women’s daughters as well, because it’s mothers and daughters going to Taylor Swift shows.”
While Swift’s most recent album, 2025’s The Life of a Showgirl, and its newly released deluxe edition featuring four new songs aren’t great examples of her best work, previous LPs like the massive pop crossover 1989 and indie folk projects folklore and evermore have demonstrated her songwriting ability.
