{"id":73756,"date":"2026-09-28T13:36:29","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T13:36:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/28\/did-taylor-swift-ruin-music-todd-rundgren-argues-the-case\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T13:36:29","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T13:36:29","slug":"did-taylor-swift-ruin-music-todd-rundgren-argues-the-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/28\/did-taylor-swift-ruin-music-todd-rundgren-argues-the-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Did Taylor Swift Ruin Music? Todd Rundgren Argues The Case"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Todd Rundgren<\/a> knows a fair amount about the music industry, having survived its highs and lows in a career spanning 60 years.<\/p>\n

To those who don\u2019t know much about his psychedelic, progressive and experimental tendencies, he\u2019s probably best known as producer of Meat Loaf<\/a>\u2019s signature album Bat Out of Hell<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s previously explained that he was trying to mock the career<\/a> of Bruce Springsteen<\/a> with the 1977 record, to the point that he didn\u2019t even care if it was a successful release.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0<\/strong>Todd Rundgren Reveals His Songwriting Inspiration<\/a><\/p>\n

That prompted a question during a recent interview with Vulture<\/a>: if Rundgren made an album today with the intention of roasting a contemporary artist, who would it be? He had an answer right at hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cTaylor Swift<\/a>, of course,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s an argument to be made that she ruined music. It\u2019s an understandable phenomenon. It\u2019s just that, to me, Taylor Swift is the apotheosis of mediocrity.\u201d<\/p>\n

He explained why, in his view, it\u2019s \u201cthe era of the female artists,\u201d saying: \u201cThe biggest artists in the world are female artists\u2026 and that\u2019s because of video games.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack in the \u201990s, boys stopped spending money on music and started spending it on video games, and that left the music market with, \u2018Well, where do we go here?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd they said, \u201cWell, there\u2019s all these young girls and they\u2019ve got their allowances, too. Why don\u2019t we start making music for young girls instead of Pearl Jam<\/a> or something like that? So you got Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Pink and many artists of that ilk.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cLady Gaga, she\u2019s a real musician. She\u2019s a classically trained piano player. Taylor Swift doesn\u2019t do anything particularly great except grow hair. She\u2019s not a great singer. She\u2019s not a great songwriter. She\u2019s not a great dancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s a role model for what was a very young generation of women, and now for those women\u2019s daughters as well, because it\u2019s mothers and daughters going to Taylor Swift shows.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why Todd Rundgren\u2019s Fan Base is Changing<\/h3>\n

Rundgren also reflected that his own audiences were made up of people who\u2019d passed his music down generations. \u201cThere\u2019s second- and third-generation fans,\u201d he said. \u201cTheir parents started listening to me back in the \u201970s, and then they indoctrinated their kids, so their kids would come to the shows, and then their kids had kids, and I\u2019m now seeing the grandkids.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have some very old fans and very young fans as a result. I\u2019m starting to attract an independent thinking group of younger fans who discover you through the internet.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cYoung people may develop an interest in the greater history of music and want to go back to listen to older artists. Fortunately, I\u2019m still performing so that I can take advantage of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Todd Rundgren Albums Ranked <\/h2>\n
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For more than half a century, the superstar producer has made some of the weirdest records to hit the charts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Gallery Credit: Michael Gallucci<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n