Todd Rundgren, the singer-songwriter and producer behind “Hello It’s Me” and “I Saw the Light,” criticized Taylor Swift in a Vulture interview, calling the pop star “the apotheosis of mediocrity” and claiming she “ruined music.”
When asked who he would target if producing a satirical album today, Rundgren named Swift. “There’s an argument to be made that she ruined music. It’s an understandable phenomenon,” he said.
Rundgren attributed the dominance of female artists in the music industry to economic trends, saying boys shifted their spending from music to video games in the 1990s, leaving the industry to target young female consumers instead. “Why don’t we start making music for young girls instead of Pearl Jam or something like that?” he said.
Swift recently released “The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore” and broke two Spotify records with the deluxe version of her 2025 album. Her song “Patient Zero” set the record for most-streamed song by a female artist in a day in 2026, while Swift achieved the most streams by any female artist in a single day that year. She was also honored with the inaugural Artist-Director Award at the 2026 MTV VMAs.
See Todd Rundgren live
Upcoming Todd Rundgren events with tickets available:
- Oct 21, 2026 — Castro Theatre, San Francisco, California · Get tickets
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Source: Variety
