Did Taylor Swift Ruin Music? Todd Rundgren Argues The Case

Todd Rundgren knows a fair amount about the music industry, having survived its highs and lows in a career spanning 60 years.

To those who don’t know much about his psychedelic, progressive and experimental tendencies, he’s probably best known as producer of Meat Loaf’s signature album Bat Out of Hell.

He’s previously explained that he was trying to mock the career of Bruce Springsteen with the 1977 record, to the point that he didn’t even care if it was a successful release.

READ MORE: Todd Rundgren Reveals His Songwriting Inspiration

That prompted a question during a recent interview with Vulture: 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.

“Taylor Swift, of course,” he said. “There’s an argument to be made that she ruined music. It’s an understandable phenomenon. It’s just that, to me, Taylor Swift is the apotheosis of mediocrity.”

He explained why, in his view, it’s “the era of the female artists,” saying: “The biggest artists in the world are female artists… and that’s because of video games.

“Back in the ’90s, boys stopped spending money on music and started spending it on video games, and 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? So you got Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Pink and many artists of that ilk.”

He continued: “Lady Gaga, she’s a real musician. She’s a classically trained piano player. Taylor Swift doesn’t do anything particularly great except grow hair. 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.”

Why Todd Rundgren’s Fan Base is Changing

Rundgren also reflected that his own audiences were made up of people who’d passed his music down generations. “There’s second- and third-generation fans,” he said. “Their parents started listening to me back in the ’70s, and then they indoctrinated their kids, so their kids would come to the shows, and then their kids had kids, and I’m now seeing the grandkids.

“I have some very old fans and very young fans as a result. I’m starting to attract an independent thinking group of younger fans who discover you through the internet.”

He added: “Young people may develop an interest in the greater history of music and want to go back to listen to older artists. Fortunately, I’m still performing so that I can take advantage of that.”