Rock Legend Savages Taylor Swift, Dubs Her ‘Apotheosis of Mediocrity’ Who ‘Ruined Music’
A veteran producer says teenage boys who traded record stores for video game consoles in the 1990s changed the sound of the pop charts, and he named Taylor Swift as the result.
Todd Rundgren, 78, laid out the theory in an interview with Vulture. “There’s an argument to be made that she ruined music,” he said.
His explanation starts three decades ago.
“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?’” Rundgren said.
Record executives, he said, went looking for another customer.
He described their thinking this way: “‘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 listed the acts he believes that shift produced. “So you got Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, P!nk, and many artists of that ilk.”
Rundgren argued the shift still shapes the industry. “The biggest artists in the world are female artists at this point, and that’s because of video games,” he said.
He reserved his sharpest words for Swift’s talents.
“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,” he said.
He described Lady Gaga in different terms, calling her a “real musician” and a “classically trained piano player.”
Rundgren also spoke about Swift’s fan base.
“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,” he said.
He closed his assessment with a phrase that is likely to travel. “Taylor Swift is the apotheosis of mediocrity,” Rundgren said.
Rundgren has spent decades on both sides of the recording console. As an artist, he scored hits with I Saw the Light in 1972, Can We Still Be Friends in 1978 and Bang the Drum All Day in 1983.
As a producer, he played a pivotal role in making the New York Dolls’ self-titled debut album and Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell.
He also composed the score for the 1994 comedy Dumb and Dumber, which starred Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels.
The Daily Mail has contacted representatives for both Rundgren and Swift for comment.
His remarks appeared shortly before Swift’s biggest night of the year. She won three MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday, bringing her career total to 33, the most of any artist in the ceremony’s history.
Swift, 36, had shared the record with Beyoncé, 45, until then. Beyoncé now holds second place with 30.
One of Swift’s wins was video of the year, for The Fate of Ophelia. The song is the lead single from her 2025 album, The Life of a Showgirl.
In her acceptance speech, Swift dedicated the award to the recently deceased Dolly Parton, whom she called the “ultimate showgirl.”
Her friend Dakota Johnson later presented her with the first Artist Director Award. Swift has directed 18 of her own music videos.
She ended that speech by debuting the video for her single Patient Zero, which stars Swift, Johnson, Colin Farrell and Cara Delevingne.
Patient Zero is one of four songs Swift released last Thursday on The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore, a deluxe edition of the album.
According to Variety, critics were sharply divided over the new tracks. The songs still gave Swift the most single-day Spotify streams of any female artist this year.
The attention around her peaked earlier this summer. On July 3, Swift married NFL star Travis Kelce before 1,000 guests at Madison Square Garden.
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