Todd Rundgren calls Taylor Swift 'the apotheosis of mediocrity' - USA Today

Todd Rundgren has made it clear he is not a Swiftie.

The singer-songwriter and "I Saw the Light" record producer not only criticized Taylor Swift's music, but also went so far as to blame her for what he describes as a decline in music quality today.

"To me, Taylor Swift is the apotheosis of mediocrity. It’s the era of the female artists," he said in a recent interview with Vulture published Sept. 25.

The "Hello It’s Me" songwriter, 78, brought up Swift when asked who he would target if he ever produced another album making fun of an artist. In 1977, he produced Meat Loaf's "Bat Out of Hell," which Rundgren previously said dissed Bruce Springsteen's sound.

"There’s an argument to be made that she ruined music. It’s an understandable phenomenon," Rundgren said of Swift.

USA TODAY has reached out to Swift's representative for comment.

He then blamed video games for why many of the biggest artists in music are women nowadays.

"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,'" he told the outlet.

He continued: "Why don’t we start making music for young girls instead of Pearl Jam or something like that?"

Swift continues to break artist records with many fans still referring to her as "the music industry."

The deluxe edition of her 2025 album "The Life of the Show Girl" titled "Encore" broke two Spotify records, including the track "Patient Zero" becoming the most-streamed song by a female artist in a day and Swift having the most streams of a female artist in a day in 2026.

However, the new music received divisive responses with Pitchfork giving the deluxe version a 4.0 score, a decline from the 5.9 score the original album received.

At the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards on Sept 27, Swift accepted the inaugural Artist Director Honors award and became the most decorated artist in the show's history with a total of 33 wins. Other Swift records include being the only artist to win album of the year at the Grammys four times and becoming the only artist to occupy all top 10 spots in the Billboard Top 100 in a single week.