Todd Rundgren calls Taylor Swift "the apotheosis of mediocrity" but spares Lady Gaga
In a Vulture interview published September 25, 2026, producer Todd Rundgren named Taylor Swift as the target of a Bat Out of Hell-style parody, saying "there's an argument to be made that she ruined music." In the same interview he called Lady Gaga "a real musician."
By Riffiter
Todd Rundgren told Vulture's Devon Ivie this week that Taylor Swift is "the apotheosis of mediocrity." The interview was published on September 25, the same day Swift put out The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore. Asked who he would aim a parody album at today, he answered "Taylor Swift, of course," and added: "There's an argument to be made that she ruined music." Vulture's own page could not be checked for this piece. The quotes below match word for word in the Consequence, Stereogum, Paste and Washington Times reports, and all four credit Ivie.
The question that set it off
The conversation had turned to Bat Out of Hell, the 1977 Meat Loaf record Rundgren produced. He has described that album as partly a send-up of Bruce Springsteen: the same widescreen car-and-girl romance, pushed until it tips over. Ivie asked who he would give the same treatment now, and he named Swift.
He went further than one line. "She doesn't do anything particularly great except grow hair," he said. "She's not a great singer. She's not a great songwriter. She's not a great dancer."
Gaga gets a pass
In the same interview Rundgren called Lady Gaga "a real musician" and "classically trained." That detail changes what the story is. Headlines read it as an old rock musician against pop. His own words say it is one producer against one artist.
He also offered a theory for why pop leans so heavily toward young women: in the 1990s, he said, boys spent their money on video games instead of records, and the labels followed whoever was still buying.
Not his first target
Rundgren has a long record of saying this sort of thing out loud. He has written off Springsteen's music as "going nowhere." In 2021 he skipped his own Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction and called the Hall "a scam."
No response from Swift or her team had been reported at the time of writing.
The timing
The interview landed during Swift's release week. The Encore adds four songs to The Life of a Showgirl, which opened in October 2025 with 4.002 million US album-equivalent units, per Billboard. That is the biggest week of her career.
His case, on record
The strongest argument Rundgren has is his production work, and very few of the people arguing about him this week will have played it:
| Year | Record | Artist |
|---|---|---|
| 1971 | Straight Up | Badfinger |
| 1973 | New York Dolls | New York Dolls |
| 1977 | Bat Out of Hell | Meat Loaf |
| 1986 | Skylarking | XTC |
His own Todd, from 1974, belongs on that list too. Judge him by these.