“She’s not a great singer. She’s not a great songwriter. She’s not a great dancer”
Todd Rundgren has taken aim at Taylor Swift, claiming there is an argument that she has “ruined music” and describing the superstar as the “apotheosis of mediocrity”.
The veteran singer-songwriter and producer made the comments in an interview with Vulture, after being asked which contemporary artist he would target if he were making an album intended as a parody.
The question referred to Rundgren’s production of Meat Loaf’s 1977 blockbuster ‘Bat Out Of Hell’, which he has previously said he approached partly as a spoof of Bruce Springsteen.
Asked who he would choose if he were doing the same thing in 2026, Rundgren replied: “Taylor Swift, of course. There’s an argument to be made that she ruined music.”
“It’s an understandable phenomenon,” he continued. “It’s just that, to me, Taylor Swift is the apotheosis of mediocrity.”
Rundgren then offered his theory for why female artists have come to dominate mainstream pop, arguing that a shift began in the 1990s when young male consumers increasingly spent their money on video games rather than records.
“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?’”
He went on to name Swift alongside Lady Gaga and Pink, but singled out Gaga for praise as a “real musician” and a “classically trained piano player”.
The popstar has made three trademark applications in the US, seemingly to protect her likeness from AI copycats.
One application uses an image of her performing during the ‘Eras Tour‘, and the other two use audio clips of Swift saying “Hey, it’s Taylor” and “Hey, it’s Taylor Swift” while promoting her recent album ‘The Life of a Showgirl‘.
Swift has been the target of several AI deepfakes over the years, from viral graphic images originating from a 4chan challenge to President Donald Trump sharing AI-generated ‘Swifties for Trump’ images.
She follows figures like Matthew McConaughey in trademarking their voice to prevent AI from using it.
Recently Swift is being sued for trademark infringement by Maren Wade, who owns the 'Confessions of a Showgirl' franchise
Taylor Swift is being sued for trademark infringement, false designation and unfair competition over the title of her last album, 2025’s The Life of a Showgirl.
The lawsuit was filed Monday in California federal court by Maren Wade, a former Las Vegas showgirl who owns the trademark to “Confessions of a Showgirl.”
She is seeking unspecified damages from Swift and UMG Recordings and a court order that would bar the pop star from continuing to use the album title. The Independent report.
In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, Wade’s lawyer Jaymie Parkinnen said: “A solo performer who spent twelve years building a brand shouldn’t have to watch it disappear because someone bigger came along.”
Wade sang on America’s Got Talent in 2014, the same year she started writing a column in the Las Vegas Weekly titled “Confessions of a Showgirl.” The column featured Wade’s reflections on her experiences as a Vegas showgirl, and she has since grown the brand into a podcast and live musical show. According to the filing, Wade’s trademark covers live stage performances, theatrical productions and television.
In the filing, Wade’s lawyers write that when Swift and UMG released their similarly titled album, “they did not do so quietly.”
The complaint continues: “Within weeks, the designation was affixed to consumer goods, stamped onto labels, tags, and packaging, and deployed as a source identifier across retail channels—all directed at the same audience Plaintiff had spent years cultivating.”
The filing states that when Swift applied to register The Life of a Showgirl as her own trademark, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office declined because they ruled that it was confusingly similar to Wade’s existing trademark.
