I love Todd, and even saw him in concert a month ago in Louisville. He sounded better than ever, performing songs from throughout his long career, and his band was excellent. The crowd was mostly older people, but with a sizable number of younger folks, and even black folks, in attendance.
But I disagree with the gist of his comments here about Taylor Swife. While I'm no big fan, I hardly think she ruined music. I even like a couple of her songs. She's just a continuation of the "teenybopper" tradition that has always been present in pop music. Anybody remember Neil Sedaka? The Osmonds? Hell, I even love a couple of Madonna songs. I'd be interested in getting into a deeper conversation with Todd about this, because I have a feeling he's not as hostile about Taylor as he might sound here. Taylor's just the obvious target.
There's no question that music fans have largely moved away from what we know as rock 'n' roll, or the big tent that included rock 'n' roll, but it's complicated. Tastes change. Technology changes. The growing role of gaming, movies and streaming cannot be denied.
This evolution away from rock as the driving force behind popular music has been happening since the early to mid-1970s, when listeners discovered FM radio and the Top 40 AM stations lost their position as the primary testing ground for new hitmakers. FM's higher-quality stereophonic signal opened the floodgates to a wide range of musical styles, and it was great in the beginning as deejays threw everything against the wall. That killed off AM, and even FM was soon being divided up into narrow musical niches by the suits at the big broadcast conglomerates. Many one-time freeform stations became boring AOR stations playing the same 100 arena rock songs released between the late 1960s and the early 1980s. Other than public radio and community radio, the airwaves gradually became mostly a vast wasteland. And with satellite radio and streaming services at one's fingertips, I doubt radio will ever return to its glory days.
One thing I will say emphatically is that there is no shortage of creative, engaging rock music (and soul and funk and folk and country) to be found today. The musical choices are every bit as beguiling as what we love and remember from our youth (pick your favorite decade); you just have to dig a little deeper and keep your mind open. My Spotify playlist for 2026 favorites is up to around 160 songs so far, mostly artists who aren't well known, in every genre you can think of. Don't give up, and don't worry about what Todd says! :)
- so you'd steal from other's success.
Others who bribed and bought enough politicians to make new Laws to legalize bribing and buying politicians? And paying bribes for Gov Contracts and laws that fit their bidness models?
Those are the 'successes' you admire?
Are you from China or Russia originally? Cause you sure want to be them.