Taylor Swift’s legion of fans includes rockstars like Stevie Nicks, Paul McCartney, and Dolly Parton — but certainly not Courtney Love.
The former Hole frontwoman didn’t hold back while criticizing Swift’s musicianship in a recent interview with The Standard.
“Taylor is not important. She might be a safe space for girls, and she’s probably the Madonna of now, but she’s not interesting as an artist,” she said.
“It’s great that there are so many successful women in the music industry, but lots of them are becoming a cliché,” she added. “Now, every successful woman is cloned, so there is just too much music. They’re all the same.”
Love didn’t stop with her assessment of Swift. She advised Lana Del Rey to “take seven years off” and said simply of Madonna, “I don’t like her and she doesn’t like me.”
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Love also said she’s not a fan of Beyoncé, despite praising the ambition of her new album, “Cowboy Carter.”
“I like the idea of Beyoncé doing a country record because it’s about Black women going into spaces where previously only white women have been allowed, not that I like it much,” she said. “As a concept, I love it. I just don’t like her music.”
This isn’t the first time Love has publicly condemned a modern superstar. In 2021, she accused Olivia Rodrigo of copying her aesthetic — specifically the cover art for “Live Through This,” Hole’s seminal 1994 album. She even called the young singer “rude” on social media. (Rodrigo responded that she was “flattered” by Love’s attention.)
Nor is this Swift’s first rodeo drawing criticism from a Gen X musician. In 2022, Blur and Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn erroneously claimed she “doesn’t write her own songs,” which Swift described as “completely false and so damaging.” (Albarn quickly apologized.)
In fact, Swift has written over 60 songs by herself, including the entirety of her 2010 album “Speak Now.” She was compelled to do so after the massive success of her sophomore album, “Fearless,” caused critics to question her role in the creative process.
“I’ve had several upheavals in my career,” Swift told Rolling Stone. “When I was 18, they were like, ‘She doesn’t really write those songs.’ So my third album I wrote by myself as a reaction to that.”
Swift’s 11th studio album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” will be released on Friday.
According to credits listed on Apple Music, she cowrote 14 of the album’s 16 tracks with either Jack Antonoff, Aaron Dessner, or Florence Welch. (Post Malone also has a feature and writing credit on track one.) Two of the songs were reportedly self-written by Swift: “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys” and “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?”
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