History Music / ToddRundgren

** Many of the songs from the first Nazz album are pretty blatantly derivative of UsefulNotes/BritishInvasion bands. Doesn't stop them from being enjoyable, though.

** "Song of the Viking", "An Elpee's Worth of Toons", and "Frogs" are all GilbertAndSullivan pastiches.

Todd Harry Rundgren (born June 22, 1948) is an American [[SingerSongwriter singer-songwriter]], [[IAmTheBand multi-instrumentalist]] and {{record producer}} from Philadelphia, known for his [[NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly eclectic, experimental style]], incredibly prolific recording and quirky sense of humour. While he's dabbled in numerous styles and has experimented a lot with his material, he largely operates within a few rock subgenres, namely: PowerPop (coincidentally, the one he made his initial name in), HardRock, ProgressiveRock, Electronic/Club and RAndB (classic [=R&B=]). His [[NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly mix and match musical genres]] approach, dabbling in TrueArtIsIncomprehensible, cult following and emphasis on humour has earned him occasional comparisons to Music/FrankZappa.

* ''Deface the Music'' (1980; BritishInvasion, PsychedelicRock)

** Many of the songs from the first Nazz album are pretty blatantly derivative of BritishInvasion bands. Doesn't stop them from being enjoyable, though.

* IAmTheBand: Frequently Rundgren is the only featured performer and usually produces his own material, and in many cases even engineers it as well. (Examples include, but are not limited to, the first three sides of ''Music/SomethingAnything'', ''Hermit of Mink Hollow'', ''Healing'', ''The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect'', and ''A capella'', with the last of these being a particularly strange example since every sound you hear on the album is Rundgren's voice). His bands tended to be examples of this as well, to the point where Runt's two solo albums have been released as Rundgren solo albums (and are considered as such on this very wiki), Nazz is known today mostly for being Rundgren's first band, and Utopia often performed on Rundgren solo albums as his backing band (see ''Faithful'', ''Todd'', and ''Initiation'' for examples).

* LoudnessWar: Mostly averted, but ''Arena'' comes in at a borderline [=DR6=].

** Live concerts usually reflect the most recent album, which leads to rearrangement of the older songs in turn. The ''A Capella'' tour is the clearest example by far, though. A recording from this tour can be found on the box set ''Can't Stop Running''.

* FriendsWithBenefits: One common interpretation of "Hello It's Me" is that it's about this.

* SincerityMode: After a string of several albums where a lot of songs had multiple intended meanings that often differed from their surface interpretations, ''Global'' consists almost entirely of lyrically straightforward, sincerely intended {{Protest Song}}s.

* GratuitousFrench: The reprise of "International Feel" on ''A Wizard, a True Star'' is entitled "Le Feel internacìonále".

* CoverAlbum: He's done two and a half.

* CoverVersion:
** "Never Never Land" from the ''Theatre/PeterPan'' musical, "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" by Music/TheYardbirds, "Good Vibrations" by the Music/TheBeachBoys, "Rain" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" by Music/TheBeatles, "If 6 Was 9" by Music/JimiHendrix, "Most Likely You'll Go Your Way (and I'll Go Mine)" by Music/BobDylan, "The Lord Chancellor's Nightmare Song" by Creator/GilbertAndSullivan (yes, we're not shitting you), "Two Little Hitlers" by Music/ElvisCostello, "Mighty Love" by the Spinners, "Feel It" by the Tubes (though this is partially a self-cover as Rundgren was involved in producing the original and co-wrote it, and two former members of the band appear on Rundgren's version). Several of these were performed as note-for-note covers as if they were classical music, which is the concept of the first half of ''Faithful''.
** ''Todd Rundgren's Johnson'' is an entire album of Music/RobertJohnson covers (and not [[ICallHimMrHappy what you thought it was]]), and ''(re)Production'' consists of covers of songs from albums Rundgren had previously produced.
** And with Utopia, a cover of "Do Ya" by the Move (though better known from Music/ElectricLightOrchestra's version, a rare example of an artist [[CoveredUp Covering Up]] his own song), "Something's Coming" by Music/LeonardBernstein, and "For the Love of Money" by the O'Jays. (Incidentally, the reason ELO re-recorded "Do Ya" is because a music journalist [[CowboyBebopAtHisComputer confused Utopia's version for the original]], so Utopia's version could be considered to have temporarily CoveredUp the song as well).

* LiteraryAllusionTitle: From Utopia's ''Oblivion'' we have the song "Winston Smith Takes It on the Jaw", referencing the protagonist of ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour''. ''Todd'' has "Sons of 1984", another reference to Orwell's famous novel. "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell", from ''Oops! Wrong Planet'', shares its title with a Creator/WilliamBlake essay.

* HypocritcalHumor: "Lockjaw". The narrator tells a story meant to scare children who tell lies, then admits he made the whole thing up.

* LiteraryAllusionTitle: From Utopia's ''Oblivion'' we have the song "Winston Smith Takes It on the Jaw", referencing the protagonist of ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour''. ''Todd'' has "Sons of 1984", another reference to Orwell's famous novel.

* ShoutOut: Quite a few. ''Todd'' alone has "Sons of 1984", "In and out the Chakras We Go (Formerly: Film/{{Shaft}} Goes to Outer Space)", and "Everybody's Going to Heaven[=/=]Film/KingKong Reggae", and that's just song titles. One song on ''A Wizard, a True Star'' gets a reference to Creator/SalvadorDali ''and'' UsefulNotes/{{Dada}} in its title alone.

* ShoutOut: Quite a few. ''Todd'' alone has "Sons of 1984", "In and out the Chakras We Go (Formerly: Film/{{Shaft}} Goes to Outer Space)", and "Everybody's Going to Heaven[=/=]Film/KingKong Reggae", and that's just song titles.

* UsefulNotes/{{Buddhism}}: The song "Bardo" from ''Arena'' references a state between death and rebirth in some forms of Buddhism. ''Initiation'' also explores some concepts from Buddhism and other Eastern religions.

* LiteraryAllusionTitle: From Utopia's ''Oblivion'' we have the song "Winston Smith Takes It on the Jaw", referencing the protagonist of ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour''.

** Despite this, some of his songs can also verge into... well, NotChristianRock might not be the correct territory, but "Something from Nothing" is about having faith in ''something'' (which could just as easily be an abstract concept such as justice rather than a deity). On the ''other'' hand, an intended interpretation of the song is to ask whether, if all one has is faith, it is possible to know anything for certain. There's rarely only one meaning to any of Todd's songs. Some of his other songs explore spirituality from a serious ("Fair Warning", "Initiation", most of ''Healing'') or not that serious ("Eastern Intrigue") perspective.

*** ''Hermit of Mink Hollow'' (running time 34:50) was forced by executive meddling into this. Rundgren intended a different running order, but the record company insisted on making the first side "The Easy Side" and the second side "The Difficult Side".

* ProtestSong: Todd began moving more into this during TheEighties, with songs like Utopia's cover of "For the Love of Money", "Swing to the Right", "Flesh", "Johnee Jingo", and later on, just about all of ''No World Order'', ''The Individualist'', and ''Liars'', as well as parts of ''Arena'', ''State'', and ''Global''.

* GenreRoulette: Rundgren has often demonstrated quite a fondness for this, particularly in the stretch of albums recorded from ''Music/SomethingAnything'' through ''Initiation'', which have songs delving into SingerSongwriter, PsychedelicRock, SynthPop, PowerPop, Creator/{{Motown}}-influenced {{Soul}}, {{Disco}}, ProgressiveRock, and even {{opera}}, amongst other genres. However, this has been a staple of his entire career; see the list of associated genres next to his discography above for proof.

* ''No World Order'' (1993; {{Techno}})
* ''The Individualist'' (1995; {{Techno}})

* ''Runddans'' (2016; collaboration with Emil Nikolaisen and Hans-Peter Lindstrom)

* ''White Knight'' (2017; mostly collaborations with other artists, such as [[Music/NineInchNails Trent Reznor]], [[Music/SteelyDan Donald Fagen]], [[Music/{{Eagles}} JoeWalsh]], and Music/JoeSatriani)

He is also known for being an [[FollowTheLeader early adopter and innovator]] in the domains of {{Music Video}}s and use of computers: his video for "Time Heals" was one of the first to be aired on {{MTV}}, he developed one of the first computer paint programs for the Apple II, Utopia Graphics System, way back in 1981, he was an early adopter of the desktop video program Video Toaster[[note]]the same hardware responsible for most of the CGI in ''Series/BabylonFive''[[/note]] for Amiga in TheNineties, and was one of the first people to distribute his work online, long before iTunes or even Napster, through a subscription service, [=PatroNet=], in the mid-nineties.

* SincerityMode: After a string of several albums where a lot of songs had multiple intended meanings that often differed from their surface interpretations, ''Global'' consists almost entirely of straightforward, sincerely meant {{Protest Song}}s.