Todd Rundgren

Todd Rundgren emerged from Philadelphia's late 1960s scene as a precocious guitar virtuoso with Nazz before establishing himself as rock's most ambitious autodidact. His dual career as producer and artist positioned him uniquely within popular music: while crafting immaculate power pop like "I Saw the Light" and the symphonic sprawl of A Wizard, a True Star (1973), he simultaneously shaped albums for The Band, Badfinger, and Grand Funk Railroad. His command of studio technology anticipated digital culture, particularly through his early adoption of computer graphics and music videos.

Rundgren's contradictions defined him. He could write pristine three-minute confections, then stretch a single album side across cosmic synthesiser experiments. Something/Anything? (1972), which he performed and produced entirely alone, remains a masterclass in multi-instrumental pop construction. His progressive rock outfit Utopia satisfied his compositional complexity while solo work indulged melodic perfectionism.

His influence permeates alternative rock and power pop, though his contrarian personality and prolific output sometimes obscured his innovations. Rundgren treated the studio as compositional instrument decades before such approaches became standard practice.