Courtney Love criticises Taylor Swift: “She might be a safe space for girls… but she’s not interesting as an artist”
“She’s probably the Madonna of now, but she’s not interesting as an artist.”
Courtney Love performing with Hole in 1994. Image: Jim Steinfeldt/Michael Ochs Archives via Getty Images
Courtney Love has criticised Taylor Swift, stating she’s “not interesting as an artist”, despite acknowledging her music’s impact on young girls.
Love made the comments while promoting her new BBC Radio 6 Music series, Courtney Love’s Women, and besides commenting on Swift, Love has also had some unfiltered takes on the likes of Lana Del Rey, Madonna, and Beyoncé – particularly in regards to her Cowboy Carter album.
Though the new series celebrates the women who shaped Love and her music career, she told The Standard in a new interview, “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.”
Love has never been one to hold her tongue, and has famously feuded with Madonna for many years. In the interview, she confirmed “I don’t like her and she doesn’t like me.”
Some of her other recent comments though appear slightly contradictory – Love shared a photograph with Swift back in 2021, and in the caption she referred to her as an “aspirational huge role model for many young women”.
She has also formerly praised Lana Del Rey, who – alongside her late husband, Kurt Cobain – she branded as the “only true musical geniuses” she’s ever known. However, it seems she’s changed her mind when it comes to Del Rey.
“I haven’t liked Lana since she covered a John Denver song, and I think she should really take seven years off,” said Love. “Up until Take Me Home, Country Roads I thought she was great. When I was recording my new album, I had to stop listening to her as she was influencing me too much.”
Elsewhere in the interview, she also told The Standard: “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. As a concept, I love it. I just don’t like her music.”
Taylor Swift commences the next leg of her iconic Eras tour this May in Paris with Paramore in tow as support. You can check out Courtney Love’s Women on BBC Sounds.