Creativity Quote by Todd Rundgren

Rundgren’s line lands like a small, delighted heresy against the old music-business theology: if you weren’t feeding AM radio, you weren’t eating. AM hits once functioned as the industry’s permission slip, the narrow gateway through which ambition had to squeeze. By calling out a “way” to get promoted and survive without that worry, he’s not just reminiscing; he’s naming a shift in power, from centralized gatekeepers to alternative circuits of attention.

The intent is pragmatic and a little relieved. Rundgren isn’t romanticizing “art for art’s sake” so much as pointing to a workable ecosystem where artistic identity doesn’t have to be flattened into a three-minute, hook-first product designed for mass rotation. The subtext: radio wasn’t merely a platform; it was an aesthetic regime. AM rewarded certain tempos, certain voices, certain kinds of obviousness. To escape it meant reclaiming complexity, eccentricity, and pacing - the very traits that made Rundgren’s era of album-oriented experimentation feel like a real career option, not just a detour.

Context matters here: the rise of FM, college radio, touring circuits, niche press, and album culture created parallel pipelines where credibility and audience could be built outside the singles chart. Rundgren’s phrasing also hints at a professional anxiety artists still recognize: “promotion” is never pure, and “survive” is the real keyword. He’s celebrating a loophole in the marketplace that let musicians be less obedient without being broke - a reminder that artistic freedom often arrives not as a manifesto, but as a new distribution channel.