Elusive DJ Aphex Twin, who grew up in Cornwall and was once suspended from school, has now overtaken Taylor Swift in monthly YouTube listens with 448 million
Aphex Twin does not attribute meaning to his music (Image: Redferns)
An anti-pop DJ from Cornwall has remarkably overtaken Taylor Swift in monthly YouTube Music listens – and most people have never even heard of him.
Aphex Twin, whose real name is Richard D James, is racking up 448 million monthly listeners, compared to the Queen of pop who has 396 million.
The remarkably elusive musician, who is an electronic producer, has benefited from a surprise resurgence of his 2001 track QKThr. This sombre piano piece, which is just 88 seconds long, is featured on nearly eight million TikTok videos and it is often a backdrop on nearly every type of content you can possibly think of. If you are on social media, the chances are you have heard it without even realising.
Music producer RamonPang was the first to notice Aphex Twin had overtaken Taylor Swift (in this specific count at least) and he told The Guardian: “It really puts in perspective how popular Aphex Twin’s music is in short-form content.
“It’s not like there was a cultural shift and everyone’s suddenly listening to ambient techno over the grocery store speakers. The actual shift has been way smaller: Aphex Twin’s back catalogue is having a renaissance through gen Z.”
There have been huge amounts of reinterpretation of his music, especially on TikTok and YouTube(Image: Redferns)
And to further explain why the DJ was supposedly outperforming the Shake it Off star, YouTube Music’s listener total takes into account absolutely everything, including fan edits, audio streams, fan uploads, Shorts and when the record is just used as background sound filler.
Who is Richard David James (AKA Aphex Twin)?
Despite being born in Limerick, Ireland, Richard was raised in Cornwall, where he lived in Lanner and went to Redruth School.
He is now 54 and despite becoming a millionaire through the industry, the DJ and record producer has managed to go relatively under the radar, despite making music since the age of 14.
Richard was part of the Cornish free party scene of the 1980s and in a rare interview with The Guardian in 2001, he gave a unique insight into his unique personality.
Aphex Twin performs on stage during day one of the Pitchfork Music Festival at the Grande Halle de La Villett in Paris in 2011(Image: Getty Images)
He said: “The best musicians or sound-artists are people who never considered themselves to be artists or musicians. I’m just some irritating, lying, ginger kid from Cornwall who should have been locked up in some youth detention centre. I just managed to escape and blag it into music.”
He then said he would have become a computer hacker if he had not discovered his talent for music. James claimed he was suspended from school for hacking and that it was as addictive as gambling.
However, he thankfully chose to pursue music, and he went on to appear on a Channel 4 show called Sounds of The Suburbs.
Aphex Twin performs during day 1 of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Field on April 25, 2008(Image: Getty Images)
And asked whether anything local inspired him creatively, he simply said: “Nothing basically, that’s what made me do music. There is a music scene but it’s nothing that I was interested in, so it was just out of boredom really.”
Despite his nonchalance, artists like Madonna and Limp Bizkit have wanted to work with him over the years, but he rarely speaks about his success.
He has a modest Instagram page with 203,000 followers where he only has 14 posts. The last came in September 2025 to announce a new album.
Despite keeping himself out of the spotlight, his music remains hugely popular, and he has 3.5 million listeners on Spotify, indicating he really is an electronic icon.