Mark Mothersbaugh makes $1 million a year from MTV’s “ridiculous” themes

When Devo opened their 1978 album Question: Aren’t we men? Answer: We are Devo! In the case of “Uncontrollable Impulse,” few listeners could have foreseen how much money it would make decades later—especially its author.

Devo fans will note that although “Uncontrollable Urge” is one of their most played songs, it was never released as a single. It wasn’t their most chart-topping single, either – that honor belonged to 1980’s “Whip It,” which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 after being released as its second No. 1 single. No. 14. freedom of choice. However, this is far from their largest source of income.

As Devo co-founder and lead singer Mark Mothersbaugh said rolling stonesAlthough “Whip It” became a staple of the fledgling MTV network in the early ’80s, his greatest success did come with the channel, but in a completely unexpected way: MTV Everywhere ridiculous.

when ridiculous The video series, which first launched in 2012, features a cover of host Rob Dyrdek’s song “Uncontrollable Urge.” Twelve years later, the show has aired more than 1,500 episodes and is a staple on MTV. As we all know, the show became so saturated online that in August 2020, ring Noticed that it played on repeat for 36 hours straight. two months ago, type Point out that 113 of the 168 hours in a week (or 67.3%) are filled with the following episodes: ridiculous.

Dedicated to Mothersbaugh – who composed the music for much-loved series such as dwarf and Pee Wee’s Playhouseand scoring films by directors like Wes Anderson—with income coming from the ubiquitous ridiculous His wife and manager Anita Greenspan estimates that he earns about $1 million a year

“I’ve written a lot of other songs for movies and TV shows,” Mothersbaugh explains. “I would be shocked [years ago] If you tell me this is going to be the main source of income.

“It’s ironic and it’s funny,” Greenspan added. “When MTV first started, you would see a lot of Devo because they started making videos very early, but MTV started to question the videos Devo made. [The videos] Subversive, they don’t like them and won’t play them again. “Uncontrollable Urge” is undoubtedly the most played song on MTV right now, so [Devo] won.

Despite massive exposure, world has to deal with ‘uncontrollable impulse’ ridiculousthis is far from Mothersbaugh’s first high earner in the music industry. As Greenspan said rolling stoneshis theme song dwarf Managed to pay for their house back in the nineties.