Mark Mothersbaugh

Sound

Mark Mothersbaugh

Born 1950-05-18 · Akron, Ohio, USA

Mark Allen Mothersbaugh (/ˈmʌðərzbɔː/; born May 18, 1950) is an American musician and composer. He came to prominence in the late 1970s as co-founder, lead vocalist, and keyboardist of the new wave band Devo, whose "Whip It" was a top 20 single in the US in 1980, peaking at No. 14, and which has since maintained a cult following. Mothersbaugh was one of the primary composers of Devo's music. In addition to his work with Devo, Mothersbaugh has made music for television series, films, and video games via his production company, Mutato Muzika. He composed the music for the 13-year run of the animated series Rugrats and its three related theatrical films. He has created film scores for Wes Anderson and for Marvel Comics films. As a solo musician, Mothersbaugh has released four studio albums: Muzik for Insomniaks, Muzik for the Gallery, Joyeux Mutato, and The Most Powerful Healing Muzik in the Entire World. In 2004, he received the Richard Kirk Award at the BMI Film and TV Awards for his contributions to film and television music. In 2008, Mothersbaugh received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Kent State University, his alma mater. Description above from the Wikipedia article Mark Mothersbaugh, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Acting credits

SNL50: The Homecoming Concert poster
6.8

Live from Radio City Music Hall, witness the concert of a lifetime with a star-studded lineup bringing together legendary Saturday Night Live hall-of-famers, iconic guests and surprise musical performances.

SNL50: The Homecoming Concert

2025

Mystery Men poster
5.9

When Champion City's hero Captain Amazing is kidnapped by the recently paroled supervillain Casanova Frankenstein, a trio of average, everyday superheroes -- Mr. Furious, the Shoveler and the Blue Raja -- assemble a new super team to save him.

Mystery Men

1999

Score: A Film Music Documentary poster
7.2

Music is an integral part of most films, adding emotion and nuance while often remaining invisible to audiences. Matt Schrader shines a spotlight on the overlooked craft of film composing, gathering many of the art form’s most influential practitioners, from Hans Zimmer and Danny Elfman to Quincy Jones and Randy Newman, to uncover their creative process. Tracing key developments in the evolution of music in film, and exploring some of cinema’s most iconic soundtracks, 'Score' is an aural valentine for film lovers.

Score: A Film Music Documentary

2017

Urgh! A Music War poster
7.5

Urgh! A Music War is a British film released in 1982 featuring performances by punk rock, new wave, and post-punk acts, filmed in 1980. Among the artists featured in the movie are Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), Magazine, The Go-Go's, Toyah Willcox, The Fleshtones, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, X, XTC, Devo, The Cramps, Oingo Boingo, Dead Kennedys, Gary Numan, Klaus Nomi, Wall of Voodoo, Pere Ubu, Steel Pulse, Surf Punks, 999, UB40, Echo & the Bunnymen and The Police. These were many of the most popular groups on the New Wave scene; in keeping with the spirit of the scene, the film also features several less famous acts, and one completely obscure group, Invisible Sex, in what appears to be their only public performance.

Urgh! A Music War

1981

The World According to Allee Willis poster
NR

Take one look at award-winning songwriter / artist Allee Willis and you see someone unafraid to be themselves. Dressed in a cacophony of prints and colors, her signature asymmetrical haircut and famed parties at her real-life Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, Allee didn’t waste any opportunity to tell you what she was about. But privately, Allee struggled with not fitting established gender and sexual norms. She buried herself in her work, until true love manifested her ultimate masterpiece - self-acceptance.

The World According to Allee Willis

2024

Pray TV poster
5.5

A failing television station is bought out by a slick TV evangelist and starts making mountains of money in the guise of religious programming, which is actually just an excuse to sell merchandise.

Pray TV

1980

DEVO poster
7.7

Originally formed amidst the chaos of the 1970 Kent State anti-Vietnam War protest killings, the not quite new wave band Devo scored a hit with "Whip It" and gained mainstream success with their message of societal "de-evolution."

DEVO

2024

The Spirit of '76 poster
4.6

Future Americans decide to time travel to 1776 to ask the founding fathers for the solutions to their problems. A glitch in the time machine changes their destination to 1976. Still believing themselves to be in 1776, the time travellers attempt to study this "ideal" civilization. 70's jokes, props and stars abound.

The Spirit of '76

1990

Human Highway poster
5.2

The new owner of a roadside diner stuck in a town built around an always leaking nuclear power plant plans to torch the place to collect insurance. However, an assortment of bizarre characters and weird events (such as spaceships flying around) gets in his way.

Human Highway

1982

Along for the Ride poster
7.0

A documentary chronicling the filmmaking career of Dennis Hopper.

Along for the Ride

2016

Beauty Is Embarrassing poster
7.3

Raised in the Tennessee mountains, Wayne White started his career as a cartoonist in NYC. He quickly found success as one of the creators of the Pee-wee's Playhouse TV show which soon led to more work designing some of the most arresting and iconic images in pop culture. Recently his word paintings featuring pithy and and often sarcastic text statements finely crafted onto vintage landscape paintings have made him a darling of the fine art world. The movie chronicles the vaulted highs and crushing lows of an artist struggling to find peace and balance between his professional work and his personal art. This is especially complicated for a man who struggles with the virtues he most often mocks in his art...Vanity, ego and fame.

Beauty Is Embarrassing

2012

The Making of 'Bottle Rocket' poster
5.0

Interviews with individuals involved in the making of Wes Anderson's 1996 film "Bottle Rocket."

The Making of 'Bottle Rocket'

2008

Derailroaded poster
7.5

A documentary on the life and music of manic-depressive, paranoid-schizophrenic cult music icon Wild Man Fischer.

Derailroaded

2005

Arise! SubGenius Recruitment Film #16 poster
6.2

A brain-crushing collage of music and video presented in the form of a religious recruitment video. The topics covered (in deadpan narration) are basic psychology, the origin of the human race, spiritualism, religious dogma, UFO's, the end of the world, and the group's figurehead, J.R. "Bob" Dobbs.

Arise! SubGenius Recruitment Film #16

1992

Punk and New Wave Years with Annie Nightingale poster
2.0

The programme includes The Damned’s set-smashing performance on The Old Grey Whistle Test and the Sex Pistols' anarchic trip on the Thames. It also features powerful live performances from Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, Gang of Four, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Tubeway Army, Ian Dury and the Blockheads, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Soft Cell, The Selecter, Joy Division and the Au Pairs. In addition, there are gems from The New York Dolls, The Fall, Blondie, Pete Shelley, The Police, Devo, X-Ray Spex, Klaus Nomi, Laurie Anderson and many more.

Punk and New Wave Years with Annie Nightingale

2020

The Other F Word poster
6.5

What happens when a generation's ultimate anti-authoritarians — punk rockers — become society's ultimate authorities — dads? With a large chorus of punk rock's leading men — Blink-182's Mark Hoppus, Red Hot Chili Peppers' Flea, Rise Against's Tim McIlrath — The Other F Word follows Jim Lindberg, 20-year veteran of skate punk band, Pennywise, on his hysterical and moving journey from belting his band's anthem, "Fuck Authority", to embracing his ultimately pivotal authoritarian role in mid-life, fatherhood.

The Other F Word

2011

Taking Punk to the Masses: From Nowhere to Nevermind poster
NR

Taking Punk to the Masses: From Nowhere to Nevermind visually documents the explosion of Grunge, the Seattle Sound, within the context of the underground punk subculture that was developing throughout the U.S. in the late 1970s and 1980s. This decade-and-a-half musical journey will be represented entirely through the lens of EMP’s oral history and permanent object collection, an invaluable and rich cultural archive of over 800 interviews and 140,000 objects - instruments, costumes, posters, records and other ephemera dedicated to the pursuit of rock n roll.

Taking Punk to the Masses: From Nowhere to Nevermind

2011

DEVO: Live 1980 poster
NR

"This lone video artifact offers indisputable evidence that in 1980 Devo had reached a turning point. We were no longer just art monsters, we were mainstream performers too. " - Gerald V. Casale (from the back of the DVD case) August 17, 1980 Phoenix Theater, Petaluma

DEVO: Live 1980

2005

Chi Chi & Devo poster
NR

Members of pioneering New Wave band Devo and golfing legend Chi Chi Rodríguez recall how their paths crossed when Devo used an image of Chi Chi for their debut album.

Chi Chi & Devo

2019

Devo: Hardcore Live! poster
6.2

A concert film capturing Devo at the Fox Theatre in Oakland on their 2014 "Hardcore Tour," in which they performed 21 songs written and recorded before they signed with a major record label, many of which had never been performed live. The set is intercut with stories and commentary from the band members, as well as Toni Basil and V. Vale.

Devo: Hardcore Live!

2015

Are We Not Men? poster
NR

A documentary about DEVO

Are We Not Men?

DEVO | Live in London poster
NR

Live performance of DEVO's debut album, "Q:Are We Not Men? A:We Are DEVO" at the Forum, London in 2009.

DEVO | Live in London

2009

We're All Devo poster
7.0

Like The Men Who Make the Music, We're All Devo! has a storyline to tie the videos together. In it, the character of Rod Rooter (Michael W Schwartz) is reviewing Devo's music videos for Big Entertainment. Much to his chagrin, his daughter Donut Rooter (Laraine Newman) is a fan of the band. Donut discovers the videos after asking her father for money to get an abortion (though this is not explicitly stated). Two excerpts from the storyline were included in the "Complete Truth About De-Evolution" laserdisc and DVD (both out of sequence) but the rest is exclusive to this videocassette. "Theme from Doctor Detroit" was also not included, and is unique to this tape. (Wikipedia)

We're All Devo

1983

Devolution: A Devo Theory poster
NR

Enter the minds of one of history's most misunderstood bands. With hits such as 'Whip It' & 'Freedom of Choice', they shared a trailblazing environmental message but were often mocked. 40 years later, we ask: were Devo right?

Devolution: A Devo Theory

2021

Behind the camera