Mark Allen Mothersbaugh (born May 18, 1950) is an American musician, composer, singer, and painter.
Mothersbaugh attended Kent State as an art student, where he met Devo co-founders Jerry Casale and Bob Lewis. In 1970, Mothersbaugh, Lewis and Casale formed the idea of the "devolution" of the human race and started to play music as Devo.
Since Devo, Mothersbaugh developed a successful career writing musical scores for film and television. In film, Mothersbaugh has worked frequently with filmmaker Wes Anderson, and scored most of his feature films (Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou).
His music has been a staple of the children's television shows Rugrats and Clifford the Big Red Dog. He also wrote the theme song for the new Felix the Cat show for Hanna Barbera, some music for Pee-Wee's Playhouse, and in 1990 and the theme song for The New Super Mario World for DiC Entertainment in 1991.
Mothersbaugh is also known for his music in video games including Sony's Crash Bandicoot series, the Jak and Daxter series, and Maxis Software's The Sims 2. This work is often performed with Mutato Muzika, the music production company he formed with several other former members of Devo including his brother, Bob Mothersbaugh.
Mothersbaugh composed the distinctive music heard in the award-winning "Get A Mac" commercials (seen on TV and online) for Apple Inc. 2006/2007.
Mark Mothersbaugh composed the score for the first season of the television series Big Love, which stars Bill Paxton. Mark Mothersbaugh was fired & replaced after one season by David Byrne of Talking Heads.
He currently hosts a drawing segment on the children's television series, Yo Gabba Gabba!.
Without glasses, Mothersbaugh is legally blind. At the age of seven, he was taken to the optometrist where he obtained his first pair of glasses and saw, for the first time, "smoke from chimneys and birds". After truly "experiencing" the world for the first time, Mothersbaugh started to draw, and his second grade teacher praised his work. That same night he had dreamed of being a famous artist. In addition to music, Mothersbaugh still paints - in a style influenced by surrealism and Andy Warhol.
Mothersbaugh is also a member of the Church of the SubGenius, a parody religion mocking consumerism, cults, and the commercialization of religion, and has produced songs and visual arts for the Church.
On May 10, 2008, Mothersbaugh was awarded an honorary doctorate of Humane Letters from Kent State University.
