Mark Mothersbaugh

Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond · Oct 31, 2023 · 1h 6m · transcript

The lead singer and keyboardist for Devo, Mark Mothersbaugh, is an avant-garde, new wave pioneer. Although critics sometimes classify Devo as a joke band, the Akron, Ohio art-punks’ ethos was created in response to a very serious event—the 1970 shooting at their college, Kent State. Following the incident, the band took on the name “Devo,” short for what they felt was organized society’s “de-evolution.”

Throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s Devo helped lay the groundwork for DIY, anti-establishment bands by releasing bizarre and left-of-center music and conceptual films that helped usher in the music…