Devo makes $1 million a year from an MTV theme song

The greatest success of the I have to, “Whip It”dates back to 1980. But, as Rolling Stone reports, what made the new wave band from Akron (Ohio) more money is “Uncontrollable Urge”the opening track of the American group’s 1978 debut album “Question: Are We Not Men? Answer: We Are Devo!”.

The reason why this song is so profitable, earning around a million dollars every year, is its use as the theme song for MTV’s ‘Ridiculousness’ series which has over 1,500 episodes.

Speaking to Rolling Stone the co-founder of
I owe Mark Mothersbaugh
he said: “I have written many other songs for films and television programmes. It would have shocked me if they had told me that this would become my main source of income.”

“It’s ironic and kind of funny,” he further added
Anita Greenspan
Mothersbaugh’s manager and wife. “At the beginning of MTV we saw a lot of Devo because they were the first to make videos, but MTV started to question the videos that Devo made. They were subversive, they didn’t like them and they didn’t play them anymore. Now “Uncontrollable Urge” It’s comfortably the most played song on MTV, so they won.”