This week we have witnessed the self-destruction of Blink-182, as they’ve gone from pop-punk legends to middle-aged men bickering on Facebook and Twitter. Blink have always been a band that has gone through highs and lows, from the top of the charts to barely speaking to each other. We’ve captured some of the best and worst moments from an eventful career in Blinkworld.
The California Days: Three Losers Jamming In A Basement
Love them or loathe them, Blink-182 are without a doubt one of the most successful (and influential) rock bands of our time. To date, they’ve sold over 35 million albums worldwide – impressive for a band that started out as nothing more than three losers jamming in a basement.
The three-piece of Mark Hoppus, Tom DeLonge and Scott Raynor (soon to be replaced by Travis Barker) took California by storm. Their songs were fast but super poppy – the most serious topic they tackled was girls they liked – and the dual vocals by Mark and Tom were refreshing as hell.
Blink and their peers Green Day, The Offspring and NOFX all received mainstream attention after the end of the grunge era. It brought a style of punk to the masses, and although hard to compare to punk heroes of a past era like Black Flag and The Clash, they were sonic architects who took a sound created by bands like Descendants and Screeching Weasel and turned a generation of kids onto punk music – not to mention the countless imitation bands that came after them.
Dick Jokes, Bad Language And That Time One Direction Ripped Them Off
One of the greatest things about Blink-182 in the ’90s was their attitude, or lack thereof. They set the mould for every pop-punk band to come – crude humour, laidback attitude, fast songs, girls and antics. Their live show was half concert and half comedy act, from a band proud to be called dick joke connoisseurs.
Blink’s music videos were always amazing, whether they showed the band going on a spending spree with record company money, or hanging out with Sophie Monk in ‘Always’. There’s even a moment in ‘All The Small Things’ when they rip off One Direction… 11 years earlier.
Blink 182 has always been a band that just didn’t care – they were crude, they spent way too much time onstage telling ridiculous jokes, and they were completely open about being average (at best) at their instruments. They had a carefree attitude that appealed to their fans – which makes their recent behavior even more sour.
The Soundwave Debate
In 2013, Soundwave announced one of the biggest lineups the festival had ever seen. A few days before the tour began, it was announced that Travis Barker would not make the tour due to an (extremely reasonable) fear of flying, and would be replaced by the drummer from Bad Religion. The Soundwave shows and sideshows went ahead, but it just felt a little incomplete without Barker behind the drums.
Mid-tour, Soundwave promoter AJ Maddah called Barker out on Twitter. He accused the drummer of demanding a full performance fee despite not attending the shows. Maddah and Barker quickly kissed and made up, but a recently deleted tweet from DeLonge reveals that Barker was nearly fired from the band for the incident. The tour didn’t leave fans satisfied after an eight-year absence.
Is This The End? Blink-182’s Break-Up 2.0
In 2005, Blink-182 announced they were going on ‘indefinite hiatus’, shocking pop-punk fans and ’90s kids everywhere. This week’s news has been all about the re-implosion of Blink, and much like people you barely remember from high school, they’ve decided to air their grievances on social media. The more they go into detail, the more the band’s persona is stripped away, with talk of contracts and managers having roundtable discussions.
What happened to the three kids from California? You have to ask yourself, what have Blink-182 really done since they got back together that has made an impact?
Maybe we’re better off remembering Blink-182 as that polite, family-friendly ’90s pop-punk band that wrote classics such as ‘Dick Lips’ and ‘When You Fucked Grandpa’. Because if they’re the voice of our generation, it proves we just like to keep things simple.
