ARTICLE SEVEN: Blink-182 Career Retrospective...Part 1

There are a lot of bands out there nowadays with a large fan base. All Time Low, Fall Out Boy, Sleeping With Sirens, Taking Back Sunday, and the list goes on. The thing is, all of these bands have openly stated that one of their biggest influences in music was Blink-182, a pop-punk band that is still around even to this day. With 6 studio albums, a live album, a greatest hits album, and two EPs; Blink-182 remain to this day at the top of their genre with a gigantic fan base that can sell out an arena show in under a few hours. For this article, I am taking a retrospective look back at their career, what the future holds, and everything in between. A band of this scope has a lot of history, obviously more than I can fit in one article, so I will sum up the best I can and actually make this a two part article. If you have never given these guys a chance, or lived under a rock and haven’t heard of them, I highly recommend doing so.

            Blink-182 had their start in San Diego, CA in 1992. Guitarist Tom Delonge had just been kicked out of high school for drinking under the bleachers at a school Basketball game. At the same time, bassist Mark Hoppus had just moved to town and begun working at the local record store. The two met through Hoppus’ sister, and instantly clicked and decided to form a band. Recruiting high school friend and drummer Scott Raynor, the band was formed to a three piece. After borrowing a cheap four track recorder from a friend, Blink recorded their first demo ‘Fly Swatter’, and instantly gained a small fan base in the California pop-punk scene. At first they played clubs, and there were a few times they played at high schools when Delonge would call and claim they were a motivational anti-drug band. All of those shows got canceled after one song. After recording their next demo tape titled ‘Buddha’, Blink became even more popular in the pop-punk scene, catching the attention  of San Diego based Cargo Records, who signed Blink to a record deal on a trial basis. Fueled by new songs, as well as re-recorded versions of songs off both of their demo tapes, Blink’s first studio album ‘Cheshire Cat’ was released. Although it made little impact commercially, the singles ‘M+Ms’, ‘Carousel’, and ‘Wasting Time’ became popular on a small scale. The popularity was enough to catch attention of an Irish based techno band, also named Blink that threatened lawsuit. Thus, the -182 was added to their names, and to this day no one is clear on what that stands for. After gaining a manager, and opening for bands such as NOFX, Unwritten Law, and the Offspring, Blink’s popularity seemingly grew overnight. In 1996, their second album ‘Dude Ranch’, a high school humor pop-punk album, was released to a more commercial success than its predecessor. The single ‘Damnit’ was greatly successful, and to this day is one of their most noted songs. The popularity of the single, as well as a string of shows on the Vans Warped Tour, gained the band even more notice. Around this time, drummer and friend Scott Raynor was booted from the band because of alcohol addiction, of which is talked about in the band’s B-Side track ‘Man Overboard’ from their live album. Travis Barker, drummer for The Aquabats, quit his band and took over Raynor’s spot.

            In 1999, Blink-182 received their commercial break through into the main stream with the release of ‘Enema of the State’. The three singles from the album ‘What’s My Age Again?’, ‘All The Small Things’ and ‘Adam’s Song’ helped propel the band into stardom in the pop-punk scene with ‘All The Small Things’ peaking to number 6 on the Billboard Top 100 list. Enema kept with Blink’s joke humor pop-punk style, but had the production behind it to get the attention the band needed. It was only natural that after multi-platinum success, arena tours, cameos in the film American Pie and a spot on an episode of The Simpsons, Blink-182 would record another album. ‘Take Off Your Pants and Jacket’ was released in 2001. The singles ‘Stay Together For The Kids’, ‘The Rock Show, and ‘First Date’ charted even higher than the singles from Enema. Thanks to a new producer, the album had a more polished pop-punk sound, and showed a slightly more mature side of the band while still keeping their humor. The popularity of the album would cause Blink-182 to be on a constant touring schedule, with sold out arena shows being played across the nation, as well as in Australia, the UK, and Japan. It was also around this time that Delonge started side project Boxcar Racer, which Hoppus resented but still supported and helped with. Cracks started to form in their friendship as a result.

In 2003, the band released the self-titled ‘Blink-182’, which showed the band maturing. The humor and high school attitudes of the songs were gone, showing a darker and more mature side of the band, infusing experimental instruments into the songs and different sounds. The lead singles ‘Feeling This’, ‘I Miss You’, and ‘Always’ charted the highest the band had to date. Fans were split by the new sound. The eponymous named album sold their best to date, with over 2,000,000 copies sold in the US alone.  Tensions in the band were still rising; between Hoppus’ feelings of betrayal from Boxcar Racer, to Delonge’s desire to have more control in the direction the band’s sound took. The band played their final show in Dublin, Ireland in 2004. Although a US tour in promotion for the single ‘Always’ was planned, rumors of a breakup began to stir. In February of 2005, the band would announce that they were taking an indefinite hiatus. To find out what was to come next after, come back next week for Part 2 of my retrospective on Blink-182 here on Music and Vine Street.