blink-182 is the band that defines pop-punk of the 90s and 2000s. From their days leading the genre in the early 90s all the way to the current resurgence of pop-punk, in many ways engineered and led by Travis Barker. It began when Tom DeLonge and Mark Hoppus formed the band “Duck Tape” while attending High School north of San Diego. In 1992 they renamed to “Blink” with Scott Raynor on drums, Tom DeLonge on guitar and co-lead vocals with Mark Hoppus singing the other half of the lead vocals and playing bass. They began from very humble beginnings, playing their first show at a motorcycle club with just one guy at the bar who promptly told them to “please turn it down” after they played their first song. The band was then known as just “Blink” until they discovered an Irish band already of the same name and decided to change to “blink-182” to avoid legal disputes. The band continued to play as much as they could, honing in on their distinct sound which would later become recognizable all around the world. They teamed up with a local record store owner to self-release their first album Buddha in 1994. This album was raw and unrefined but still captured their iconic fast-paced melodic punk rock featuring raunchy word play and themes sung by Tom’s signature nasal vocals. By 1995, the band signed with Cargo Records and released their debut studio album, Cheshire Cat. This album began to establish blink-182 as the ones to fuse catchy pop hooks with hardcore skate punk rock. Two years later the band would release their second album Dude Ranch, featuring their breakthrough hit single “Dammit”. This coming of age ex-girlfriend themed track with its compelling guitar riff brought them onto the late night talk show stages and was their first taste of “making it big”. Their hit music videos for “Dammit” and “Josie” went into heavy rotation on MTV and helped send Dude Ranch to gold by 1998. About the takeoff of “Dammit” DeLonge said, “We were freaking, we couldn’t believe what was happening to us.” Amidst the success, the band had to make a big decision, replacing Scott Raynor in the band with Travis Barker; due to Scott’s heavy drinking habit becoming unmanageable. This would mark the beginning of a new era for blink-182, as many fans agree Travis’s high intensity and dynamic drumming elevated the band’s rhythm and sound. While the band tasted success with “Dammit” they would really explode into the mainstream with their next and biggest album Enema of the State in 1999. Their first album with Barker, the album featured smash hit tracks “What’s My Age Again?”, “All The Small Things” and “Adam’s Song”. Accompanying blink-182’s most popular music has always been iconic music videos, the track “What’s My Age Again” perfectly exemplifies this with the classic video of them running naked causing chaos through the city and running by the sexy nurse of the album cover. The 5x platinum in the USA album is also an international success with about 15,000,000 copies sold worldwide since release. The band would release the live album The Mark, Tom and Travis Show (The Enema Strikes Back!) in support of the release a year later. In 2001 they launched their next album Take Off Your Pants And Jacket, another lewd pun to add to blink’s long list of such titles. This would be the first pop-punk album to debut at no. 1 on Billboard. Regardless of its commercial and popular success, the band found themselves dealing with creative differences in the making of this release, with Mark loving everything about Enema of the State and wanting to create music like that again, while Tom wanted to pursue a dirtier guitar-driven post-hardcore sound and Travis just wanted to go insane on the drums as always. These differences would lead to Tom starting the group “Box Car Racer” delving deeper into hardcore, asking Travis to play drums, for his unique talent and so he wouldn’t have to pay a studio drummer. This made Mark feel left out and caused deeply personal tension between Mark and Tom which changed the history of Blink. It led to the distinct creative differences in their next self-titled album in 2003 and ultimately led to the band’s indefinite hiatus in 2005. Tom quickly announced his new band “Angels & Airwaves” while Mark and Travis started the group “+44”. Barker always stayed very busy on his own playing on tracks, making music videos, and starring in his own MTV reality show “Meet The Barkers”. Reality struck in 2008 when Travis survived a Learjet plane crash which killed 4 others on board. The aftermath of this crash would end up bringing blink-182 back together as a band. They took their time writing songs and released the album Neighborhoods in 2011. The old tensions between Tom, Mark and Travis resurfaced in new ways and Tom decided to leave the band again in 2014. Regardless, blink-182 did not stop performing as a band and replaced Tom with Matt Skiba from Alkaline Trio. They’ve released two albums with this lineup, California in 2016 and NINE in 2019. Their new music satisfies what their fans know and love about classic blink while also incorporating modern elements that combine to create a nostalgic yet refreshing sound. However, some fans found it hard to accept the music as blink-182 without Tom. Busy as always, Travis has also positioned himself as a leader for the new generation of emo pop-punk stars such as MGK, jxdn, YUNGBLUD, MOD SUN, WILLOW, iann dior, and many more who he has featured with on tracks; including his newest single “Eyes Wide Shut” with ILLENIUM and Avril Lavigne. The power trio Tom, Mark and Travis is currently back together doing an extensive world tour. They released their first song together since Tom’s seven-year hiatus, the single “Edging” ahead of their upcoming album set to release in 2023. Tom has called this new album the “best we’ve ever made” leaving fans eager for the approaching release. Blink-182 is a band that defined a generation of music in the 90s and early 2000s and now 2023 is a very exciting time for their fans as they’re back together world touring and about to release a new album!