The band never received particularly glowing reviews, with many reviewers dismissing them as a joke act based on the humorous slant of its music videos. British publication NME was particularly critical of the trio, begging them to "fuck right off," and comparing them to "that sanitised, castrated, shrink-wrapped 'new wave' crap that the major US record companies pumped out circa 1981 in their belated attempt to jump on the 'punk' bandwagon." Nevertheless, subsequent reviews of the band's discography have been more positive. Andy Greenwald of Blender wrote, "the quick transformation from nudists to near geniuses is down-right astonishing." James Montgomery of MTV called Blink-182 one of the "most influential bands of the past 20 years," writing, "despite their maturation, Blink never took themselves particularly seriously, which was another reason they were so accessible."
Blink-182 was formed in Poway, California, a suburb outside of San Diego, in August 1992. Guitarist Tom DeLonge was expelled from Poway High for attending a basketball game drunk and was forced to attend another local school for one semester. At Rancho Bernardo High School, DeLonge performed at a Battle of the Bands competition, where he was introduced to Drummer Scott Raynor. He also befriended Kerry Key, who too was interested in punk music. Key's girlfriend, Anne Hoppus, introduced her brother, Bassist Mark Hoppus—who had recently moved from Ridgecrest to work at a record store and attend college—to DeLonge on August 1, 1992. The two clicked instantly and played for hours in DeLonge's garage, exchanging lyrics and co-writing songs—one of which became "Carousel". Hoppus, in trying to impress Delonge, managed to fall from a lamppost in front of DeLonge's garage and crack his ankles, an injury that put him in crutches for three weeks.
The heart of the local independent music scene was Cargo Records, which offered to sign the band on a "trial basis," with help from O, Guitarist for local punk band Fluf, and Brahm Goodis, friend of the band whose father was President of the label. Hoppus was the only member to sign the contract, as DeLonge was at work at the time and Raynor was still a minor. The band recorded its debut album in three days at Westbeach Recorders in Los Angeles, fueled by both new songs and re-recordings of songs from previous demos. Although Cheshire Cat, released in February 1995, made very little impact commercially, it is cited by fans and Musicians as an iconic release. "M+M's", the band's first single, garnered local radio airplay from 91X and Cargo offered the band a small budget to film a music video for it. Meanwhile, the record also drew the attention of Irish band Blink. Unwilling to engage in a legal battle, the band agreed to change its name. Cargo gave the band a week, but the trio put off the decision for more than two afterward. Eventually, Cargo called Blink-182, demanding that the band "change the name or [we'll] change it for you," after which the band decided on a random number, 182.
By March 1996, the trio began to accumulate a genuine buzz among major labels, resulting in a bidding war between Interscope, MCA and Epitaph. MCA promised the group complete artistic freedom and eventually signed the band, but Raynor held a great affinity for Epitaph and began to feel half-invested in the band when it passed over the label. The group, who were wary of purists attempting to define "punk" and discouraged by Cargo's lack of distribution and faith in the group, had no qualms about signing to a major label but were fiercely criticized in the punk community. After nonstop touring, the trio began recording their follow-up, Dude Ranch, over the period of a month in late 1996. The record hit stores the following summer and the band headed out on the 1997 Warped Tour. "Dammit", the album's lead single, received heavy airplay on modern rock stations. Dude Ranch shipped gold by 1998, but an exhaustive touring schedule brought tensions among the trio. Raynor had been drinking heavily to offset personal issues, and he was fired by DeLonge and Hoppus in mid-1998 despite agreeing to attend rehab and quit drinking. Travis Barker, Drummer for tour-mate The Aquabats, filled in for Raynor, learning the 20-song setlist in 45 minutes before the first show. By July, he joined the band full-time and the band entered the studio with Producer Jerry Finn later that year to begin work on its third album.
Common lyrical themes include love, family, friends, and relationships. In greater detail, this includes "adolescent aimlessness, broken hearts and general confusion over the care and feeding of girls." Lyrics in singles such as "What's My Age Again?" reflect age and maturity, while more serious compositions such as "Stay Together for the Kids" touch on the subject of divorce. DeLonge said in a 1999 interview that the goal is to remain sincere and relatable, noting that the band takes its lyrics very seriously. Despite this, the band gained a reputation for occasional lyrical toilet humor (Take Off Your Pants and Jacket). As the band members grew older, lyrical themes began to reflect the realities of adulthood, including relationship woes, daily pressures and unexpected hardships, most prominently explored on Blink-182 (2003). On Neighborhoods, darker lyricism continues: themes concerning depression, addiction, loss and death were inspired by Barker's plane crash and the death of Producer Jerry Finn. Blink-182's influences include Fugazi, the Cure, Depeche Mode, New Order, U2, the Ramones, All, Stiff Little Fingers, Dinosaur Jr., NOFX, Bad Religion, Descendents, Refused, the Beatles, and Screeching Weasel. DeLonge said that in his early days as a musician, what influenced him was "strictly the Descendents", saying "I was trying to emulate that band. Really punchy guitars, fast, simple and formulaic nursery rhyme love songs."
After multi-platinum success, arena tours, and cameo appearances (American Pie), the band recorded Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (2001), which debuted at number one in the United States, Canada, and Germany. Hit singles "The Rock Show","Stay Together for the Kids" and "First Date" continued the band's mainstream success worldwide, with MTV cementing its image as video stars. Finn returned to produce the record and was a key Architect of the "polished" pop punk sound, and he served as an invaluable member of the band: part adviser, part impartial observer, he helped smooth out tensions and hone their sound. Recording sessions were sometimes contentious, as DeLonge strove for heavier and dirtier guitar-driven rock. With time off from touring, he felt an "itch to do something where he didn't feel locked in to what Blink was," and channeled his chronic back pain and resulting frustration into Box Car Racer (2002), a post-hardcore disc that further explores his Fugazi and Refused inspiration. Refraining from paying for a studio Drummer, he invited Barker to record drums on the project and Hoppus felt betrayed. The event caused great division within the trio for some time and was an unresolved tension at the forefront of the band's later hiatus. Barker also explored hip-hop influences and teamed up with Rancid's Tim Armstrong to form the rap rock band Transplants.
Blink-182 is mainly considered pop punk. The band also has been described as skate punk and punk rock. The New York Times writes that the band "[took] punk's already playful core and [gave] it a shiny, accessible Polish." The band is also considered alternative rock. Blink-182's early albums such as Cheshire Cat and Dude Ranch are considered skate punk and punk rock. Blink-182 continued playing skate punk on the band's album Enema of the State. Blink-182 emerged from a "nurturing, often slapstick" Southern California punk scene, playing with groups like Guttermouth, NOFX and The Vandals, but the band's sound was criticized when it achieved mainstream popularity by several punk acts who wished to not be associated with the band's music. The band's sound evolved with its 2003 untitled effort, which incorporated post-hardcore influences into deeper, darker pop territory. Neighborhoods, released in 2011, combines arena rock, hip hop and indie rock inspiration. The Sydney Morning Herald characterised the band's sound as a "mildly tough approach to pop melodies with a decided adolescent spin".
In the interim, Hoppus and Barker continued playing music together in +44. The group first began to lay down electronic demos in Barker's basement and Hoppus' dining room shortly after the breakup. +44's debut, When Your Heart Stops Beating, was released the following year but stalled commercially and received mixed reviews. Barker starred in the MTV reality series Meet the Barkers with his then-wife, former Miss USA Shanna Moakler. The couple's later split, reconciliation and subsequent breakup made them tabloid favorites. Meanwhile, DeLonge disappeared from public eye, making no appearances, granting no interviews and remaining silent until September 2005, when he announced his new project, Angels & Airwaves, promising "the greatest rock and roll revolution for this generation." He later revealed he was addicted to painkillers at the time, recalling "I was losing my mind, I was on thousands of painkillers, and I almost killed myself," and did not realize that his promise of revolution sounded highly ambitious. The group released two albums in 2006 and 2007: We Don't Need to Whisper and I-Empire. During the hiatus, Hoppus shifted his attention to producing albums (most notably Commit This to Memory by former tour-mate Motion City Soundtrack) and hosting his podcast, HiMyNameisMark, while Barker launched a shoe line and worked on three other musical projects—the Transplants, +44, and TRV$DJAM, a collaboration with friend Adam Goldstein (DJ AM).
The band members did not speak from their breakup until 2008. That August, Jerry Finn suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and was taken off life support. On September 19, Barker and Goldstein were involved in a plane crash that killed four people, leaving the two the only survivors. Barker sustained second and third degree burns and developed posttraumatic stress disorder, and the accident resulted in sixteen surgeries and 4-8 hour blood transfusions. Hoppus was alerted about Barker's accident by a phone call in the middle of the night and jumped on the next FLIGHT to the burn center. DeLonge found out via the TV news at an airport while waiting to board a flight; within minutes, he was crying in his seat. "I thought he was going to die," says DeLonge, who quickly reached out to his former bandmate, mailing him a letter and photograph. "Instantly after the plane crash, I was like, 'Hey, I want to play music with him again.'" The trio eventually met up in the hospital, laying the grounds for what was going to be the band's reunion. Eventually, an arrangement was made for the trio to meet up at Hoppus and Barker's Los Angeles studio in October 2008. The three opened up, discussing the events of the hiatus and their break-up, and DeLonge was the first to approach the subject of reuniting. Hoppus remembered: "I remember [Tom] said, 'So, what do you guys think? Where are your heads at?' And I said, 'I think we should continue with what we've been doing for the past 17 years. I think we should get back on the road and back in the studio and do what we love doing.'"
"When it comes to having inestimable influence, Blink-182 might well be contemporary punk's version of the Beatles", wrote Scott Heisel in a 2009 Alternative Press cover story on the band. The same magazine later ranked Blink the fourth of the "30 Most Influential Bands of the Past 30 Years," just behind Radiohead, Fugazi, and Nirvana. The new generation of pop punk and alternative rock fans found the Blink sound "hugely influential," with Montgomery writing, "... without them, there'd be no Fall Out Boy, no Paramore, or no Fueled by Ramen Records." In 2011, The New York Times asserted that "no punk band of the 1990s has been more influential than Blink-182," stating that even as the band receded after its 2005 split, "its sound and style could be heard in the muscular pop punk of Fall Out Boy or in the current wave of high-gloss Warped Tour punk bands, like All Time Low and The Maine." Maria Sherman of The Village Voice took that sentiment a step further, writing "It's pretty simple: Blink-182 is the most important band of the '90s, dick jokes and all. Apart from the sound, Blink's ideology has been popularized […] their presence is everywhere." According to Kelefa Sanneh of The New Yorker, the group "emerged as a touchstone, spawning more imitators than any American rock band since Nirvana." Bands such as Panic! at the Disco and All Time Low originated covering Blink-182 songs. "Anyone in our genre would be lying if they said they weren't influenced by Blink-182," said Joel Madden of Good Charlotte. Bands such as You Me at Six and 5 Seconds of Summer have also named the band as influences.
"Despite growing evidence of remaining friction between the members," the band continued to tour in the early 2010s. They headlined the 10th Annual Honda Civic Tour in North America from in 2011, and toured Europe in 2012. The band left Interscope Records that October, and subsequently released Dogs Eating Dogs, an EP, in December 2012. The trio toured Australia in 2013; Brooks Wackerman replaced Barker on drums as Barker was unwilling to fly after his plane crash. These dates were followed with a small North American tour, and a series of shows celebrating the tenth anniversary of the band's self-titled album that November. The band played a European tour in August 2014, culminating in them headlining the Reading and Leeds Festivals; it was the band's fourth appearance at the festival and second headlining slot.
Blink-182 is considered a key group in the development of pop punk; the band's combination of pop music melodies with fast-paced punk rock featured a more radio-friendly accessibility than prior bands. The trio has sold over thirteen million albums in the United States, and over 50 million albums worldwide. In 2011, The New York Times asserted, "no punk band of the 1990s has been more influential than Blink-182," and even as the band receded after its 2005 split, "its sound and style could be heard in the muscular pop punk of Fall Out Boy or in the current wave of high-gloss Warped Tour punk bands, like All Time Low and The Maine."
The reunion of the band has been characterized as dysfunctional by both Barker and DeLonge. Hoppus commented on this era of the band in a later interview: "Everything was always very contentious. There was always just a strange vibe. [...] I knew there was something wrong." In his memoir, Can I Say, Barker claims DeLonge's behavior on tour was "introverted" until "money started coming in," after which "he'd get excited about Blink." He states DeLonge abruptly quit sometime in mid-2014, and rejoined the following day. The group planned to begin writing their seventh album in January 2015, which had continually seen delays. "I'd do interviews and I just felt awful for fans because they were promised albums for years and we couldn't do it," Barker later said. A record deal was finalized and sessions were booked before DeLonge's manager informed the band he intended to spend more time on "non-musical activities" and indefinitely depart the group. In his own statement, DeLonge remarked that he "Never planned on quitting, just find it hard as hell to commit." After these events, Barker summarized the band's reunion: "Why Blink even got back together in the first place is questionable."
Hoppus and Barker decided to continue on without DeLonge, and enlisted Al Kaline Trio vocalist/guitarist Matt Skiba to "fill in" for three shows in March 2015. Hoppus and Skiba had been wanting to work together musically for several years, so he was the first and only person considered for the role. After legal battles with DeLonge were worked out, Skiba joined Blink-182 as an official member and began preparations for new music. The resulting album, California, was produced by John Feldmann. He was the group's first new Producer since longtime collaborator Jerry Finn. California was recorded between January and March 2016. The band, as well as Feldmann, would regularly spend "18 hours" in the studio a day, aiming to start and complete multiple songs in that timeframe. "We all wanted to write the best record that we could [...] It does feel like a new beginning. It feels like when we used to tour and sleep in the van because that's all we wanted to do is play rock music," said Hoppus.
Upon its July 2016 release, California became the band's second number-one album on the Billboard 200, and first in 15 years; it also reached the top for the first time in the United Kingdom. Its lead single, "Bored to Death", became the group's first number one single in 12 years. The band supported the album with a large headlining tour across North America between July and October 2016, and a European leg in June and July 2017. A deluxe edition of California—essentially a double album including songs left off the original album—was issued in 2017. California earned the band their first nomination for Best Rock Album at the Grammy Awards. Critical reviews of the album, however, were mixed; many considered Feldmann's input and the throwback nature of the songs as formulaic.
Recently, the band has taken time off and are preparing to record their eighth studio album. "Somehow, Blink has had this resurgence like we never expected," Hoppus told Kerrang! in July 2017. "I count myself lucky to have been [playing in the band] as long as I have."
The band signed a 16-date residency deal with the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. The shows, known as "Kings of the Weekend," will take place on select weekends beginning May 26, 2018. The last show is on November 17, 2018.
The band was on stage nearly every weekend, even at Elks Lodges and YMCA centers. The band soon became part of a circuit that also included the likes of Ten Foot Pole and Unwritten Law, and the band found its way onto the bill as the opening band for local acts at Soma, a local all-ages venue located on Market Street which the band longed to headline. Big-name acts such as NOFX and Green Day played on the main floor, while smaller acts were relegated to the basement, an area referred to as "the Dungeon". The original location closed its doors and relocated before the band would be promoted to the main stage (which required a 100+ crowd to attend). "Soma was like home away from home. All the punk kids who didn’t give a fuck about football games and proms or whatever came to hang out at Soma," claimed Hoppus. The band's first big show on the main floor took place on a Thursday, where the band opened for Face to Face. Hoppus' manager at the record store, Patrick Secor, fronted him the money to properly record another demo at local studio Doubletime. The result was Buddha (1994), which the members of the band viewed as the band's first legitimate release. By this time, the group had branched out to venues such as the Soul Kitchen in El Cajon, but Raynor's family relocated to Reno, Nevada, and he was briefly replaced by musician Mike Krull. The band saved money and began flying Raynor out to shows, but eventually Raynor moved in with Hoppus for a summer in which the band would record its first album and music video and gain even more exposure.
