The classic Blink-182 songs that were written as a parody of pop-punk
The world of pop-punk may well have looked very different were it not for Blink-182. Although Green Day may have ushered in a new breed of punk rock music on their album Dookie, the sound of songs like ‘Dammit’ and ‘All The Small Things’ brought punk from skateparks and dangerous squalors to shopping malls and grocery store overheads for many decades to come. While Blink-182 was more than happy to ride the wave, that also meant getting an earful from their label.
Coming after their commercial staple Enema of the State, the band were clearly going for something a bit more reflective for their next album, Take Off Your Pants and Jacket. Gross album title aside, the rest of the album is fairly competent and features the band expanding beyond their horizons with serious songs like ‘Stay Together For the Kids’ and a sequel of sorts on ‘Anthem Part Two’.
Once the band decided they had a completed album on their hands, though, their label had other plans, thinking there wasn’t any mainstream single on the album. Instead of returning to the drawing board and starting from scratch, Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge were pissed about having to go back into the studio.
While they may have been tasked with making something pop-friendly, Hoppus talked about wanting to rub the songs in their label’s face, telling the AV Club, “You want a fucking single? I’ll write you the cheesiest, catchiest, throwaway fucking summertime single you’ve ever heard!”. What came out of his frustration was ‘The Rock Show’, which he considered one of the snarkiest songs he had ever written.
DeLonge’s stab at a single was equally sugary, crafting the song ‘First Date’ as his melodic counterpoint. Although both songwriters probably expected to get a few cheap laughs out of both songs, their label loved them, turning them into the first singles from the project before moving into some of the more introspective material on the album.
While the band might not have wanted to be identified with this brand of ultra-sugary power pop anymore, they did play into it, including the video for ‘First Date’ being an amalgamation of a 2000s teen beach movie mixed with a stoner comedy. That’s not to say that every one of the videos was made with enthusiasm, with ‘The Rock Show’ announcing in the first few seconds that it would be the result of the band getting a blank check from their label and doing whatever the hell they wanted.
Even though both songs probably won the band many more fans in the summer of 2002, that wasn’t where they were looking to take their music. On their next eponymous album, the band made some of their most drastic changes yet, embracing the sounds of alternative rock, new wave and post-hardcore to make something far more emotionally potent than songs about making dick jokes.
That kind of ambition was only going to take them so far, though, and the band eventually went on hiatus for almost a decade due to creative differences between DeLonge and the rest of the band. As the group prepare to unveil a new album with DeLonge after another prolonged absence, it’s anyone’s guess as to whether it will be a return to the pop-punk glory or pushing themselves forward yet again.
