Dan Detloff
Eng. 091 Healy
12/7/09
Blink 182 the Self-Titled Album
In 1992, three teens from Poway, California, set out to start a band that would later become a house hold name. Mark Hoppus, lead singer and bass, Tom Delonge, lead singer and guitar, and Scott Raynor, drums/percussion, started the punk-rock band Blink 182, but later Scott Raynor Was fired from the band and replaced by the world famous Travis Barker. Blinks 182 was a tidal wave to the genre of Punk-Rock music. Once Barker was asked to permanently join the band, the group went on to make some of the greatest Punk-Rock albums ever made, the best was their final self-titled album, because of the albums cover, the stats the album built up and the songs and lyrics.
One of the reasons the self titled albums is the best is because of the albums cover. Blink 182’s self titled album has an interesting cover. Barker (drummer) had owned his own clothing brand so he took it upon himself to find a permanent logo for the band in order to use it for his clothing brand. He drew up the album cover which is a smiley face with X’s for eyes and five arrows off to the side. It really has no meaning except for Barker felt the band needed a permanent logo.
This album had great stats for the band, topping the charts. On November 18, 2003, Blink 182 released their longest studio album at about 50 minutes of songs; it included 14 tracks. The main two songs with the most radio play were “Feeling This”, which showed some similarities to the other songs, and “I Miss You”, which showed you a whole new side of the band, a more mature side. This would be the bands last album before the band broke up in 2005. The album sold over 313,000 copies in its first week on the shelves, putting it third on the music charts in the United States. It is a certified platinum album, and since its debut it has sold more than two million copies in the United States alone.
This was considered Blink’s best album out for a few reasons. Obviously people would like the album because of its music. This album like every other band and album has a few singles, but usually the rest of the album would be songs that listeners don’t like all that well. On the contrary, the self-titled album’s alternate songs on the album are great too and could have just as well been singles. Also, the band matured a lot; in past albums the band would slip in gross “Toilet Humor” hidden tracks, usually about various sexual acts whether it is with a grandpa or a dog. This album, however, didn’t show any of these old characteristics. The songs seem to come off almost sincere as heartfelt, thought out songs from serious musicians rather than a band of a bunch of immature twenty-year-olds. Although the band’s past albums had great songs, this album came off so much better because the band’s general attitude had improved and they had become full on musicians now understanding meaningful lyrics.
Blink 182 is a great band. Their ability to put out great albums with great album covers, great lyrics and songs, and selling hundreds of thousands of these albums, made it easy to attract a huge fan base. Although the band was struck with problems causing them to break up, they are now back together, hopefully on to make great new songs and great new albums.