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The Bach and Beatles of Our Time, Blink 182
Who will be the next generation's Led Zeppelin, Beatles or Rolling Stones?
Blink 182, that's who. Music grows older, but teenagers with problems stay the same age.
As they step on stage the response is enormous. There is an army, a mobilization of over 400,000 screaming teenagers crammed into the Villa centre screaming in unison, and if you listen closely you can hear thousands of male voices cracking as if puberty had waited for this moment. If George Bush had this kind of approval rating, there would be no qualm about the War in Iraq right now. There is silence. Tom Delonge, the lead singer and guitarist steps up to the microphone. There is a suddenly dead silence as if this man was about to reveal the entire turth of the universe in one sentence.
"I like to look at men pooping in the other men's mouths."
The crowd goes wild.
Blink 182, consisting of the musical trio Tom Delonge, Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker have come a long way since their So-Cal punk roots. Although the band seems to employ an immature attitude on stage, off stage, they are some of the most brilliant and understated minds of today. While most music today is contrived, Blink 182 makes music that is contrive, yet for a reason. Although the band members are quite modest, (Mark: "I'll be the first to admit I'm not an accomplished bass player.") it doesn't take an audiophile to recognize the genius of their craft. Within their short 10 year career, they have had over 14 chart topping hits. Tom writes it off quickly as a trivial accomplishment saying, "It's not a big deal, I just hope the songs touch them like their fathers do."
Dig a little deeper into the psyche of this brilliant man's words and you understand exactly what he is saying. The construction of the songs themselves are strongly based around parental motifs, with repetitions, simple phrasing and time signatures, almost as if they were lullabies. The chord progressions in most of their singles employ a simple I-V-vi-IV-I progression. This stable cadence wraps around the entire song, hugging the minor sixth as if it were a child wrapped in its father's arms.
The effort put into their lyrics are also incredible. If these songs were poems many would cry Frost but for those who can really read into the lyrics for songs like "Dumpweed", She's a dove, she's a fucking nightmare/unpredictable, it was my mistake to stay here these people would cry out Yeats as all Blink's nonsense teenage insights would suddenly reveal themselves as beautiful poetry hid in the heart of love. Tom Mark and Travis would rather not have anyone know of their vast knowledge of literature, from Beowulf to Huxley's, Brave New World. He would rather keeps his image uncouth; being uncouth sells more records. His latest reads are mainly political ones. He elaborates, "I only read non-fiction books. I have a book that I bought that's the Oxford Guide To The United States Of The America's Government. It's just like a textbook that describes everything there is about government. I have books on the Rockefeller family starting the Chase Manhattan bank. Anything that has to do with wealth and power and how it affects government Mark and I are very, very into. And no one knows this shit until they come and talk to us about it -- people don't expect that. I think that's another reason why people are gonna kind of trip out. Because there are a lot of things that people don't know about Blink and think that Blink 's a certain way."
After a thirty minute discussion it was apparent in their demeanor that they were tired of all the stereotypes involved with their success. They were tired of an industry where bands are churned out as the next best thing 8 times a week. In fact the band has been on hiatus for several months and Tom, Travis and Mark have already started several other persuits, including a clothing line, their side band projects or Travis Barker's extraordinary fusion take on Punk and R&B in his involvment with the Transplants with members from punk band legend, Rancid. While other misunderstood geniuses have broken under the misery when when the world just didn't seem to care or understand, Blink has embraced it as a philosophy of their own. "We're professionals. You might not have noticed that, but we are professionals at what we do. We just professionally suck, and professionally act like a bunch of assholes on stage, that's what we do. We're just as God made us [and we will not change and stay professionals, even though society has not understood the complexities and real motives of our band and probably never will]."
When all is said and done, to compare Blink 182 to the best bands ever would just be insulting. There's no point. We already have a winner.
They just won't admit it.