Blink-182

Blink-182 formed in August 1992 in Poway, a San Diego suburb, when Tom DeLonge and Mark Hoppus recruited drummer Scott Raynor and started grinding out local shows and demos under a name that would eventually settle as the defiantly lowercase blink-182. Their second album, Dude Ranch (June 1997), went gold by 1998 and earned heavy modern-rock airplay for "Dammit"—the first real signal that something was shifting.

The turning point came mid-1998 when Scott Raynor was dismissed from the band. Replacing him was Travis Barker, drumming at the time for The Aquabats, who famously learned a 20-song setlist in 45 minutes and never looked back. With Barker's technical precision and kinetic stage presence, the band's sound crystallized. Enema of the State (1999) became their watershed: it sold over 15 million copies worldwide, spawned three radio and MTV staples—"What's My Age Again?", "All the Small Things", and "Adam's Song"—and defined the sound of late-1990s rock radio. Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (2001) became the first punk rock album to reach No. 1 in the US — a ceiling no one thought punk could breach.

By the early 2000s, blink-182 had transcended "punk band" and become a lifestyle. They embodied the pop-punk boom that dominated TRL from 1999 to 2004, and a whole wave of bands — Fall Out Boy among them — rose in the lane they had cleared. The untitled album (November 2003)—their departure into moodier, more experimental terrain—showed a band growing restless. In February 2005, the band announced an indefinite hiatus, with DeLonge torn between creative freedom within the group and the toll touring was taking on his family life. The hiatus felt like a gut-punch at the time, as if the 2000s had ended early. Their legacy was never in doubt: they'd given millions of teenagers permission to laugh at themselves while playing guitar that actually mattered.