I found this article with the Lexington Herald and found it very interesting about “Dad Rock” and Blink-182
Punk’s Blink-182 has beaten the odds many times. But what about the ‘dad rock’ label? BY WALTER TUNIS CONTRIBUTING MUSIC COLUMNIST
“Dad Rock.” In terms both generic and genetic, the tag is defined by unfashionability. If your dad likes such music, how could any of it possibly be considered cool? Though an acknowledgment to a degree of decrepitude, “Dad Rock” is also an affirmation of one generation’s devotion to music that may seem immovably fossilized to those who are, today, truly young. TOP VIDEOS Long ago, I resigned myself that the artists and bands whose music fortified me during the glories and pitfalls of teen-dom couldn’t help but be out-of-step with young audiences today. The thing is, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Paul McCartney and Neil Young — artists that, ironically, still perform today as they settle into, or prepare for, their 80s — have graduated from the ranks of “Dad Rock” to the inevitable next tier. “Grandpa Rock,” perhaps?
It took a June story at merchoid.com to provide a reality check that was far more sobering. After claiming that 41% of individuals surveyed believe “you become out of touch with modern music by the ripe old age of 35,” it outlined that today’s “Dad Rock” is actually made up of acts from the heyday of grunge, bands viewed during the 1990s as edgy alternative hybrids of punk, funk and indie-ingrained rock. Enforcing this somewhat coerced time-warp were poll results within the story listing today’s Top 10 Dad Rock Bands that placed Blink-182, the trio set to headline Rupp Arena for the first time on Aug. 1, at a tie for No. 2 with Van Halen. Nickelback sat at the top. Frankly, I found the latter factoid more disturbing than being out-to-sea at 35, but that’s another story. Blink-182’s Travis Barker, Tom DeLonge and Mark Hoppus will be at Rupp Arena on Aug. 1. Rory Framer
How could this be? Blink-182, the giddy, gritty and gloriously combustible punk-pop troupe that seemed a collective torchbearer of a skateboarding rock continuum relegated to the ranks of the elders? Wasn’t it just yesterday when one of its biggest hits was all over rock radio? Well, no. It’s been 25 years. Deepening the pit of such grim realization is the title of that 1999 single — “What’s My Age Again?” Damn the torpedoes and pass the Geritol.
BLINK-182’S BREAK-UPS AND MAKE-UPS Blink-192 may have been born out of a Southern California skate punk scene in 1992, but it was seven years later, with Travis Barker settling in on drums behind co-founder Mark Hoppus (bass and vocals) and Tom DeLonge (guitar and vocals), that the trio solidified what was to become an international profile. With MTV still serving as a powerful promotional tool for young bands, songs termed “snotty anthems” by Billboard magazine took off from Blink’s third and fourth albums, 1999’s “Enema of the State” and 2001’s “Take Off Your Pants and Jacket.” Fortifying all that was a stage demeanor that fed off of sunny home state pride, age-appropriate abandon and a level of humor that never let anything DeLonge, Hoppus and Barker unleashed become too heady. The band’s make-up was often as volatile as its music. Ravaged by mounting interpersonal and professional incompatibility, Blink split up after completing an extended tour promoting its self-titled fifth album in 2004. It took a dose of real life to help bring Blink back from the brink. A 2008 plane crash placed Barker in intensive care for months with severe burns that necessitated multiple surgeries. The 2009 reunion also followed the loss of Jerry Finn, who had produced the band’s three previous albums, records responsible for Blink’s ascent to stardom. A tour with Weezer and Fall Out Boy followed that year with a self-produced and somewhat darker sixth album, “Neighborhoods,” surfacing in 2011. Another tour honoring the trio’s 10th anniversary seemed to strain relations within the band again, prompting an exit by DeLonge in 2015 that would last for seven years. Alkaline Trio guitarist Matt Skiba served as a replacement. Again, a slice of life intervention proceeded a second reunion by the principal Blink lineup. It followed Hoppus’ 2021 announcement that he was being treated for cancer — specifically, Stage 4 lymphoma. By 2023, he was healthy and back in the band’s ranks with a newly re-recruited DeLonge as Blink kicked off an extensive world tour that will, following the band’s Rupp performance, conclude with a November date in Mexico.
WHERE THE ‘DAD ROCK’ LABEL COMES FROM It was within this last trek — and the somewhat cryptic title affixed to a reunion album, “One More Time…” released in its midst — that a term surfaced that would help nudge the trio’s music closer to the offsetting boundaries of “Dad Rock.” The word was legacy — a tag reflecting influence of one’s past achievements but unavoidably cementing such success in historical terms. If Blink’s music seemed so immediate, how could we now be looking at much of it from a rear-view window perspective? That’s what time will do. Sticking around the rock ‘n’ roll game long enough to see the inspiration of your work rubbing off on now-younger audiences underscores what becomes a legacy act. Of course, that doesn’t alter the kind of reactionary stance that surrounded Blink’s initial ’90s ascent. Back then, as boy bands prospered, the trio rebelled. “Amid the boy bands and teen pop of the era, Blink-182 was a gaggle of pranksters savvy enough to use the visual tricks of the popular kids to their own ends, transposing the heartthrob model onto the outsiders,” wrote Jon Caramanica of The New York Times following the release of “Neighborhoods” in 2011. “Fame doesn’t discriminate based on origin, though. Soon the group was as famous as those it was parodying.” That was 12 years ago, a reflection of a band that broke through to the pop mainstream over a decade before after hammering it out with the skate punk set over the seven preceding years. Time, it does add up. Blink-182 stopped at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, on June 26, 2024, as part of their “One More Time” tour of North America. Stefan Stevenson Special to the Star-Telegram Nothing has faded for Blink, however. “One More Time…” hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts and its current swing of summer shows have included stadium dates at Boston’s Fenway Park and New York’s Citi Field. This bring us back to the merchoid.com story. It’s polling research somehow breaks down the Ultimate Dad Rock Band championed by every state. Blink-182 is listed as the favorite in somewhat nearly Missouri, Illinois and Virginia. Alas, Kentucky is declared a Guns N’ Roses Dad Rock State.
Here is the link for the Dad Rock State Map
