If asked, plenty of Bonita Vista High (BVH) parents would remember the days of their youth when they attended concerts and music festivals like Warped Tour, X Fest and Lollapalooza. These wildly popular festivals found their way to popularity in the early 90s because they had the biggest artists of the time performing, and attracted massive crowds. Around the same time, bands like Blink-182 and Green Day found fame and performed at many of these festivals. Many kids think of these bands as their “parent’s music” while others have made it their own. With the release of Blink-182’s new album “ONE MORE TIME…” and the release of Green Day’s new singles “Look Ma, No Brains!” and “The American Dream Is Killing Me,” the question of whether these bands are still relevant 30 years after their prime is prominent.
Blink-182 is symbolic of the 90s era in a plethora of ways. The pop-punk style the band possesses is a trademark of the 90s era of music. Their style of music remains the same to this day, though some small stylistic choices have changed as the band matures, the main genre of music they are a part of has stayed consistent. The clothing style that the band members wear to this day consist of jean shorts, tank tops, beanies, flannels, chunky silver jewelry and vans, all stamps of 90s punk fashion.
With the return of many retro styles in recent years, 90s fashion has risen up again, with clothing companies mimicking that style and old brands being revived. The return of these retro styles brought a plethora of other trademarks of the past with it. Digital cameras, MP3 players, CDs and records have been increasing in popularity once again despite the technological advances that make all of these things redundant. Billboard Top 200, a website that lists the top 200 albums of each week, reflects these same beliefs in their article, Blink-182’s ‘One More Time’: How Did It Top the Billboard 200? Blink-182 returned with their original style at the perfect time, matching up with the surge of popularity pop-punk received in recent years.
In the 90s, Blink-182 was the band that brought pop-punk into the mainstream music scene. With the return of a variety of retro trends, many kids are discovering their love for the music of that era. With these new fans in tow, parents and others who continue to listen to the bands of their youth, Blink-182 has maintained a steady fanbase through the years.
Billboard elaborates on how Blink-182 saw a “Billboard 200 No. 1 album in each of the first three decades of the ’00s: 2002’s Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, 2016’s California, and now this year’s One More Time…”. Each of Blink-182’s albums making the Billboard top 200 despite the changing attitude in regards to pop-punk is impressive in itself. The streams on their new album are even exceeding a lot of their older music from their prime. According to Spotify, Blink-182’s song “ONE MORE TIME” has exceeded 28,000,000 streams after just being released in mid October. Another song from that album “DANCE WITH ME” has surpassed 13,000,000 streams.
With a tour approaching in 2024 and tickets to their San Diego concert hovering around $300, Blink-182’s prevalence in the current mainstream music scene is made evident. Similarly, Green Day is planning an upcoming tour in 2024 with ticket prices hovering around the same mark. Green Day will also be touring in lieu of the release of their upcoming album “Saviors.”
Similar to Blink-182, Green Day is regaining popularity as retro trends come back into style. Green Day is one of the most well known Rock bands of their time and of the present time as well. Unlike Blink-182, Green Day took a tank in popularity in the 2010’s. After the flop of their 2012 box set of albums “Uno… Dos… Tré!” and Billie Joe Armstrong, one of Green Day’s members, having a breakdown on stage, the band had a slump in the popularity of their new music for a few years.
Green Day was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015 by Fall Out Boy, a well known Pop Punk band . That was when they once again began gaining momentum and popularity as a band. Their songs such as “Basket case” and “American Idiot” have over 900,000,000 streams on Spotify, which is more than a lot of current popular artists.
With the re-discoverance of retro themes in recent years, these bands have found a continually rising popularity. Both of these bands have proven themselves to be able to keep up and compete with current artists, both within their genre and outside of it as well.
