Take Off Your Pants and Dookie: Green Day vs Blink 182
The other day a friend of mine posed a music question on Facebook that I don't think he got the answer he was expecting.
"Settle a bet. Who's likier to be considered more iconic in pop punk, Blink 182 or Green Day?'"
The response was overwhelmingly Green Day, and I think here is why: While Dude Ranch is what pushed Blink 182 into the limelight, I think it was Enema of the State that redefined the classic sound we think of pop punk today; a post Buzzcocks era.However, Green Day's Dookie is the catalyst that reintroduced the world to pop punk. So, I voted Green Day. Had Billie Joe, Mike, & Tre Cool never stepped into the collective Longview as Basket Cases, would anyone even care about Tom, Mark, & Travis' Age Again? Not to say "If no Green Day, then no Blink", (because I hate that argument) but had the nimrods behind Nimrod not gone onto a major label years prior, the mainstream collective would've never heard of Blink182. They'd still be around, but I think they would've had much less of an influence on music. Less fame, less inspiring, essentially.Both bands are from California, and started around the same time, and play the same genre of music, yes; but, their sounds are completely different. Green Day's lyrics and music echo the working class. While Blink lyrics read like fart jokes from rich kids who play lacrosse. Which brought up an interesting contrast:
And yes Ben, I did just quote that sentence on the internet, in a blog post on the internet, let's try not to have too much inception here.I think Green Day's albums have aged better because you can clearly hear the age range influence of each album. For example, Kerplunk clearly sounds like a high school album. It's immature and a lot of the songs sound like adolescence.While Dookie was clearly written about someone's first year out of high school on their own. Questioning who and what you are. Most of us would relate freshman year of college to that, while Billie Joe Armstrong was definitely talking more about living on his own, or more specifically in a
Insomniac = early 20's. Still some immaturity, but less.Nimrod = post college/graduate years. The album sounds more aware of who he is, but still confused about the rest of the world.And so on up to their latest, Revolution Radio. Which sounds like someone in the mid-40's wondering why we're still battling the same issues of race and violence from 20yrs ago, but on just slightly different platforms.Blink's albums all had a very similar juvenile tone that would occasionally jump harshly into some seriously depressing and dark songs; like "Adam's Song", "Stay Together For The Kids", and "Not Now". Even their latest record, California, having a slightly different sound because of the DeLonge/Skiba switch, still has the occasional infantile sense of humor that
No matter which side of the debate you're on, I think, we can all agree the most punk rock thing either of these bands EVER did was when Green Day not only recorded "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)", but released it as a single.https://youtu.be/CnQ8N1KacJcObviously, it's not punk rock in it's sound, but its attitude. This song was the biggest "FUCK YOU!" to everyone that ever doubted Green Day's roots. A giant middle finger in the air to everyone at Gilman St. who called them sellouts for getting radio play. Because Punk Rock picked up the ideology of Rock & Roll, which was always "Do your own thing! Don't do what you're told!" Which, to me, means do what it is you want to do, no matter what anyone else tells you to do; even if that includes doing the popular thing (like getting signed to a major label and getting singles on the radio). If you're doing something in earnest, even if it's popular, than THAT'S fucking punk; and Green Day has always been that to me, with just a poppier sound.Tell me what you think in the comments below. And, as always
(There's no way you didn't just sing that in your head)