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What was the turning point for Blink's change in image?


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The easy answer is kicking out Tom and hiring Skiba and Feldman. But I think there may have been red flags along the way that demonstrated that either: their hearts weren't in it anymore; that they had become a parody of themselves; or that they just wanted to stay relevant and make money.

Outside of the numerous issues with Tom, this always stood out to me as something that the band NEVER would have done in their heyday:

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While I realize that Blink probably didn't have control over this, as it was based on the director of the music video, it still is reflective of where the band was trending at the time. When you look at all of their past music videos, they are either joke/parody videos or very serious and artistic. Up All Night is trying to be serious but comes off as cringey and edgy and appeals to 13 year old girls that just had their first period and want to rebel against their parents. When you compare it to their last music video, Always (not counting Not Now as it was a compilation), it's night and day in terms of artistic integrity. 

 

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20 minutes ago, Speedo said:

Untitled killed it, started taking themselves too seriously with making that record. 

Hate to admit it because that album is great but yep, it ruined them, AND the fanbase IMO.  Pretentious former pop-punk band taking years in a house to write an album....

Like it or not, this is the main reason I love Cali. 

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When they realized they weren't kids anymore.

I think they, as a collective, had some kind of personal/artistic crisis. So Untitled happened, but I don't see it as the 'problem'. That was the solution... like their way to canalize al that amount of feelings, frustration and lose of innocence, I guess. So the artistic thing was more or less solved.

The troubles started a year after that, when personal problems got worse, and got deeper with the reunion, when, maybe, they realized that the diferences between them were not as easy to handle as a hard moment as Travis' accident may suggest.

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50 minutes ago, JarJarBlinks said:

Hate to admit it because that album is great but yep, it ruined them, AND the fanbase IMO.  Pretentious former pop-punk band taking years in a house to write an album....

Like it or not, this is the main reason I love Cali. 

I can't buy the idea that their artistic and creative peak ruined them haha. That era starting with the Cheetah videos and following the recording process and obsessing over the album when it came out 100% solidified my love for them and more or less inspired me to be a musician, which changed my life. If Untitled never came along I wouldn't have become (and remained) such a giant fan all this time. Without that type of album their career looks a lot different too, and a lot less meaningful in my opinion.

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53 minutes ago, Champ182 said:

I can't buy the idea that their artistic and creative peak ruined them haha. That era starting with the Cheetah videos and following the recording process and obsessing over the album when it came out 100% solidified my love for them and more or less inspired me to be a musician, which changed my life. If Untitled never came along I wouldn't have become (and remained) such a giant fan all this time. Without that type of album their career looks a lot different too, and a lot less meaningful in my opinion.

weren't there Cheetah vids during TOYPAJ?

 

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I dunno. Always is a silly video. Its a brilliant one, but it's silly. Prior to that with the exception of "I Miss You" and "Adam's Song" I guess, all their music videos were either joke and parody videos or videos with teenagers rebelling against their parents or the system in some way. In 2011 music videos didn't mean as much as they did in 2003. I feel like "Up All Night" is just the concept as "Feeling This" or "Stay Together for the Kids", just not as well done. The same thing with "Bored to Death" and "After Midnight". If we look at the band only based on their music videos, they haven't changed much, except maybe getting lazier.

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This is pretty hard to define IMO because I don't think all of these are necessarily 100% true even to this day...

1. Their hearts weren't in it anymore

This is obviously true for Tom currently, but for Mark/Trav, you could argue that Blink is everything to them... so much so that they wanted to continue it regardless of Tom. You can even argue that it means so much to them, that they went out of their way to hire a producer to ensure the quality is what people want and expect from Blink-182. To this day I genuinely think Mark wants to write and record the best music he can. 

2. That they had become a parody of themselves

I don't think they've ever set out to become this. They have just gotten older, and their decision to have some extra hands in the studio process is often unfairly associated with being "washed up", "no confidence", "worse", etc. It's pretty much impossible to compare and live up to their "prime" (EOTS->Untitled). You could say WDNTW/+44 are both parodies of Blink, and have an argument.

3. That they just wanted to stay relevant and make money.

I don't think wanting to be popular and successful is necessarily a bad thing. Going with #1 above, Blink clearly means a lot to Mark, perhaps to the point of it being a flaw and meaning too much. They both have enough money, and of course they would hope and prefer their new album be popular and commercially successful. 

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Untitled was kind of like the love letter to blink.  They knew deep down they were done, aka hearts not fully in it anymore, because of the whole Boxcar thing...Mark was permanently damaged and hurt by it, confidence & friendship shattered, Tom was done with blink's sound but still had to go out with a bang since blink was a big part of his life and where bit all started (and in retrospect ended).  

They wrote some of their best work probably instinctively knowing this.  Kind of like when you're breaking up with an ex (Tom) and realize you're done but you're going to miss it a bit and have that last amazing sex on the way out. 

+44 was obviously Mark's heartbreak and anger from the aftermath of blink.

Neighborhoods was just forced on all accounts. Felt like it, sounds like it (still 1,000 better than Cali), DED same thing. Just bored older guys doing some music without much inspiration.

Cali is obviously not even worth diving into, it's not blink in any way shape or form other than Mark and Travis exist in it.

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