Blink 182 (pronounced "blink one eighty two") is a punk band from San Diego, California, U.S. formed in 1992 by Mark Hoppus, Tom DeLonge, and Scott Raynor in the northern San Diego suburb of Poway. Travis Barker replaced Raynor on drums in 1998, midway through blink-182's US tour. The group went on "indefinite hiatus" in 2005. In 2006, Mark Hoppus & Travis Barker conducted an interview with MTV and confirmed that the group is officially broken up.

The group was known for their catchy melodies, as well as for satirical, and sometimes profanity-laden, toilet humor. Musically, the band played up-tempo songs with prominent major-chord harmonies, often digitally mixed, to provide a much cleaner sound than typical punk/rock recordings, which generally exhibit distortion and analogue mixes to achieve the opposite effect. However, their last album showed a significant departure from their previous works and helped exhibit their more mature musical prowess while showcasing some advancement in the sophistication of their lyrical themes. The lyrical content of their songs, prior to their last album, was usually humorous and light hearted. blink-182 fans were predominantly teenagers; however, they managed to establish a more mature following with their latest offering.

Although the band is labeled as Blink 182 on albums prior to Raynor's departure, the official rendering of the band's name is blink-182. The numbers 182 were added to the band's name to prevent a trademark conflict with the Irish pop group Blink. However, fans frequently refer to the band informally as 'Blink'.


History:
Early career (1992-1995)
The beginnings of the band can be traced back to the early '90s when DeLonge was reportedly expelled from Poway High School during junior year after being caught drunk at a school basketball game. After he transferred to another school, he met Anne Hoppus, sister of Mark Hoppus, who introduced DeLonge to her brother. The day the two future bandmates met, they were skateboarding with friends in a plaza parking lot and to impress DeLonge, Hoppus climbed a lamp post and jumped from the top, cracking both heels. The two hit it off and eventually came up with the name "Duck Tape" for the name of new band. Duck Tape soon transformed into Blink. In need of a drummer, DeLonge recruited 14-year-old Scott Raynor, whom he had seen playing at a "Battle of the Bands".

In May 1993, Blink released a demo tape entitled Flyswatter, recorded in drummer Scott Raynor's bedroom. It was their first album and a 4-track was used to record the material, resulting in poor sound quality and according to Hoppus, only around fifty copies were produced. Their first real show took place at a bar and since they were underage, they were only allowed to enter when it was time for their set. They bought 50 tickets to sell, but no one came to see them. After only one song Blink was kicked off the stage and out of the bar. Before the end of the year, the band released another demo tape known as Buddha. Around 1,000 copies were produced by Filter Records (owned by Hoppus' boss).

In early 1994, the success of the Buddha demo lead to Blink being signed with Cargo Records. Blink recorded their debut full-length album, Cheshire Cat in just three days. The album contained a number of updated versions of songs that had appeared on the Buddha demo.

Shortly after the release of Cheshire Cat, Blink was threatened with legal action by a techno band in Ireland of the same name. In order to avoid a lengthy lawsuit, Blink appended "-182" to the end of their name. There are several rumours as to why these numbers were ultimately chosen, such as their correspondence to the number of times Al Pacino utters the word "Fuck" in Scarface, the 1985 Timothy Hutton film, Turk 182!, their representation of Hoppus's ideal weight, or that they represent the position in the alphabet of the letters 'R' and 'B,' referring to the northern San Diego suburb of Rancho Bernardo. However, the band members have dismissed such claims and maintain that the numbers were picked at random. However, in one interview, Barker stated that the "182" was the U.S. radio code meaning 'homicide' (apparently confusing "182," the radio code for conspiracy, with "187"). During the pop punk boom of the 1990s, blink-182 was signed by MCA in 1996 which later became Geffen Records


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