If anyone can claim that they’re a Blink 182 fan, then they can honestly say they’re a fan of the song “Dammit” that was made famous from Blink’s album, Dude Ranch, in 1997. Even with four albums following, the band continues to perform this song over and over again at the request of millions of fans worldwide. Personally, I’ve watched live footage of Blink 182 performing “Dammit” numerous times and the crowds go utterly insane.
So what makes this song so darn popular? Another good question to ask is “Why are their so many bands attempting the same style as ‘Dammit’ and failing with Blink 182’s popularity growing every day?”
First of all, always remember that the music industry is a cut-throat business and in many instances, just not fair. Many of the reasons bands like Blink 182 succeed or die has nothing to do with music what-so-ever.
Considering that tons of pop rock bands have emerged and died since the start of Blink 182, what makes “the blink” so much more dynamic than some of these other bands? Here’s a few reasons as to why Blink succeeds with extremely simple and similar songs.
1. When Blink 182 finds a good hook, they repeat it over and over again.
Blink 182 has a good talent for finding catchy hooks from simple and over-used chord progressions, and once they discover that hook, it’s repeated. Let’s take “Dammit” for example. If you notice in the verses, Mark Hoppus sings the same melody for almost every single line! I mean, no one really cares since that’s the hook of the verse and it works so well. The same thing goes for the choruses. When Blink 182 sings “And it’s happened once again. I’ll turn to a friend, one that understands, sees through the master plan…” those phrases are all the same melody with only slight variation.
2. Each phrase is played a comfortable number.
Some pop rock bands have trouble realizing when something is just too darn long. After awhile you’ll begin to realize that some riffs just can’t stand to be played four times without ruining the drive of the song. Oppositely, some riffs finish too fast leaving the listener “hanging” so to speak. In “Dammit” Tom Delonge wrote a very simple lead riff that sets the mood for the rest of the tune. Blink 182’s intro riff happens to be a very comfortable length of time that the listener won’t get bored or feel like they’ve been slighted when the next phrase begins.
3. The subject matter is something that relates to the listening majority.
This is pretty subjective since you could argue about bands that are popular that sing of death or violence or other things that most of us have never been exposed to. However, Blink 182 sings about relationships with people. How often does the average person have a relationship? How about every day? “Dammit” isn’t any different either. It’s poking some fun at a break-up and how awkward it would be to see an “ex” with someone else. Next time you listen to some of the mainstream bands on the radio, pay attention to their subject matter. Most of the time, it’s way too generic to apply to just anybody. And a lot of it is decided by their record label contracts.
4. Each song is a progression.
I’m not talking about the chord progressions of each section in the song. I’m talking about the very subtle additions to the songs that most people don’t even notice. Does anybody realize that on the final chorus of “Dammit,” Blink 182 has a second lead guitar riff? I’m not talking about the guitar rhythm that follows Hoppus’s bass part or Delonge’s signature lead that begins the song, but another higher part altogether. Listen again and you’ll notice it.
Dammit’s hidden guitar riff is only there for the purpose of creating an up-hill progression to the song, because when something is different as the song continues, people want to keep listening. So for every band that thinks your song is done with intro/verse/chorus/intro/verse/chorus/bridge/chorus, you need to think again. Only the best songs add some subtlety to draw the listener in longer and Blink has always been able to take advantage of that.
There’s plenty of other reasons as to why bands don’t make it in the pop rock genre and a lot of it doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the composition of songs! It could just be the fact that many of them weren’t very original, or good, or dedicated. Whatever the reason is, these points could have a very big part in why Blink 182’s fame grew so quickly, and why it may never fade away.
