blink-182

Pop Punk Legends

Before I was a man, I was a boy. And before I could appreciate boy bands as human beings, I was a fan of the guys in blink-182. The first time I saw them, well, I don't remember it. These guys, after all, aren't The Beatles and Carson Daly didn't command the nation's attention like Ed Sullivan had. But I remember enough: I knew that they were playing around, goofing on the boys singing in airplane hangers. And their songs were catchy. I was in.

I didn't catch the videos for their Dude Ranch songs; MTV wasn't playing them in 1999 or 2000. But eventually I got to check out the video for "Dammit". It's cute, in the way that little boys being dumb is cute. But my favorite moment in the video comes toward the end.

In the final moments before the chorus kicks back in, before the final push for the end of the song, Tom turns to Mark. He whispers, "I love you," then Mark sings, "I guess this is growing up."