The pop punk band was trending worldwide this week after they announced they’re getting back together, with Tom Delonge in tow, for a global tour. Their new single Edging is out now and the tour will kick off in March 2023.
Blink-182 aren’t the only remnants of the 2000s returning to cash in on the nation’s need for nostalgia. Green Day is still touring, reality stars from the early noughties have their own podcasts and sitcoms are being rebooted left, right and center.
“I feel like everyone who was the least bit famous during the 2000s is trying to get in on the hot nostalgia market,” Dara Laine Sussman, host of the Les Deux You Remember This? podcast, told Newsweek.
Sussman’s show is a comedic storytelling podcast about Hollywood in the early 2000s. “People will take any opportunity they have right now to be reminded of the things they liked before their frontal lobe grew in,” she said. “I blame the pandemic. And climate change. Also Trump.”
The need for nostalgia is strong, as evidenced by the existence of and the line-up for the 2023 When We Were Young festival which will be headlined by Blink-182 and Green Day. Other bands appearing at the Las Vegas event include 5 Seconds of Summer, Good Charlotte, Sum 41, Simple Plan and The Offspring.
The latest wave of nostalgia was seemingly sparked by Blink-182’s revival and the return of the original line-up.
“Blink-182 is one of the biggest bands in the post-grunge, skate park, California pop-punk era. It was the TRL-ification of rock music where the sound and message of Nirvana et al, were toned done until it was accessible to a wider and younger audience,” Sussman said. “Nirvana ‘pranked’ the network when they played the opening chords of Rape Me at the MTV awards. Blink-182’s version of anarchy would be farting into a microphone or something.”
“The bands and the music was less dark and more fun and you could get away with listening to a few songs in front of your parents,” Sussman continued. “I think Blink 182 is a good representation of this era of commercialized pop-punk because they were aware of what they were participating in.”
According to Sussman, modern-day acts like Machine Gun Kelly, Charly Bliss, The Beths and Beach Bunny have the sound and the sense of humor displayed by the likes of Blink-182.
Reflecting on the romance surrounding the early 2000s, Sussman said the infancy of the internet age seems like a simpler time now.
“It was an interesting time because we hadn’t quite made the leap to being fully immersed in the internet and technology yet, but we were getting a taste for it. You would take your little digital camera out to a bar or a party and take pictures that you could upload to your computer instead of waiting for them to develop… but you still had to wait until you were home, so you could fully enjoy being out with your friends instead of pulling your attention away to post and scroll,” Sussman said.
Sussman’s podcast focuses on specific bands, people and shows from the 2000s. They’ve done deep dives on “The Rise and Rise of Kim Kardashian,” The Hills, The Simple Life With Paris and Nicole, and a two-part special on Ashlee Simpson.
“I do hope all of these bands getting back together will inspire Ashlee Simpson to make a pop-punk comeback. I know the 30-year-old girlies will come out in droves for that concert.”
Blink-182 is back, the Brenaissance brought back Brendan Fraser, and Britney Spears is “free” again, but while there are many returns to celebrate, Sussman shares a phenomenon she wants to see confined to the past.
“Websites for clocks counting down to a girl celebrity’s 18th birthday can stay in the past,” she said.
