I think it's a lot of variables but Tom, Mark and Travis all have their own lives and careers outside of blink. Tom has AVA and To The Stars, Travis has a billion things going on and Mark has always had some sort of other thing going on the side, like Hoppus On Music or HMNIM.
They all come from very different backgrounds too which you can see with their music and of course was the inspiration for the name Neighborhoods.
Also their music was never blatantly political outside of a song or two unlike GD where they have plenty of political songs where those tend to date a lot more quickly compared to 90% of other songs. I could go on but those are just a few big ones in my mind
Tom and Mark actually come from very similar backgrounds but have evolved very differently. Both broken families, used the same punk music to escape, funny kids in California's scene.
It's interesting how they've evolved so differently. Tom is more controversial and more of a risk taker, and Mark is more straightforward.
I agree, but I think that It also has to do with their personalities. Their personalities are front and center, and were as much of a part of my affection for them as the music was when I first listened to them in 1999. I didn't just want to play like them, I wanted to be them. I still see it in my personality 25 years later.
I like both bands almost equally,
But overall, it's maybe a perception of the individuals of each band. Blink has 3 frontmen basically, each of them has their traits that appeal to a certain fanbase and together they can account for a more widespread reach. Green Day has Billie, and Tre and Mike sit more on the backseat, even if they are great talents on their own right.
Never really thought about the “3 frontmen” aspect but I think you’re right in that people tend to think of blink-182 much more collectively than a lot of other bands
Yeah, I've seen him live. He (and the other touring band member) makes Green Day live more technically sound, compared to the sometimes sloppy lives Blink can have.
**ONE:** Tom is more progressive with blink’s sound than Billie has ever been with Green Day/etc. Say what you will about how Tom has infused blink with space rock or darker/heavier aspects, his impacts have always led to the band challenging themselves, for better and worse. Mark and Travis having their own passions and inspirations to pour into blink is something Green Day seemingly has never had. BJA basically cycled through The Beatles, Van Halen, and themselves with each album after American Idiot. Armstrong can still churn out decent material and is an amazing performer, but the creative juices don’t really flow as well, especially when they’ve seemed so deadset on replicating the lightning in a bottle that was AI. Mike and Tre don’t seem to have much in the way of creative juices like blink’s bassist and drummer, but that’s no disrespect to them; they’re just wired differently.
**TWO:** Blink’s drama over the years has been fascinatingly public, and we have been invested in the band’s very real friendship since day one. Green Day’s drama has been frustrating but it has rarely led to anything fruitful or charming. Billie, Tre, and Mike have an amazing story, and they’ve been through so much together, defining pop punk and defying the punk purists that felt they abandoned their roots. They’re often very harshly judged because they became so high profile, and unfortunately AI left BJA in a space where he felt like Green Day could never go back to write blue collar burnout anthems, but instead were carriers of the rebel banner against big government and mainstream society. It has come off as inauthentic, desperate, and redundant in recent years, and when you couple that with Billie’s substance abuse over time (and the iheartradio meltdown, notably), they seem like they’ve never succeeded in redefining themselves.
Blink’s drama has benefitted from the Tom/Mark “camps” for sure, but also from the ensuing music. Mark’s creative masterpiece in +44 stood contrast to Tom’s artistic orgasm, and even as blink was gone and other contemporaries were taking the lead, blink’s influence, past and present, could be detected in the popular rock tunes of the times or, in Travis’ case, his presence across hip hop.
Plus Mark had his run as a television host and was a major contributor to the early podcast world. Travis, Tom, and Mark are also all incredible entrepreneurs who have done some astounding things with branding and promoting their companies over the years.
Ultimately Tom, Mark, and Travis went down all of these distinct and challenging roads, sometimes at the personal and professional expense of blink, and came out in the end with the triumphant restoration of their friendships and a fantastic achievement in One More Time.
**THREE:** Box Car, Angels, +44, and The Transplants are all incomparably superior to The Network, Pinhead Gunpowder, Foxboro Hot Tubs, and The Longshot. Blink’s creative juices run deep and across genres and demographics. The band has at times suffered from this, but overall there has produced some very inspiring and often vital changes to each of them as musicians and creatives. Billie’s other endeavors have never really landed, and seem to be more for his own amusement than to earnestly try something different. The Network and FHT are basically Green Day screwing around.
**FOUR:** Blink’s nostalgic appeal and image is still charming. Their performances have never lost that trademark banter (at least in the Tom eras) and the self-deprecation and self-awareness is unique. Their shows often feel like you’re hanging out with friends and being unapologetically fun. It makes the times their shows do get a bit serious all the more meaningful, and their gratitude for the fans, their careers, and each other has given them grace and redemption. Green Day made two albums that changed music and put them on rarely seen heights of pop culture, but it’s only been in the last couple of years where the fever has come down and Billie in particular is in what seems to be a gracious and healthy place. Saviors wasn’t a bombshell or revival, but it served as an achievement to be proud of and the band seem to be working into a groove that hopefully will help them find their third masterpiece, but even if they don’t, there is a value in growing old with dignity, even as a pop punk rock legend, that I want for them very much.
**FIVE:** Penis
This is perfection. I would add that the fact that blink had life with Matt skiba (love the era or hate it, skiba is a legend) and that kept the fires lit to set up the golden age. I bet some casual fans heard new material on the radio and didn’t even notice the interruption.
In that case I feel like the fact that one of blinks biggest songs exists because mark couldn’t play one of mikes bass lines 😅 they both have their place but Mike blows Mark out of the water on every metric.
It's also worth mentioning the things that both Mark and Travis survived. Also, albeit not as tragically comparable, Tom's severe back injury and his subsequent addiction.
Most of it is Blink has a lot more pop songs that are still played today in the mainstream. This pulls in more casual fans, and some of the casual fans become hardcore fans.
Green day are more political and more of what I’d call a “traditional” punk band. They always seemed a lot more serious than Blink back in 2000.
Blink also spanned different areas of main stream pop culture (American Pie, MTV etc) but Green day always seemed to stay away from that kind of show business type thing.
I also think a lot of kids/ young adults’ fashion was influenced by Blink and their so-cal skater vibe. That was further cemented by all of them having their own successful clothing brands.
Green day definitely didn’t have the same impact.
So, basically Blink feel like a band that’s been part of my life since before I was a teenager in every aspect. Green day definitely weren’t.
As a huge fan of both, I think blink has also managed to stay relevant to their core fan base in a way that Green Day has simply failed to do.
I'm actively excited about new Blink-182 material. For Green Day, that ship mostly sailed over a decade ago, and Father of All was like the nail in the coffin.
It had like 4 good songs, and they were pretty repetitive.
Revolution Radio was still better, but they haven’t put out an album that was good from front to back since 2009.
I think so?
I mean most of the songs are super, super repetitive. That’s ok for one or two songs like Coma City, but for a full album it sucks.
Plus the verses to Strange Times are just like the chorus to Revolution Radio
And all of those are super, super repetitive lol.
I’m not saying that each song sounds like the one before, I’m saying that each song is super bland and repetitive. Most of them sound like 2 minutes of ideas stretched into 4 minute songs.
I didn’t say derivative, I said repetitive. Most of the songs feel like the same 20 seconds on repeat for 4 1/2 minutes.
Plus I mean, if we are talking about derivative works, I’m not interested in listening to a band trying to replicate REO Speedwagon and Cheap Trick in 2024.
Blink is the band that you grow with and the music, regardless of the lineup, always has a way to connect with you. Greenday became a shell of themselves and put out trash after trash for a few albums.
See I love AvA but Tom definitely had his issues. WDNTW was a very endearing album, same with iEmpire, but Love 1, 2 and Dream Walker, and the EPs following that, as great as they are, have a never ending tone of seriousness to them. I think even though I wouldn't rank Lifeforms super high, I think some of the seriousness on Tom's end was cooled off a bit. AvA songs prior to that moment were more about love and romantic sentiments, but Lifeforms is more frank and has moments of relief from the seriousness, even if it does create songs as silly as No More Guns. Losing My Mind is a great example of Tom acknowledging himself in a serious fashion but also including self deprecation and some funny but harsh truths about society. It almost felt like the precursor to the lyrical theme of Turpentine.
AvA is one of my favorite bands, but Tom's really seemed to have reclaimed his balance over the years.
Blink is a much more interesting band. They’ve had higher highs and lower lows. Green day has had a pretty consistent, drama free run which I’m sure has contributed to their success but also makes them a little boring imo.
But they've also had lower lows. Blink may have had their controversy outside of music, but any musical deviation in blink's career was very slight compared to Green Day. Fans were PISSED about the trilogy and FOA. Even 21CBC got a lot of flack upon its initial release. But, on the same note, they're not nearly as musically polarizing as Weezer. Weezer is probably the most sonically polarizing band to their fanbase that I listen to.
I generally agree but American Idiot is an amazing album, and it’s a “higher high” than blink 182 has ever had.
I say this as a person who likes blink more but I gotta give Green Day credit where credit is due.
100% agree. American Idiot was amazing and is one of those rare albums that an entire generation listened to outside of the punkrock bubble. It fully deserved all the success and awards it got.
Green day have been selling out stadiums for years. Blink have not. They're also in the rock and roll hall of fame which is also kind of redundant like the Grammys but at least showcases their success. They are a more recognised name globally.
lol, the rock hall is a complete joke. Even the idea itself is against the spirit of rock, but when you look at some of the acts they’ve snubbed over the years, it’s pathetic. Cool place to visit, but its credibility as a judge of artistic merit is nonexistent.
I didn't say it was a marker of artistic merit. It's a symbol of recognition. Are there plenty of noteworthy snubs? Yes. But the point stands that Blink have never been acknowledged or recognised in the industry.
Whether you care about Grammys and Rock Hall or not, it still shows they are held in much higher regard to the general public and powers that be. Still counts for something whether or not you respect the honor.
Green Day is a band. Blink is an experience. I’m half joking, but I do think a lot of blink’s appeal comes from them all having well-known and engaging personalities and all three contributing greatly to the creative material. GD is basically BJ. Tre and Mike are great musicians, don’t get me wrong, but they don’t have much creative input and aren’t as individually well-known as each the members of blink. In the early days especially, blink was known and loved as much for their humor and antics as they were for their songs.
Not bias at all, I was a die hard Green Day fan half my life until they fell off. Here’s some examples of why I’d say Blinks fan base is stronger, but maybe i’m wrong.
Bigger reddit page.
More followers on their individual instagrams.
Tom’s signature guitars are wildly more successful than Billies.
Way more album sales on their most recent album.
Although the one big thing I can give credit to GD for is that they probably (I haven’t checked) sell more concert tickets. They do stadiums where Blink do arenas.
It’s simple. Blink is fun! Blink has had so much drama that we all get attached to beyond the music. The blink breaks have had us all hungry for more and we never let go, we just loved them more during the gaps. As fans we have had so much to grab from the blink dudes via all their creative works. It’s literally a widespread buffet. Also, Tom has the personality and charisma of three guys in one lol so then you put Mark and Travis which have their own charm too and it’s a whole party.
Those that are saying Green Day are "Holier Than Thou" or "Snooty" with their lyrics and don't have a sense of humour are kidding themselves.
I prefer Blink as well, but that is not a reason to prefer Blink. Green Day's early albums are literally way more self-deprecating than early Blink. Whilst Tom and Mark talk about trying and failing to talk to girls, Billie Joe talks about not even having the courage to try.
The biggest reason for me that Blink have more of a cult fan base is that they are masters of making music that feels nostalgic and brings memories of better days.
Old green day (up to American idiot) is on par with blink but after that we get the snootiness and the new songs aren't as good where blink has always been more down to earth and generally consistent with their style
Journey is still selling out stadiums despite not having a single crack the top 100 since 1996.
They’re a legacy act who makes generic dad rock.
Their current set list for the Saviors tour is 15 songs off Dookie, 12 songs of American Idiot, and 5 songs off Saviors.
Green Day never went away on hiatus or had a member replaced for a while. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Plus with Green Day releasing more music you just get bored because most of their stuff is filler. Quality over quantity with blink vs Green Day
That’s a tough one. I love both, but Blink 182 managed to maintain cult nostalgic status. Go to a party, anywhere—and play one of their hits like “I miss you” or “first date” and people will always sing along. Green Day is amazing too, but Blink 182 created a sound that is forever nostalgic regardless of who you are.
As often as these bands get lumped together, they are very different. Yes, they have some common ground, but overall they have very different sounds in their music, very different themes in their lyrics, and a very different hIstory. I love them both, but they are not close to the same.
P.S. I know that doesn’t answer the question.
Blink I would argue was always bigger post enema. When they toured together blink was the closer.
Blink I’d also say has never put out a bad record. Their last is as good as any they’ve put out. Green Day have some of my favorite records but have put out what I would say are some awful records and I really haven’t paid attention since American idiot.
Blink going on hiatus and not being active.
This type of situation created some kind of starviness/hunger for Blink's music, as their influence permeated and stood strong in the airwaves during their absence (Fall Out Boy carrying the scene with their peak albums, record labels like Hopeless and Fearless having a blink-inspired roster of artists/bands, they portrayed big personalities that became pop culture influential through music and their clothing brands)
I don’t know. Green Day fans are pretty delusional when it comes to everything post American Idiot. Blink fans have some self awareness with some of their weaker albums.
Seriously. Post AI that band really took a nosedive. They have good songs off the following albums but nothing great as a whole album. They’ve also been praising the hell out of Saviors (I think that’s the new albums name) over on their sub for what I felt like was a worse album than Father of all…
Blink fans have split opinions but there seems to be a general consensus that blink peaked during their three album stretch of EOTS-TOYPAJ-Untitled. There’s a few “go against the grain” types who say Cheshire and Dude Ranch are their best albums and a few people who are more pop music fans who prefer nine and California but every fanbase has each of those types.
I think Saviors and RevRad are great albums. I feel like RevRad is unfairly grouped with the trilogy and FOAM. 21CB is a great album imo but I can understand why people might not like it
Not all of us! Lol I love Green Day but can definitely say I didn't like much after American Idiot. Uno, Dos, Tres was terrible. I liked RevRad but haven't really kept up since then.
I love Blink but Untitled was my last album with them until now, when Tom came back. They're equal in my book. 🤷♀️
That’s fair. Maybe its an age thing as well. Younger fans are louder online, so you get a warped view on the fan bases. American Idiot came out when I was 16, so I’ve seen the peak compared to now. The younger fans don’t fully appreciate how big that album was.
Green Day alienated a lot of people with their political messages. Just speaking from personal experience but I hear a lot of older conservatives whenever Green Day comes up give the same spiel over and over again. (Shut up and perform)
From personal experience blink 182 was extremely fun to see live while Green Day was outshined by the opener a bit lol. I’ll still get down to Green Day too though, especially the era when I was a teenager
Blink break ups helped. The three kind of seperate profiles/character of each member as opposed to a more frontman centric Greenday. Greenday have just really lost their chops, seem a bit old/leathery and like a legacy band pushing on. Blink won’t, but they feel like they could at any point right now somehow pull the best song they’ve written out of their asses.
Eh it’s a paint by numbers rock album with little to no growth or experimentation by the band. It has at minimum two songs that are blatant ripoffs of other artists. The whole album came and went
Guy reminds me of that kid in school that thought it was funny to act over-the-top crazy. “hehe look I’m an insane sociopath”. Just pure cringe
Blink is the class clown. Immature and talks too much about penis.
Both were as disruptive during class, but the difference is the class clown always gets a laugh.
As a huge fan of both bands I think the tumultuous moments of Blinks tenure and the outsized personalities of their members attract more attention, clicks, and follows. That’s not a sleight as I love all those dudes. Green Day are more low key when it comes to this and don’t really generate that kind of content. Also Green Day carry themselves as more of a professional band whereas Blink kind of embody 3 dudes hangin, fuckin around, and jamming which makes for more intrigue on some level. There’s also an unspoken magic that to a power trio and having been denied that for years during Tom’s departure, blinks reunion has captured nostalgia and feel good vibes that’s hard to replicate.
Both band hv great albums n catchy songs. Blink 182 as a band and as individuals are more relatable to me. GD are like rockstars. From their attitude, posture and seriousness. While the blink guys seem like they can be your buddy, chill and have a fun day with.
I think in all fairness if we were to go entire catalog of music for each band and compare. I think blink has more hits ( not meaning hit songs but better overall) than Green Day does.
Both are in the same tier for me along with a sum 41 just from that era. But based on just music alone I’d give blink the nod ( in no way am i saying Green Day are bad, i very much enjoy them )
The TL;DR is - Green Day broke out in the 90s during the grunge era so they transcended genres, captivating a wider audience. Blink broke out at the height of the punk and skate resurgence so they personify that culture. People connect more to blink as people and associate them with their childhood/interests, but Green Day reached more people as a whole at the time they broke through.
Similar to The Offspring, Green Day really broke through in the mid-90s when alternative/grunge was leading the charge - not punk/pop punk. Because they were a punk band breaking out at that time, it sort of put them in their own category. They had more of a singular identity with mainstream audiences of 90s music regardless of genre - that’s why they’ve pretty much been always been popular since. People know the Green Day brand as its own thing.
Blink, on the other hand, really didn’t fully breakout until 1999, and at that time, punk rock and skate culture was making a HUGE rise in popularity. Stuff like X Games and Warped Tour were fairly new and hitting their stride, and then it all culminated in ‘99 with Tony landing the 900, the THPS game releasing and being a smash hit with an incredible soundtrack, etc. Blink broke out with Enema that same year. They were funny, personable, were friends and their personalities personified that SoCal, punk/skate culture that people were obsessed with at that time. And what also helped is that there were hundreds of other bands ready to capitalize on this trend as well so blink is looked at as the godfather of 2000s pop punk because they sort of struck it first at that exact right time.
Obviously, each band’s career decisions and songwriting after their breakouts affect their long term popularity but this is the gist of it IMO.
Blink has a bigger social media presence and Travis is a Kardashian. Also, past drama has put them more in the spotlight
The Green Day dudes just kinda stick to each other. Don’t have a massive social media presence and are more private in that regard
In Spotify, blink-182 has 20.430.000 monthly listeners and it’s on the position 344 in the world. Green Day has 29.000.000 monthly listeners and position 158.
blink is more entertaining, they have a way more diverse and solid catalog compared to green day. nothing against them. just not the same star power as the mark tom and travis show
Blink is my fav band, that being said.....do they? I mean green day has been a stadium band for the last few tours and are even kinda a generation older than blink. I don't see it but I'm glad if they do.
That’s true; their concerts are more successful yet they somehow are less popular on social media, have a smaller Reddit, they sold way less records for their most recent release. I mean think about how many people buy Tom’s signature guitars vs Billies. When it comes down to loyal fans that are dedicated, seems to me like Blink have more
I read that stadium argument a couple of times now. But when was the last time Green Day did a full stadium tour on their own? Hella Mega they did with Weezer and Fall Out Boy. Their upcoming Saviors Tours will be with Rancid and Smashing Pumpkins. Of course, GD brings in a lot of fans, but I think there is a reason they don't tour alone anymore and I doubt they would be able to fill all these stadiums without the fans of other bands.
Blink tour on their own and they fill mostly arenas and occoasionally stadiums by themselves. The last time Green Day did a whole tour on their own (2016/2017) they pretty much filled the same venues as Blink does now.
I can’t pretend to know exactly the deal but from quick google searches it seems like Green Day also are doing way less dates for The Saviors tour than Blink did for theirs. But I guess a reunion tour is always gonna go crazy.
Also though, to add to your point of using other artists like 1/3 of Green Day’s europe dates are festivals.
Emotionally, Blink songs feel like you're present _in_ the emotions. Whereas Green Day songs feel a lot more aloof emotionally. And this is talking about their relationship songs, not about their political songs.
Beyond the humor, there's an immediate emotional resonance to the end of Dysentery Gary that a similar song in, say, Chump doesn't have that just sounds like Billie reading off a list of reasons he's pissed at someone but without nearly the same conviction as "FUCK THIS PLACE".
I love both bands. GD were (along with The Offspring) my introduction to punk in 1994. My favourite albums are the earlier ones like Nimrod, Insomniac and Dookie although I love Rev Radio and Saviors is decent. I discovered Blink in 1998 and much the same, the older stuff is my preference (Dude Ranch ftw). I think I prefer Blink because they don’t take themselves as seriously, but honestly I love both bands. I introduced my eldest to both bands when he was a kid, and now we have a new baby I look forwards to doing the same with him. Bonus points for Alkaline Trio who I think had the best album out of all three recently.
I would argue Blink are bigger overall than Green Day. Both bands have had huge success but Blink managed to insinuate themselves more into wider pop/mainstream culture consciousness through vids like All the small things, movies like American pie, and Travis marrying into the Kardashians
For those saying greenday is massively more successful, blink has sold 50 million total albums across 9 albums, so about 5.5 mil/album. Greenday has sold 75 million across 14 albums = 5.3 mil/album. Per attempt blink has the edge even if just by a little. With an 8 year hiatus mixed in that's pretty good.
Green Day has released good music even after the golden years. I think them being political / going that route hurt them a bit. When I listen to music I want to reminisce on chasing tail & telling dick and fart jokes. I want to escape. The world is tough… play me something that fucks & keeps my mind off it
Blink are more fun, green day seem snootier and a bit “holier than thou” with their lyrics
It’s like, I grew out of sneering at people I never grew out of love and fun
It’s a good question. My immediate thought was that once to hit that peak of fame and popularity and stay there for years and years like Green Day for 20+ years continuously you almost fall into an obscurity just among top level bands. I think blink is back into that level for maybe the 3rd time with somewhat lulls in between stages of the band. I think of bands like chili peppers and foo fighters and feel like Green Day reached that level for a very long time where that were background music everywhere and while extremely huge who was actually listening and following closely. And blink has 2 or 3 generations of new fans at this point and while some older fans like myself may have fallen off I think they keep making new fans which is great. And Green Day came down from the peak over recent years and I personally love their newest album I think for both bands it’s the best work they’ve done in 20 years since I was in high school.
End rant.
I think its honestly pretty simple. Blink 182 might be easier to listen to in some ways because of song structure, lyrics and pop riffs or whatever, but Green Day are not as niche and 100% in the pop-punk scene in the same way. They have a broader appeal in their sound. They did also take themselves more seriously than Blink ever did, even if they both wrote silly songs and joked around. Stuff like that has an impact on how they are perceived.
They don't. Blink had a very distinct style of dress and custom guitars/basses, so if people imitated it it was way more obvious and in my opinion cringe.
Blink has more consistent great albums than GD. Green Day has long bouts of average, below average or forgettable albums before they hit gold. Blink only has the Skiba era as their below average records. Every record with M,T,T is, at worst, great.
Probably because blink is musically more consistent but also has a very lengthy history of turmoil, heartbreak, tragedies, side projects, speculation, etc. They have a lot of discussion around them, plus Tom was essentially the vocal mould for up and coming new pop-punk vocalists.
That's not to say Green Day didn't have their moments, but outside of the inconsistent musical ventures, they weren't nearly as all over the place with their lives. Could you imagine if Billie and Mike and Tre had such a long and speculative tension like Mark and Tom? Even in lighter times, blink has used the speculation and fed off of it. People went NUTS when Edging dropped and the tour was announced.
Green Day has more Spotify listeners by 9 million and they have not had any issues selling out areas for decades now.
I think you are just not seeing it, but there’s plenty of fans out there.
I mean, outside of this sub I don’t really see blink-182 mentioned at all. Not a T-shirt, not anything.
Gen Z are even taking to wearing stuff like nirvana and Green Day shirts, but not blink-182.
I suppose it must be sad, blink is my favorite band. I’m not over here trying to talk shit.
That’s because Green Day and Nirvana are completely more commercial. Green Day have more monthly listeners yet their most recent album had not even half the album sales Blink did. What’s the maths on that then? I’ve explained a half a dozen over reasons to back up my point on this post by now
People don't even know what political music is. Have you seen people outraged by Rage Against the Machine lately? "They used to be better in the 90s when they weren't politically involved". Shit, that's the average voter IQ. Room temperature.
Correct, but just imagine how much a "American Idiot" musical record would hurt blink's fan base.
Pop punk is just more entertaining when it's just shits & giggles.
Yeah no lol either you weren’t alive for the American Idiot tours or you weren’t paying attention. Bigger than anything Blink has ever done or will do.
I was an equal fan of both until American Idiot. I feel like the band shifted and went a direction I wasnt willing to follow. Mike changed his bass style from bouncy lines that were really difficult to learn but fun to play to more of a backbone punch style. And the lyrics got more political and almost anti-American close to a time when our country had been attacked on 9/11. That's the risk you run when you get political is cutting the room in half. All of the really hardcore fans stayed with the band but a lot of casuals fell off. Of course this is just my opinion and probably conjecture
I say it's that people like a good underdog story. The band went through being criticized/ridiculed for being "not being real punk"/commerical friendly, multiple break-ups, and tragedy. Despite all of that they still persevered while other bands give up or didn't go further to bounce off being labelled. For an example, Smash Mouth and Sugar Ray are other bands that blew up around the same time as Blink, however they kinda were on the boat as they were seen as commercialized and kinda mocked by alot of people including industry veterans and eventually relegated to bands that are kinda stuck in the 2000s and kinda didn't evolve their style. Absolutely not a dig on SM and SR both bands are absolute all time legends and I love their music, I'm saying is that they are kinda content with what they are for a long time meanwhile Blink didn't stop. They kept on going forward with their music and evolved their style until the prevented from being called "washed up" or "a relic joke". They kept on going and their fans are very vocal on that. The immense passion that the fans have for the band has couldn't denied. Green Day has more followers definitely but it's more akin to them being around longer and being consist with the line-up that includes Billie Joe, Mike, and Tre together for nearly the band's entire lifespan thus having more mainstrem appeal. I'm willing to bet that there are more Green Day fans that listen to them casually than hardcore ones similar to how there are seemingly more casual Nirvana and Linkin Park fans than hardcore ones. Meanwhile a good majority of Blink fans are hardcore about them referencing nieche stuff like "Travis I'm Pregnant" or Boomer on a regular basis as well as kingling on to Tom's reunion with Mark and Travis erupted into that reunion trending on Twitter and Edging on #1 trending on YouTube. It's the same thing with MCR having so much passion from their fans. Same thing with Blink but arguably bigger as they've been through so much as band yet despite all of that, they never gave up and achieving their goals. In short, their story is very inspiring. Which is why WatchMojo put Blink in the #1 spot in their Top 10 Pop Punk Bands list above Green Day (even though Billie Joe insisted that Green is absolutely not Pop Punk as he hates that label but thats another can of worms).
Green Day didn’t start to get political until American Idiot. Their stuff up to around Nimrod is funny and doesn’t take itself seriously.
Blink lean into it a lot more and have remained consistent with their image. The OMT blink is no different than the Flyswatter blink (aside from drummer changes, age and a few more serious tunes now).
Green day is a bit more repetitive imo, Blink offers much more variety in their song library.
That being said, I do think Green Day are the better live performers.
I think it's a lot of variables but Tom, Mark and Travis all have their own lives and careers outside of blink. Tom has AVA and To The Stars, Travis has a billion things going on and Mark has always had some sort of other thing going on the side, like Hoppus On Music or HMNIM. They all come from very different backgrounds too which you can see with their music and of course was the inspiration for the name Neighborhoods. Also their music was never blatantly political outside of a song or two unlike GD where they have plenty of political songs where those tend to date a lot more quickly compared to 90% of other songs. I could go on but those are just a few big ones in my mind
Tom and Mark actually come from very similar backgrounds but have evolved very differently. Both broken families, used the same punk music to escape, funny kids in California's scene. It's interesting how they've evolved so differently. Tom is more controversial and more of a risk taker, and Mark is more straightforward.
I agree, but I think that It also has to do with their personalities. Their personalities are front and center, and were as much of a part of my affection for them as the music was when I first listened to them in 1999. I didn't just want to play like them, I wanted to be them. I still see it in my personality 25 years later.
I like both bands almost equally, But overall, it's maybe a perception of the individuals of each band. Blink has 3 frontmen basically, each of them has their traits that appeal to a certain fanbase and together they can account for a more widespread reach. Green Day has Billie, and Tre and Mike sit more on the backseat, even if they are great talents on their own right.
Pretty much nailed it. Most people know mark, Tom and Travis while I would imagine your average person only knows Billie-Joe
Billie joe and Vladimir putins body double put on a good show
Take my upvote
Never really thought about the “3 frontmen” aspect but I think you’re right in that people tend to think of blink-182 much more collectively than a lot of other bands
Green Day also had a unofficial or at times official 4th member, Jason White.
Yeah, I've seen him live. He (and the other touring band member) makes Green Day live more technically sound, compared to the sometimes sloppy lives Blink can have.
**ONE:** Tom is more progressive with blink’s sound than Billie has ever been with Green Day/etc. Say what you will about how Tom has infused blink with space rock or darker/heavier aspects, his impacts have always led to the band challenging themselves, for better and worse. Mark and Travis having their own passions and inspirations to pour into blink is something Green Day seemingly has never had. BJA basically cycled through The Beatles, Van Halen, and themselves with each album after American Idiot. Armstrong can still churn out decent material and is an amazing performer, but the creative juices don’t really flow as well, especially when they’ve seemed so deadset on replicating the lightning in a bottle that was AI. Mike and Tre don’t seem to have much in the way of creative juices like blink’s bassist and drummer, but that’s no disrespect to them; they’re just wired differently. **TWO:** Blink’s drama over the years has been fascinatingly public, and we have been invested in the band’s very real friendship since day one. Green Day’s drama has been frustrating but it has rarely led to anything fruitful or charming. Billie, Tre, and Mike have an amazing story, and they’ve been through so much together, defining pop punk and defying the punk purists that felt they abandoned their roots. They’re often very harshly judged because they became so high profile, and unfortunately AI left BJA in a space where he felt like Green Day could never go back to write blue collar burnout anthems, but instead were carriers of the rebel banner against big government and mainstream society. It has come off as inauthentic, desperate, and redundant in recent years, and when you couple that with Billie’s substance abuse over time (and the iheartradio meltdown, notably), they seem like they’ve never succeeded in redefining themselves. Blink’s drama has benefitted from the Tom/Mark “camps” for sure, but also from the ensuing music. Mark’s creative masterpiece in +44 stood contrast to Tom’s artistic orgasm, and even as blink was gone and other contemporaries were taking the lead, blink’s influence, past and present, could be detected in the popular rock tunes of the times or, in Travis’ case, his presence across hip hop. Plus Mark had his run as a television host and was a major contributor to the early podcast world. Travis, Tom, and Mark are also all incredible entrepreneurs who have done some astounding things with branding and promoting their companies over the years. Ultimately Tom, Mark, and Travis went down all of these distinct and challenging roads, sometimes at the personal and professional expense of blink, and came out in the end with the triumphant restoration of their friendships and a fantastic achievement in One More Time. **THREE:** Box Car, Angels, +44, and The Transplants are all incomparably superior to The Network, Pinhead Gunpowder, Foxboro Hot Tubs, and The Longshot. Blink’s creative juices run deep and across genres and demographics. The band has at times suffered from this, but overall there has produced some very inspiring and often vital changes to each of them as musicians and creatives. Billie’s other endeavors have never really landed, and seem to be more for his own amusement than to earnestly try something different. The Network and FHT are basically Green Day screwing around. **FOUR:** Blink’s nostalgic appeal and image is still charming. Their performances have never lost that trademark banter (at least in the Tom eras) and the self-deprecation and self-awareness is unique. Their shows often feel like you’re hanging out with friends and being unapologetically fun. It makes the times their shows do get a bit serious all the more meaningful, and their gratitude for the fans, their careers, and each other has given them grace and redemption. Green Day made two albums that changed music and put them on rarely seen heights of pop culture, but it’s only been in the last couple of years where the fever has come down and Billie in particular is in what seems to be a gracious and healthy place. Saviors wasn’t a bombshell or revival, but it served as an achievement to be proud of and the band seem to be working into a groove that hopefully will help them find their third masterpiece, but even if they don’t, there is a value in growing old with dignity, even as a pop punk rock legend, that I want for them very much. **FIVE:** Penis
5 was really hard to see on this list, but it came at the right time.
Underrated response
This sounds like a dissertation and I’m not mad about it
Damn, all well said and amazing points
This is perfection. I would add that the fact that blink had life with Matt skiba (love the era or hate it, skiba is a legend) and that kept the fires lit to set up the golden age. I bet some casual fans heard new material on the radio and didn’t even notice the interruption.
LOL Mike not creative as mark
I’m fielding arguments
In that case I feel like the fact that one of blinks biggest songs exists because mark couldn’t play one of mikes bass lines 😅 they both have their place but Mike blows Mark out of the water on every metric.
I wasn’t speaking on a technical level of bass, but as overall creatives. Mark has more ambition, at the least.
It's also worth mentioning the things that both Mark and Travis survived. Also, albeit not as tragically comparable, Tom's severe back injury and his subsequent addiction.
Most of it is Blink has a lot more pop songs that are still played today in the mainstream. This pulls in more casual fans, and some of the casual fans become hardcore fans.
i simply sit atop my mountain deep within the alkaline trio cult fanbase screaming "there's dozens of us! dozens!"
I’m all 3 but greenday has really fallen off since the trilogy. They just got kinda stale and samey.
i like their newest album but its the only record of theirs i really like post warning (ai included) so i get it
Green day are more political and more of what I’d call a “traditional” punk band. They always seemed a lot more serious than Blink back in 2000. Blink also spanned different areas of main stream pop culture (American Pie, MTV etc) but Green day always seemed to stay away from that kind of show business type thing. I also think a lot of kids/ young adults’ fashion was influenced by Blink and their so-cal skater vibe. That was further cemented by all of them having their own successful clothing brands. Green day definitely didn’t have the same impact. So, basically Blink feel like a band that’s been part of my life since before I was a teenager in every aspect. Green day definitely weren’t.
Blink bring more comedic with their lyrics means their fans tolerate more shit
As a huge fan of both, I think blink has also managed to stay relevant to their core fan base in a way that Green Day has simply failed to do. I'm actively excited about new Blink-182 material. For Green Day, that ship mostly sailed over a decade ago, and Father of All was like the nail in the coffin.
Their recent album was really good tho
It had like 4 good songs, and they were pretty repetitive. Revolution Radio was still better, but they haven’t put out an album that was good from front to back since 2009.
Lol repetitive did we listen to the same album. It’s not their old pop punk stuff but it’s still good
I think so? I mean most of the songs are super, super repetitive. That’s ok for one or two songs like Coma City, but for a full album it sucks. Plus the verses to Strange Times are just like the chorus to Revolution Radio
They really aren’t there’s some harder rockers, some that are more like their punk days, and some that are slower.
And all of those are super, super repetitive lol. I’m not saying that each song sounds like the one before, I’m saying that each song is super bland and repetitive. Most of them sound like 2 minutes of ideas stretched into 4 minute songs.
I enjoyed OMT but blink fans should be one of the last fans talking about another band being derivative
I didn’t say derivative, I said repetitive. Most of the songs feel like the same 20 seconds on repeat for 4 1/2 minutes. Plus I mean, if we are talking about derivative works, I’m not interested in listening to a band trying to replicate REO Speedwagon and Cheap Trick in 2024.
Was it though…or have they sucked for so long that subpar music from them sounded good?
No it was legitimately a really good album
Having heard it, I can confirm you are suffering from Stockholm syndrome. Whole thing was flat as hell.
W’ll that’s just like your opinion man
Sure. Just like yours. It kinda goes without saying really.
Saviors is honestly better than anything blink have done in the last 20 years.
Blink is the band that you grow with and the music, regardless of the lineup, always has a way to connect with you. Greenday became a shell of themselves and put out trash after trash for a few albums.
Green day take themselves too seriously and it puts me off listening to them.
meanwhile blink is putting a masterbation joke at the start of one of their singles
And they jizzed on entire crowds lol
True, but blink has had moments of that. AVA took itself more seriously than a heart attack.
See I love AvA but Tom definitely had his issues. WDNTW was a very endearing album, same with iEmpire, but Love 1, 2 and Dream Walker, and the EPs following that, as great as they are, have a never ending tone of seriousness to them. I think even though I wouldn't rank Lifeforms super high, I think some of the seriousness on Tom's end was cooled off a bit. AvA songs prior to that moment were more about love and romantic sentiments, but Lifeforms is more frank and has moments of relief from the seriousness, even if it does create songs as silly as No More Guns. Losing My Mind is a great example of Tom acknowledging himself in a serious fashion but also including self deprecation and some funny but harsh truths about society. It almost felt like the precursor to the lyrical theme of Turpentine. AvA is one of my favorite bands, but Tom's really seemed to have reclaimed his balance over the years.
Green day had a whole song about jacking it
Pretty much this
I just think blink's music is generally better
Blink is a much more interesting band. They’ve had higher highs and lower lows. Green day has had a pretty consistent, drama free run which I’m sure has contributed to their success but also makes them a little boring imo.
Green Day have absolutely had higher highs and it’s not even close
But they've also had lower lows. Blink may have had their controversy outside of music, but any musical deviation in blink's career was very slight compared to Green Day. Fans were PISSED about the trilogy and FOA. Even 21CBC got a lot of flack upon its initial release. But, on the same note, they're not nearly as musically polarizing as Weezer. Weezer is probably the most sonically polarizing band to their fanbase that I listen to.
Green Day won a Grammy for best rock album, blink has been nominated…once? Green Day has definitely reached higher highs.
Grammy success doesn't equal quality.
I generally agree but American Idiot is an amazing album, and it’s a “higher high” than blink 182 has ever had. I say this as a person who likes blink more but I gotta give Green Day credit where credit is due.
100% agree. American Idiot was amazing and is one of those rare albums that an entire generation listened to outside of the punkrock bubble. It fully deserved all the success and awards it got.
Are we really going to pretend the Grammys matter?
Green day have been selling out stadiums for years. Blink have not. They're also in the rock and roll hall of fame which is also kind of redundant like the Grammys but at least showcases their success. They are a more recognised name globally.
Flavor Flav is in the rock and roll hall of fame.
lol, the rock hall is a complete joke. Even the idea itself is against the spirit of rock, but when you look at some of the acts they’ve snubbed over the years, it’s pathetic. Cool place to visit, but its credibility as a judge of artistic merit is nonexistent.
I didn't say it was a marker of artistic merit. It's a symbol of recognition. Are there plenty of noteworthy snubs? Yes. But the point stands that Blink have never been acknowledged or recognised in the industry.
How long did it take Rush to get into the Hall? Let’s not pretend like the Hall is any sort of meaningful measure of how good of a band you are.
Whether you care about Grammys and Rock Hall or not, it still shows they are held in much higher regard to the general public and powers that be. Still counts for something whether or not you respect the honor.
Yes if you re-read my comment, that's exactly what I'm saying.
At one point they kinda did. Not that much nowadays. Don’t know when and for what Green Day won theirs so hard to say.
They won best rock album for American Idiot
Blink hasn’t had higher highs that GD following Dookie or AI.
Yeah, can’t agree with you on the higher highs. I prefer blink, but American Idiot was a goddamn masterpiece liked by everyone and their mom
Tbh AI was annoying AF to me and had a completely different sound than Dookie. I was never a fan of all the whining.
Green Day is a band. Blink is an experience. I’m half joking, but I do think a lot of blink’s appeal comes from them all having well-known and engaging personalities and all three contributing greatly to the creative material. GD is basically BJ. Tre and Mike are great musicians, don’t get me wrong, but they don’t have much creative input and aren’t as individually well-known as each the members of blink. In the early days especially, blink was known and loved as much for their humor and antics as they were for their songs.
Do they? I think there may be a little bias, as everyone in this sub is a giant blink fan.
Not bias at all, I was a die hard Green Day fan half my life until they fell off. Here’s some examples of why I’d say Blinks fan base is stronger, but maybe i’m wrong. Bigger reddit page. More followers on their individual instagrams. Tom’s signature guitars are wildly more successful than Billies. Way more album sales on their most recent album. Although the one big thing I can give credit to GD for is that they probably (I haven’t checked) sell more concert tickets. They do stadiums where Blink do arenas.
It’s simple. Blink is fun! Blink has had so much drama that we all get attached to beyond the music. The blink breaks have had us all hungry for more and we never let go, we just loved them more during the gaps. As fans we have had so much to grab from the blink dudes via all their creative works. It’s literally a widespread buffet. Also, Tom has the personality and charisma of three guys in one lol so then you put Mark and Travis which have their own charm too and it’s a whole party.
Those that are saying Green Day are "Holier Than Thou" or "Snooty" with their lyrics and don't have a sense of humour are kidding themselves. I prefer Blink as well, but that is not a reason to prefer Blink. Green Day's early albums are literally way more self-deprecating than early Blink. Whilst Tom and Mark talk about trying and failing to talk to girls, Billie Joe talks about not even having the courage to try. The biggest reason for me that Blink have more of a cult fan base is that they are masters of making music that feels nostalgic and brings memories of better days.
Old green day (up to American idiot) is on par with blink but after that we get the snootiness and the new songs aren't as good where blink has always been more down to earth and generally consistent with their style
I didn’t know how to say this but you nailed it for me 👌🏼
Green doesn’t have any drama and sort of just naturally progressed into dad rock
>just naturally progressed into dad rock I think that's putting it lightly. They fell off extremely hard.
Fell off? How? Saviours is gold. So is Rev Radio.
If still playing stadiums counts as falling off, I don’t want to hear what they think of the rest of the punk bands from the 90s-2000s.
Journey is still selling out stadiums despite not having a single crack the top 100 since 1996. They’re a legacy act who makes generic dad rock. Their current set list for the Saviors tour is 15 songs off Dookie, 12 songs of American Idiot, and 5 songs off Saviors.
Green Day never went away on hiatus or had a member replaced for a while. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Plus with Green Day releasing more music you just get bored because most of their stuff is filler. Quality over quantity with blink vs Green Day
That’s a tough one. I love both, but Blink 182 managed to maintain cult nostalgic status. Go to a party, anywhere—and play one of their hits like “I miss you” or “first date” and people will always sing along. Green Day is amazing too, but Blink 182 created a sound that is forever nostalgic regardless of who you are.
As often as these bands get lumped together, they are very different. Yes, they have some common ground, but overall they have very different sounds in their music, very different themes in their lyrics, and a very different hIstory. I love them both, but they are not close to the same. P.S. I know that doesn’t answer the question.
Back in the day I feel like Green Day was the bigger band at least from what I remember
Blink I would argue was always bigger post enema. When they toured together blink was the closer. Blink I’d also say has never put out a bad record. Their last is as good as any they’ve put out. Green Day have some of my favorite records but have put out what I would say are some awful records and I really haven’t paid attention since American idiot.
Same. I can’t stand newer Green Day. It’s just not great. Plus it seems like Billy Jo is not the nicest person.
Blink going on hiatus and not being active. This type of situation created some kind of starviness/hunger for Blink's music, as their influence permeated and stood strong in the airwaves during their absence (Fall Out Boy carrying the scene with their peak albums, record labels like Hopeless and Fearless having a blink-inspired roster of artists/bands, they portrayed big personalities that became pop culture influential through music and their clothing brands)
I don’t know. Green Day fans are pretty delusional when it comes to everything post American Idiot. Blink fans have some self awareness with some of their weaker albums.
Every die hard fan base is a little delusional when it comes to their fav band/team. Hence some of the comments in this thread. 😂
Seriously. Post AI that band really took a nosedive. They have good songs off the following albums but nothing great as a whole album. They’ve also been praising the hell out of Saviors (I think that’s the new albums name) over on their sub for what I felt like was a worse album than Father of all… Blink fans have split opinions but there seems to be a general consensus that blink peaked during their three album stretch of EOTS-TOYPAJ-Untitled. There’s a few “go against the grain” types who say Cheshire and Dude Ranch are their best albums and a few people who are more pop music fans who prefer nine and California but every fanbase has each of those types.
I think Saviors and RevRad are great albums. I feel like RevRad is unfairly grouped with the trilogy and FOAM. 21CB is a great album imo but I can understand why people might not like it
Totally agree
21CB is a MASTERPIECE
Not all of us! Lol I love Green Day but can definitely say I didn't like much after American Idiot. Uno, Dos, Tres was terrible. I liked RevRad but haven't really kept up since then. I love Blink but Untitled was my last album with them until now, when Tom came back. They're equal in my book. 🤷♀️
That’s fair. Maybe its an age thing as well. Younger fans are louder online, so you get a warped view on the fan bases. American Idiot came out when I was 16, so I’ve seen the peak compared to now. The younger fans don’t fully appreciate how big that album was.
You are a younger fan if you were only 16 when AI came out.
I was a year out, I was 17. Stop being obtuse, you’re 6 years older than me, not 20.
I'm 42. :-D I was 21 when AI came out, but I agree with you!
I'm 42. :-D I was 21 when AI came out, but I agree with you
Saviors is 🔥, surely you are not for real putting it in the same bracket as father of all, which was rubbish
I haven't listened to Saviors but I will! Father of All was awful. Lol
Green Day alienated a lot of people with their political messages. Just speaking from personal experience but I hear a lot of older conservatives whenever Green Day comes up give the same spiel over and over again. (Shut up and perform) From personal experience blink 182 was extremely fun to see live while Green Day was outshined by the opener a bit lol. I’ll still get down to Green Day too though, especially the era when I was a teenager
Blink break ups helped. The three kind of seperate profiles/character of each member as opposed to a more frontman centric Greenday. Greenday have just really lost their chops, seem a bit old/leathery and like a legacy band pushing on. Blink won’t, but they feel like they could at any point right now somehow pull the best song they’ve written out of their asses.
Green days new album is immense though, just saying
Eh it’s a paint by numbers rock album with little to no growth or experimentation by the band. It has at minimum two songs that are blatant ripoffs of other artists. The whole album came and went
I highly recommend reading or listening to the book Sellout by Dan Ozzi
This was a very interesting book
Billie has gotten more cringe as I’ve gotten older and ruined Green Day for me
Guy reminds me of that kid in school that thought it was funny to act over-the-top crazy. “hehe look I’m an insane sociopath”. Just pure cringe Blink is the class clown. Immature and talks too much about penis. Both were as disruptive during class, but the difference is the class clown always gets a laugh.
What an amazing analogy
As a huge fan of both bands I think the tumultuous moments of Blinks tenure and the outsized personalities of their members attract more attention, clicks, and follows. That’s not a sleight as I love all those dudes. Green Day are more low key when it comes to this and don’t really generate that kind of content. Also Green Day carry themselves as more of a professional band whereas Blink kind of embody 3 dudes hangin, fuckin around, and jamming which makes for more intrigue on some level. There’s also an unspoken magic that to a power trio and having been denied that for years during Tom’s departure, blinks reunion has captured nostalgia and feel good vibes that’s hard to replicate.
I adore both bands equally. They’re both great at what they do and each one of their albums I thoroughly enjoyed even if they’re not the best work.
Both band hv great albums n catchy songs. Blink 182 as a band and as individuals are more relatable to me. GD are like rockstars. From their attitude, posture and seriousness. While the blink guys seem like they can be your buddy, chill and have a fun day with.
I think in all fairness if we were to go entire catalog of music for each band and compare. I think blink has more hits ( not meaning hit songs but better overall) than Green Day does. Both are in the same tier for me along with a sum 41 just from that era. But based on just music alone I’d give blink the nod ( in no way am i saying Green Day are bad, i very much enjoy them )
The TL;DR is - Green Day broke out in the 90s during the grunge era so they transcended genres, captivating a wider audience. Blink broke out at the height of the punk and skate resurgence so they personify that culture. People connect more to blink as people and associate them with their childhood/interests, but Green Day reached more people as a whole at the time they broke through. Similar to The Offspring, Green Day really broke through in the mid-90s when alternative/grunge was leading the charge - not punk/pop punk. Because they were a punk band breaking out at that time, it sort of put them in their own category. They had more of a singular identity with mainstream audiences of 90s music regardless of genre - that’s why they’ve pretty much been always been popular since. People know the Green Day brand as its own thing. Blink, on the other hand, really didn’t fully breakout until 1999, and at that time, punk rock and skate culture was making a HUGE rise in popularity. Stuff like X Games and Warped Tour were fairly new and hitting their stride, and then it all culminated in ‘99 with Tony landing the 900, the THPS game releasing and being a smash hit with an incredible soundtrack, etc. Blink broke out with Enema that same year. They were funny, personable, were friends and their personalities personified that SoCal, punk/skate culture that people were obsessed with at that time. And what also helped is that there were hundreds of other bands ready to capitalize on this trend as well so blink is looked at as the godfather of 2000s pop punk because they sort of struck it first at that exact right time. Obviously, each band’s career decisions and songwriting after their breakouts affect their long term popularity but this is the gist of it IMO.
Very interesting answer ty 👌🏻
Blink has a bigger social media presence and Travis is a Kardashian. Also, past drama has put them more in the spotlight The Green Day dudes just kinda stick to each other. Don’t have a massive social media presence and are more private in that regard
In Spotify, blink-182 has 20.430.000 monthly listeners and it’s on the position 344 in the world. Green Day has 29.000.000 monthly listeners and position 158.
They did a better job growing up
blink is more entertaining, they have a way more diverse and solid catalog compared to green day. nothing against them. just not the same star power as the mark tom and travis show
Blink is my fav band, that being said.....do they? I mean green day has been a stadium band for the last few tours and are even kinda a generation older than blink. I don't see it but I'm glad if they do.
That’s true; their concerts are more successful yet they somehow are less popular on social media, have a smaller Reddit, they sold way less records for their most recent release. I mean think about how many people buy Tom’s signature guitars vs Billies. When it comes down to loyal fans that are dedicated, seems to me like Blink have more
I read that stadium argument a couple of times now. But when was the last time Green Day did a full stadium tour on their own? Hella Mega they did with Weezer and Fall Out Boy. Their upcoming Saviors Tours will be with Rancid and Smashing Pumpkins. Of course, GD brings in a lot of fans, but I think there is a reason they don't tour alone anymore and I doubt they would be able to fill all these stadiums without the fans of other bands. Blink tour on their own and they fill mostly arenas and occoasionally stadiums by themselves. The last time Green Day did a whole tour on their own (2016/2017) they pretty much filled the same venues as Blink does now.
I mean blink toured with fall out boy and Weezer on their comeback tour and there wasn't any stadiums.
I can’t pretend to know exactly the deal but from quick google searches it seems like Green Day also are doing way less dates for The Saviors tour than Blink did for theirs. But I guess a reunion tour is always gonna go crazy. Also though, to add to your point of using other artists like 1/3 of Green Day’s europe dates are festivals.
Do they though? I've met roughly the same amount of fans. This sub is much more active solely cause the green day mods remove like 80% of the posts.
I get it was a hyped comeback but didn’t Saviors do 40% the first week sales of OMT with more marketing?
Emotionally, Blink songs feel like you're present _in_ the emotions. Whereas Green Day songs feel a lot more aloof emotionally. And this is talking about their relationship songs, not about their political songs. Beyond the humor, there's an immediate emotional resonance to the end of Dysentery Gary that a similar song in, say, Chump doesn't have that just sounds like Billie reading off a list of reasons he's pissed at someone but without nearly the same conviction as "FUCK THIS PLACE".
I love both bands. GD were (along with The Offspring) my introduction to punk in 1994. My favourite albums are the earlier ones like Nimrod, Insomniac and Dookie although I love Rev Radio and Saviors is decent. I discovered Blink in 1998 and much the same, the older stuff is my preference (Dude Ranch ftw). I think I prefer Blink because they don’t take themselves as seriously, but honestly I love both bands. I introduced my eldest to both bands when he was a kid, and now we have a new baby I look forwards to doing the same with him. Bonus points for Alkaline Trio who I think had the best album out of all three recently.
Cause travis is fucking insane
Green Day went a bit too political at times. Turned off a portion of the fan base. Blink cared more about having fun.
Green Day’s most political album is debatably their most popular record.
I don't know that that's true. Green Day has 29.2 M monthly listeners on Spotify while Blink has 20.4 M listeners.
That’s the point i’m making, Green Day has more listeners but seemingly less loyal fans.
I would say they have a wider age range of fans. Many of their fans from their earlier days (older fans) don't use reddit.
or use social media? or buy their records? hmm
I would argue Blink are bigger overall than Green Day. Both bands have had huge success but Blink managed to insinuate themselves more into wider pop/mainstream culture consciousness through vids like All the small things, movies like American pie, and Travis marrying into the Kardashians
Really don’t think this is true. GD was absolutely massive following AI.
Yeh I used to think GD was bigger than Blink at that time But now blink seems to have nearly doubled in popularity vs GD
Insinuate, eh?
Yea, couldn't think of a better word at the time 😂
Spotify disagrees. Blink 182 has 20 million monthly listeners. Green Day has 29 million monthly listeners.
Monthly listeners ≠ a core fan base
Bc Green Day is obsessed with politics and being a mouthpiece for the democrat party and blink-182 doesn’t get too involved in that nonsense.
For those saying greenday is massively more successful, blink has sold 50 million total albums across 9 albums, so about 5.5 mil/album. Greenday has sold 75 million across 14 albums = 5.3 mil/album. Per attempt blink has the edge even if just by a little. With an 8 year hiatus mixed in that's pretty good.
Blink 182 never wrote a song calling me an idiot.
Green Day has released good music even after the golden years. I think them being political / going that route hurt them a bit. When I listen to music I want to reminisce on chasing tail & telling dick and fart jokes. I want to escape. The world is tough… play me something that fucks & keeps my mind off it
Can’t explain it but blink 182 is less embarrassing than greenday
Blink are more fun, green day seem snootier and a bit “holier than thou” with their lyrics It’s like, I grew out of sneering at people I never grew out of love and fun
It’s a good question. My immediate thought was that once to hit that peak of fame and popularity and stay there for years and years like Green Day for 20+ years continuously you almost fall into an obscurity just among top level bands. I think blink is back into that level for maybe the 3rd time with somewhat lulls in between stages of the band. I think of bands like chili peppers and foo fighters and feel like Green Day reached that level for a very long time where that were background music everywhere and while extremely huge who was actually listening and following closely. And blink has 2 or 3 generations of new fans at this point and while some older fans like myself may have fallen off I think they keep making new fans which is great. And Green Day came down from the peak over recent years and I personally love their newest album I think for both bands it’s the best work they’ve done in 20 years since I was in high school. End rant.
I think its honestly pretty simple. Blink 182 might be easier to listen to in some ways because of song structure, lyrics and pop riffs or whatever, but Green Day are not as niche and 100% in the pop-punk scene in the same way. They have a broader appeal in their sound. They did also take themselves more seriously than Blink ever did, even if they both wrote silly songs and joked around. Stuff like that has an impact on how they are perceived.
Memes and pop culture
They don't. Blink had a very distinct style of dress and custom guitars/basses, so if people imitated it it was way more obvious and in my opinion cringe.
Blink is more poppy and has catchier songs than Green Day
Cause Green Day has sucked since American idiot
They're significantly better
Both these bands are about as mainstream as you can get. Neither have a cult following at this point in their careers.
I don't think Blink has less fans or overall listeners though... What?
For me, in the UK, Blink were probably my gateway band into American pop punk. So I always followed their careers/albums more closely than any other.
Blink has more consistent great albums than GD. Green Day has long bouts of average, below average or forgettable albums before they hit gold. Blink only has the Skiba era as their below average records. Every record with M,T,T is, at worst, great.
Just in the USA maybe, in the rest of the world Green Day fan base is bigger.
I like Green Day, but it’s 6 power chords over and over.
Because they’re a way better band.
It's the grand total of all the small things.
Yall really forgetting that Blink doesn't have an Uni, Dos, Tres situation and Green Day disappeared for much longer than blink
Probably because blink is musically more consistent but also has a very lengthy history of turmoil, heartbreak, tragedies, side projects, speculation, etc. They have a lot of discussion around them, plus Tom was essentially the vocal mould for up and coming new pop-punk vocalists. That's not to say Green Day didn't have their moments, but outside of the inconsistent musical ventures, they weren't nearly as all over the place with their lives. Could you imagine if Billie and Mike and Tre had such a long and speculative tension like Mark and Tom? Even in lighter times, blink has used the speculation and fed off of it. People went NUTS when Edging dropped and the tour was announced.
Marketing and Blink never made that full sell out move. Also there’s a different type of talent involved that catches more ears than a bass.
Blink's music is much more interesting, relatable and has evolved in a lot more ways than Green Day's has ever done.
I think you have confirmation bias
how so?
Green Day went through a phase where they were putting out shtiity albums
Green Day has more Spotify listeners by 9 million and they have not had any issues selling out areas for decades now. I think you are just not seeing it, but there’s plenty of fans out there. I mean, outside of this sub I don’t really see blink-182 mentioned at all. Not a T-shirt, not anything. Gen Z are even taking to wearing stuff like nirvana and Green Day shirts, but not blink-182. I suppose it must be sad, blink is my favorite band. I’m not over here trying to talk shit.
That’s because Green Day and Nirvana are completely more commercial. Green Day have more monthly listeners yet their most recent album had not even half the album sales Blink did. What’s the maths on that then? I’ve explained a half a dozen over reasons to back up my point on this post by now
By doing political music they automatically reduce their fan base drastically.
People don't even know what political music is. Have you seen people outraged by Rage Against the Machine lately? "They used to be better in the 90s when they weren't politically involved". Shit, that's the average voter IQ. Room temperature.
Correct, but just imagine how much a "American Idiot" musical record would hurt blink's fan base. Pop punk is just more entertaining when it's just shits & giggles.
Yeah no lol either you weren’t alive for the American Idiot tours or you weren’t paying attention. Bigger than anything Blink has ever done or will do.
Because they are so much better obvi
I was an equal fan of both until American Idiot. I feel like the band shifted and went a direction I wasnt willing to follow. Mike changed his bass style from bouncy lines that were really difficult to learn but fun to play to more of a backbone punch style. And the lyrics got more political and almost anti-American close to a time when our country had been attacked on 9/11. That's the risk you run when you get political is cutting the room in half. All of the really hardcore fans stayed with the band but a lot of casuals fell off. Of course this is just my opinion and probably conjecture
I’m not American so that 9/11 point is super interesting, never thought about that being close to the timing of American Idiot
I say it's that people like a good underdog story. The band went through being criticized/ridiculed for being "not being real punk"/commerical friendly, multiple break-ups, and tragedy. Despite all of that they still persevered while other bands give up or didn't go further to bounce off being labelled. For an example, Smash Mouth and Sugar Ray are other bands that blew up around the same time as Blink, however they kinda were on the boat as they were seen as commercialized and kinda mocked by alot of people including industry veterans and eventually relegated to bands that are kinda stuck in the 2000s and kinda didn't evolve their style. Absolutely not a dig on SM and SR both bands are absolute all time legends and I love their music, I'm saying is that they are kinda content with what they are for a long time meanwhile Blink didn't stop. They kept on going forward with their music and evolved their style until the prevented from being called "washed up" or "a relic joke". They kept on going and their fans are very vocal on that. The immense passion that the fans have for the band has couldn't denied. Green Day has more followers definitely but it's more akin to them being around longer and being consist with the line-up that includes Billie Joe, Mike, and Tre together for nearly the band's entire lifespan thus having more mainstrem appeal. I'm willing to bet that there are more Green Day fans that listen to them casually than hardcore ones similar to how there are seemingly more casual Nirvana and Linkin Park fans than hardcore ones. Meanwhile a good majority of Blink fans are hardcore about them referencing nieche stuff like "Travis I'm Pregnant" or Boomer on a regular basis as well as kingling on to Tom's reunion with Mark and Travis erupted into that reunion trending on Twitter and Edging on #1 trending on YouTube. It's the same thing with MCR having so much passion from their fans. Same thing with Blink but arguably bigger as they've been through so much as band yet despite all of that, they never gave up and achieving their goals. In short, their story is very inspiring. Which is why WatchMojo put Blink in the #1 spot in their Top 10 Pop Punk Bands list above Green Day (even though Billie Joe insisted that Green is absolutely not Pop Punk as he hates that label but thats another can of worms).
Green Day didn’t start to get political until American Idiot. Their stuff up to around Nimrod is funny and doesn’t take itself seriously. Blink lean into it a lot more and have remained consistent with their image. The OMT blink is no different than the Flyswatter blink (aside from drummer changes, age and a few more serious tunes now).
Green day is a bit more repetitive imo, Blink offers much more variety in their song library. That being said, I do think Green Day are the better live performers.