Blogocentric Formulations

Say it ain't so, I will not go

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DAY 18

Song: "All the Small Things"
Artist: Blink-182
Album: Enema of the State (1999)

If you were a child of the 90s and remember the era of the pop girl groups and boy bands, you probably remember this song and especially this music video. Blink-182's music video parodied a number of music videos from other artists, including Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, The Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync, and 98 Degrees. Although Enema of the State was their third studio album together, it was the one that really launched their careers, first with the hit "What's My Age Again?" followed by this one.

I remember being really disillusioned with MTV at the time. TRL (Total Request Live... remember that show???) was dominated by boy bands, girl groups, and manufactured pop songs that young teenagers voted incessantly into the Top 10. With music videos starting to give way to reality television, there was little opportunity for rock music fans to see or hear videos for their bands. So when Blink-182 released their videos, it was a breath of fresh air, and "All the Small Things" became incredibly popular thanks to the mocking video.

Enema of the State was one of my favorite albums to come out that year, and even today is one of the rare albums where I like almost every song. In most cases, I buy an album for a song or two, end up liking another couple that I discover during the listening, and end up liking probably half the total songs on any given album. This was one of the few where I just listened to the whole album from start to finish, over and over again.