Blink-182 is a very popular high-school-punk-ish band. They started off as a
high school band in Poway, CA (in
San Diego County) known as
Blink. After putting out their first album,
Cheshire Cat, in 1995, some random Irish band claimed they had previous rights on the name Blink and threatened a suit. Before the next album,
Dude Ranch, they changed to Blink-182.
Cheshire Cat was a great album -- but I probably only say that because I grew up listening to it all the time in high school. There was nothing better to play driving around with friends in Encinitas after the rest of the town had gone to sleep (around 9:30pm). My first copy of Cheshire Cat just said Blink, without the 182, but since then I gave it away and got a new one with the 182.
Their early sound is reminiscent of NoFX, Green Day, and PennyWise. It's generally characterized by fast guitar and kinda whiny vocals, usually singing about the injustices of adolescence. It doesn't feel bitter, though -- it's more playful than anything else. Their albums have random comedic interludes, adding to the feel of three punk kids playing around in a recording studio.
We used to hear Blink on the radio all the time in San Diego. By 1997, Dammit, the first single off "Dude Ranch", got picked up for huge airplay by KROQ in LA, Live 105 in San Francisco, and a few other Modern Rock stations around the country. Suddenly they were a nation-wide sensation. They've put out two more records since: Enema of the State and The Mark, Tom, and Travis Show: The Enema Strikes Back.
Since then, they've appeared everywhere, getting air play on all kinds of stations everywhere (I think every station in the Bay Area has played a Blink song at one time or another). They're getting huge press, they're all over MTV, in the movies (e.g. American Pie) -- in short, they're pop superstars. Call it selling out, if you've got a stick up your butt, but if you were some punk kid from a San Diego suburb offered unbelievable fame and fortune to do what you've always done for fun in your garage anyway, you'd have to be some kind of fool to turn it down.