Music Week takes a look at how pop-punk titans Blink-182 delivered one of the most interesting catalogue launches of recent memory... by reactivating their old MySpace account. Here, Spencer Swayze, director of digital marketing at Interscope, and April Salud, day-to-day manager at Cardiff Giant Management, explain all...
Words: David McLaughlin
Twenty-five years ago, pop-punk topped the US albums chart for the first time as Californian trio Blink-182 released their fourth studio album, Take Off Your Pants And Jacket. Its blend of frenetic energy, adolescent humour and irresistible hooks cemented the band as global stars, while the record has gone on to become one of the defining and enduring rock releases of the early 2000s. Indeed, one its signature singles, First Date, just went platinum in the UK on June 12, precisely 25 years to the day since the worldwide release of TOYPAJ. The album has sold 530,611 copies to date in the UK, according to Official Chart Company data.
To mark its silver anniversary, Geffen and Interscope have gone above and beyond issuing a standard deluxe release. Alongside an expanded edition featuring six long-sought-after vault tracks now available on streaming for the first time, the campaign has included surprise collectible vinyl variants, global Blink-182 Day pop-up merchandise stores in London and LA, the annoucement of European tour dates, and perhaps most strikingly, the revival of the band’s long-dormant MySpace page – a playful, pointed nod to the online community that helped define an era of internet culture.
As fans celebrate Blink-182 Day, (on July 1 aka – the 182nd day of the year), Music Week speaks to April Salud, day-to-day manager at Cardiff Giant Management and Spencer Swayze, director of digital marketing at Interscope, about the strategy behind one of 2026’s most inventive catalogue campaigns, balancing nostalgia with modern fan engagement...
Above: Blink-182's revived MySpace page
When the creative brief for this project landed, what was the vision for celebrating the record?
Spencer Swayze: “For a project as iconic as this and a band as iconic as Blink-182, 25 years is such a big milestone. If I have this correct, Take Off Your Pants And Jacket was the first pop-punk record to go to No.1 at Billboard. So, clearly that made an impact with a lot of people 25 years ago, and to this day that impact remains. The goal for us was to spotlight the fans of that era: lean into the nostalgia, honour fans with some new things, like redelivering the bonus tracks. But I also feel like internet nostalgia is such a wave, that’s exciting for fans, new and old. Newer generations – like, Gen Z and below – love to play into ‘90s/early 2000s internet. So, we relaunched the band’s old MySpace, we relaunched their website as it looked in 2001, and that kind of thing. It was like, ‘How do we take a time machine back to 2001, make it fun, but also have it still be fresh and inviting for new fans as well?’”
What sparked the idea to resurrect Blink-182’s long-dormant MySpace page?
Swayze: “I was really just thinking back to what people were doing on the internet in the early 2000s. You've seen artists do reskins of websites that look like MySpace pages before, but I basically spent a week running around our office being like, ‘Does anyone have a contact at MySpace?’ And everyone was like, ‘I don’t think they even have contacts anymore!’ Then I finally found some hack to get in, I got the login and I rebuilt it, spending a day having fun doing things like putting some prank links in there and stuff.”
April Salud: “I think it made sense with the campaign that Interscope put forward. It was just another layer and kind of a why not. It was almost a challenge. I was like, ‘If you can do it, there’s no reason not to.’ I didn’t even know MySpace was still active.”
Swayze: “Zero knock to MySpace – it’s still a working platform – but there’s a lot of features that I think were exciting to people 20 years ago that don’t really function now. Like, I couldn’t update the top eight, which was the number one thing I wanted to do. I couldn’t unarchive photos or tweak a few things, so it was kind of janky, but for what it was, I think it served its purpose.”
I basically spent a week running around our office being like, ‘Does anyone have a contact at MySpace?'
Spencer Swayze, Interscope
Why do you think the MySpace revival resonated so strongly?
Swayze: “I feel like people on the internet and fans are just longing for something new and that something new can even be a little bit of a break from the norm that’s a callback. Everyone is familiar with what a rollout on Instagram or on TikTok looks like. You can spin that a million different ways, but at the end of the day, it’s still those two platforms, which are dominant. I think having some unique piece that gets people being like, ‘Oh, this is cool!’ I feel like that was kind of the goal. That’s what you hope for with these kind of projects. You’re always hoping for some conversation around it, so the more conversation that’s happening, the more spotlight there is on the project and on the artist. I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the interest in all of this, but also not, in the sense that this is an iconic band with very iconic footprints, both IRL and online.”
Has the role of catalogue marketing shifted from simply releasing music to creating moments people want to share?
Swayze: “I think so. Our position is always one of, ‘What is the story we’re trying to tell?’ It’s one thing to be like, ‘Here’s six new songs that never came out on DSPs’ but why are we releasing them now? Is there any kind of connection to why they were not on there versus why they are now? How can we tell the story of this band and how does it relate to the pop culture landscape? It’s not just about dropping a few things that’ll be fun for fans. What does this band stand for? What is the narrative we’re trying to portray online and how can we amplify that in different ways? Yes, this is a catalogue/anniversary moment, but we wanted to treat it like we would a frontline album release. And we’re trying to continue this through the summer to make it feel like a cultural moment for fans globally.”
The campaign is a bit of fan service with new music, European dates, Blink-182 day... It’s all just this perfect storm
April Salud, Cardiff Giant Management
The six bonus tracks have almost become mythical among fans. Why was now the right moment to put them on DSPs?
Salud: “I can’t tell you how many times fans have asked about it. The band themselves and anybody associated with the band, too. From the management side, we were all talking about it… Fans were catching, like, the colours are wrong, like, ‘This song is supposed to be yellow and you guys got it wrong!’ And even Mark (Hoppus, Blink-182 singer and bassist) was like, ‘What are they talking about?’ Again, it was 25 years ago, but it shows the level of fandom involved. There is something to be said about these songs being 25 years old yet sounding just like new singles. Obviously, there’s a lore to them, but they could have been new Blink songs and done just as well.”
How has the campaign gone down with the band?
Salud: “They love it. We get so many messages from them that this has been an incredible rollout. It was a bit of fan service, new music, we announced European dates, Blink-182 day and it’s all just this perfect storm.”
Why do you think Take Off Your Pants And Jacket still resonates 25 years on?
Salud: “When you think about what was on MTV at that moment – NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears – it makes no sense, because then there’s Blink, these weird punk kids from San Diego. But I think this album went a lot darker and deeper. I think that resonates because there’s real feelings involved. I think that those types of feelings, especially when you’re a teenager, just never go away. No matter what decade you’re in, being a teenager sucks. I think that’s what's timeless about that record. Now, 25 years later, you have Gen Alpha listening to it and having all these same feelings. Good music always lasts.”
How important is authenticity when you’re celebrating a catalogue album like this?
Salud: “As management, we don’t ever do anything we don’t want to. There’s always a power in saying no. It’s all gut feelings. In a world where you genuinely don’t know what is real anymore, it’s nice to feed off of something that you know is authentic because this band has never really done anything that they didn’t believe in. That’s why they’ve been able to stand the test of time.”
