The most influential human being in songs proper now is Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker. Never imagine us? This 12 months by yourself, 25 tracks that includes or produced by Barker have been introduced. He has labored with the new pop-punk period Willow Smith and TikTok e-boy turned singer Lil Huddy, signed TikTok emo Jxdn, generated Trippie Redd’s Neon Shark album, and drummed on Bebe Rexha’s new one.
In point, Barker’s operate rate usually means he is reaching Pharrell Williams-like levels (at just one place in 2003, 1 survey observed that 43% of all tracks on US radio were generated by Williams’s output duo the Neptunes). And he is not halting: Barker has promised a new Blink-182 album this yr, and additional new music with Machine Gun Kelly, whose recent change from rap to pop-punk on album Tickets to My Downfall was a collaboration with … you guessed it, Travis Barker.
Provided that most developments appear close to every 20 many years, 2021 was generally heading to be the year pop-punk returned. Seminal albums by Sum 41, Alkaline Trio, Jimmy Take in World, American Hello-Fi and, of class, Blink-182’s Acquire Off Your Pants and Jacket, were all introduced in 2001, which usually means a entire new era of musicians are turning to the star for inspiration.
Aspect of Barker’s charm is nostalgic: Teenager Wolf actor Tyler Posey, 29, explained finding Barker on his observe Shut Up as “a desire come accurate. I have got Blink-182 tattoos, they’ve been my favourite band considering the fact that I was a kid”. And Yungblud, 23, explained working with Barker as “sick. I’m stood there with my jaw huge open, like … 13-12 months-aged me is useless right now”.
Considering the fact that joining Blink-182 in 1998, Barker has lived an really total life: he cheated death in a plane crash in 2008, was so depressed that he supplied mates $1m to destroy him, defeat a prescription drug addiction, and starred in the MTV reality clearly show Satisfy the Barkers. Now his kids are TikTok stars and he’s relationship Kourtney Kardashian. He is all over the place you switch: on the radio, streaming playlists, Television set chatshows, gossip blogs, and getting boosted up your Instagram feed by the 5.6m men and women who liked the most modern picture of him and Kourtney kissing.
Even so, the most important element powering Barker’s ubiquity may perhaps be his incapacity to say no. As his collab-significant 2011 solo album, Can a Drummer Get Some, proves, Barker is not fussy. As properly as Run the Jewels, Wiz Khalifa, Lil Wayne, Yelawolf and the late XXXTentacion, he has drummed for Pink, Britney Spears and James Arthur. He even popped up on the the very least punk song ever: 2017’s Terrible Gentleman with Pitbull, Aerosmith’s Joe Perry and R&B perv Robin Thicke. Seriously, if you’re in a pub band and your drummer calls in unwell, it’s value dropping Barker a text simply because the person just does not say no.