After a long series of performances at various clubs and festivals and several indie recordings throughout the 1990s, Blink-182 first achieved popularity on the Warped Tour and in Australia following the release of their second album Dude Ranch (1997) and its rock radio hit "Dammit."

Guitarist Tom DeLonge and bassist Mark Hoppus primarily culled stories from friends and autobiographical situations to craft summer-related tracks revolving around breakups, suburban parties and maturity, as well as more offbeat subject matter such as UFO conspiracy theories.

Enema of the State was an enormous commercial success, although the band was criticized as synthesized, manufactured pop only remotely resembling punk, and pigeonholed as a joke act due to the puerile slant of its singles and associated music videos.

Enema of the State has retrospectively been hailed as a quintessential pop-punk album and had an extensive impact on the genre and beyond, reinventing it for a new generation, influencing countless bands and artists, and spawning numerous tributes and accolades.

[6] In addition to the hefty touring schedule, the trio grew tired of other commitments, including interviews and TV appearances due to the success of "Dammit.

[5] Raynor, who was at the center of this drama, had been commenting of his desire to attend college for years, and had been taking homework out with him on tour to try and complete his high school diploma.

[23] Don Lithgow, owner and operator of DML Studios, said in 2001 that the trio's celebrity had increased considerably since the last time: "[It] was different than their other sessions — girls hanging around outside, calling their friends on cell phones.

[23][24] To record Enema of the State, Blink-182 turned to punk rock producer Jerry Finn, who previously worked on Green Day's breakthrough album, Dookie (1994).

In a September 1999 Guitar Player article, DeLonge outlined his intentions: "I'm the kind of guitarist that wants the biggest, fattest, loudest, sound he can get.

[48] Summarizing the album's content, The New York Times's Jon Caramanica called Enema of the State a sampling of "ecstatic, goofy numbers about teenage uselessness, with a smattering of tender introspection.

While watching the movie Can't Hardly Wait, Hoppus began to think about "how much it sucks when people are in love in high school" and are forced to be separated after graduation by different colleges in different cities.

[44] "Adam's Song," the piano-laced seventh track of the record, was written primarily based on the loneliness that Hoppus experienced during the unending days of touring the previous year.

[6] When Hoppus brought the song to the band, the trio reacted positively but showed reluctance to add it to the record, believing the dark subject matter might off-put listeners.

[65] According to Mark Hoppus, they "always intended to have a sexy nurse on the cover", and the women considered included models from both Playboy and Janine's employer Vivid Entertainment.

[80] "I was a little surprised it went over so well," recalled Marcos Siega, director of the clip, commenting that he felt it would offend viewers of Total Request Live (TRL) and boy band fans.

The band was engulfed in controversy when Greg Barnes, a survivor of the Columbine High School massacre, set "Adam's Song" on repeat on his stereo and committed suicide in May 2000.

[90] The major-label debut sold strongly and nearly four times as fast as Dude Ranch,[25] and shipped gold to stores, unlike its predecessor, which took seven months to achieve that certification.

"[104] NME was vicious in its assessment, with reviewer Stevie Chick calling the record despicable, "wholly toothless and soulless" and deriding the band as "as bad, as meaningless, as the cock-rockers and hippy wankers punk originally sought to destroy.

[55] Jeff Yerger from Stereogum viewed it as a spiritual canon successor to Dookie, calling it "the strongest set of songs [Blink] ever wrote [...] the chemistry between the three members is instantly gratifying.

"[108] Billboard described the album as a "classic" in a retrospective review, calling it the "catchiest batch of songs the band had ever written," and commending the leap in quality both in production and vocals in comparison to its predecessor.

[96] Andy Greene of Rolling Stone dubbed it a "landmark,"[109] while Dan Weiss, writing for The Recording Academy, praised its "remarkably clean-sounding guitars, [and] the hyperactive drumming of Barker.

Although the video for "All the Small Things" was filmed as a mockery of boy bands and teen pop, "fame [didn't] discriminate based on origin: soon the group was as famous as those it was parodying.

"[111] Matt Diehl, author of the book My So-Called Punk, called the basis for satire thin: "To seasoned ears, Blink-182 sounded and looked just as manufactured as the pop idols they were poking fun at.

[112] Jon Blisten of Beats Per Minute writes that "Enema's success perpetuated pop-punk's viability on mainstream radio, which is where Blink's progeny — bands like Fall Out Boy, Simple Plan, and New Found Glory — would receive a decent amount of airplay.

"[65] Nitsuh Abebe of New York describes the immense popularity of the record with adolescents in an article measuring its influence: "After you figure in singles, videos, CD-R burns, copies on repeat in friends' cars and finished basements, this was apparently enough to create blanket immersion among America's twenty-some million teenagers.

"[51] Alternative Press has ranked Enema of the State among Jerry Finn's top production work,[120] and UK-based music magazine Rock Sound rated it number 2 on their list of "101 Modern Classics" in 2012, writing, "Enema didn't just bring pop-punk to the masses, it marked a complete shift in how music television, radio and the world at large viewed it.

"[106] In 2014, Ian Cohen of Pitchfork noted the album's extensive influence: "In a literal sense, many indie bands evolved not from Velvet Underground or Sonic Youth, but Smash, Dookie, or Enema of the State—records that served as beginner's manuals and inspired musicians in great numbers to buy their first guitar.

The tour was staged as a drive-in movie, with a giant retro billboard suspended from the ceiling, and films were projected on the screen behind the band – including vintage gay porn as a joke.

[137] To celebrate the success of the tour, the band released a limited edition live album titled The Mark, Tom, and Travis Show (The Enema Strikes Back!

[138] Released in November 2000, the band returned to the studio with Finn to complete a song left off the final track listing of Enema of the State: "Man Overboard.