Heck, in their early days they even took a stab at awkward boy band choreography:īut you can’t fault Hanson for their own questionable origins. They had a rich dad who funded their early recordings (at least I am pretty sure this is true) and were marketed towards a preteen audience from the very beginning. Now, I don’t want to exaggerate this and make it sound like Hanson were a bunch of simple blue-collar young folks with the purest of origins. Putting it bluntly, when Middle Of Nowhere is fun, it’s fun as a butt. Middle Of Nowhere is hardly perfect, but its best moments are some of the most enjoyable, guileless pop songs of the 1990s. Even in ’97, these guys had a lot going for them. As for that first criticism – namely, that Hanson were a slicked-up cuteball nothing band – I can’t help but disagree. You are weird and I don’t like you.Īnyway. Look at yourself in the mirror and ask why? Why does this matter to you.Īnd then go away! Far, far away. ![]() If Hanson’s appearance bothers you (or, rather, bothered you in 1997), then you need to ask yourself why. Honestly, I don’t want to focus on Hanson’s public image too much because I don’t think it’s important at all, but this is commonly (read: depressingly) one of the first things people think about when they think about Hanson so I want to get it out of the way. And fifteen years later, people still joke about it. Hanson’s appearance turned a nation of pop listeners into disapproving 1960s mothers overnight. Why? Because they have LONG HAIR! LONG BLONDE HAIR! THEY’RE BOYS? B-B-BUT THEY LOOK LIKE GIRLS!!!!!!!! For the former, you had people ragging on their music for being too sugary cute for the latter, you had people saying they looked like girls. I mean, we can blame overexposure all we want – “MMMBop” was an inescapable earworm in 1997, and a backlash was inevitable I guess – but criticism of Hanson around this time ranged from unfairly dismissive to downright creepy and mean. MMMwhat! What does that mean? It doesn’t mean anything!! I don’t get it!! Dumb!! Dumb!!!! Even as a ten year old I did not understand why anybody would like this goofy dumb corn music. Man! I know from experience, because I was one of those people. ![]() Man did people hate on Hanson in the late 90s. They came across as a bunch of talented kids raised on their parents’ record collections trying to make ’em proud rather than a motley crew of faceless hunk bores.īottom line, Hanson were likeable kids who made fun music – which, when exposed to the mainstream public in 1997, went from instantly adored to reviled within the span of, what, a week? They also had a pretty pronounced classicist pop bent – shiny 90s production aside, Hanson were modeled as a sort of Jackson 5 of the 90s, throwing in some late-60s sunshine pop and soul for good measure. I feel guilty pointing out the fact that they (mostly) wrote their own songs and played their own instruments – because at the end of the day, does it make a shit of a difference? – but yeah, they wrote their own songs and played their own instruments. Which is funny, ’cause despite being a group of nice looking young men adept at playing poppy joy music, Hanson did not have much in common with their sweet teen brethren. ![]() Nevertheless, they were The Pop Band to open the door wide open in America for these boys along with the Spice Girls, they’re regularly cited as a major player in the opening salvo of late-90s Teenpopalooza. They were not a bunch of formless white hunks hand-picked by a shady record executive and lumped together into a studio to record assembly-line radio songs written by Swedish men.
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