Hanson was an anomaly, to say the least–a patch of blue sky in the otherwise murky fallout of mopey grunge, grinding industrial rock and roughneck rap. Major record labels saw the light, and unwittingly, these honey-blond brothers from Tulsa, Okla., kick-started the newest surge of bubble-gum pop. The three years that followed produced an impossibly perky onslaught of choreographed acts, such as the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, ‘N Sync and Christina Aguilera. Where self-taught musicians Hanson were a fluke that happened to sell 8 million debut albums, the carefully orchestrated Britney and ‘N Sync have become the cash cows needed to float an entire label. Jive Records has sold 12 million and 8 million copies of these artists’ respective last albums, breaking records with ‘N Sync’s April 2000 release.
On the release of Hanson’s second major album, “This Time Around,” an older, wiser trio shun responsibility for unleashing torrents of quasi-talented cuties. “We’ve been credited with starting that–” says Isaac carefully (he’s being shuttled in a van to a rehearsal space uptown), but middle brother Taylor cuts in. “We don’t want to take credit for something, whether it be good or bad, unless it’s our music,” says the dreamiest of the trio. “We just came out right before pop music came back strong and our fans were our age, really young, so we get credited with starting this whole thing. But I don’t think you can ever take credit for a style of music, or movement. First, how could you be the band that says ‘I started grunge, or classical’? And second, what we’re doing is so different.”
Nirvana’s influence on grunge may be easier to trace than Mozart’s contribution to classical, but it should be noted for historical purposes that Hanson are not entirely responsible for the return of bubble gum (shame on those Backstreet Boys). But Hanson are a food group apart from the sugary, in-between snacks called boy bands. Whereas today’s top-grossing acts are pressed out of a carefully constructed template of hip-hop lite tunes, head-snapping dance moves and globs of hair gel/lip gloss, Hanson write and play all the songs on “This Time Around” (a step up from the co-writing credit on their debut). This attempt to gain control of their own destiny is a luxury not usually afforded studio creations. Many of these so-called boy groups are made up of performers in their 20s, but are pitched at an adolescent sales niche, leaving them unable to graduate from singing the tunes prepubescent girls “just die for.” Hanson are striving for a life beyond “MMMBop,” and hope to bring aging fans with them. “That’s what’s great about writing your own songs,” says Taylor, “you can change your sound because it is yours to change.”
“This Time Around” is a baby step forward for Hanson, their trademark sunny sound now mixed with roots rock, blues, a little gospel and “mature” themes like rejection, death and urban living. It doesn’t always work, but you can still tap your toe to it, thanks to catchy hits powered by retro keyboard, funk grooves, R&B harmonies and turntable scratching. Harmonica-man John Popper of Blues Traveler (one of many guests on Hanson’s album including Beck’s DJ Swap and Sly and the Family’s Rose Stone) lent a Southern sound and left them with this advice: “Make Hanson lunchboxes, dolls. Cash in while you can!”
No one understands the need to “cash in” now better than Jive Records, which has wasted no time releasing Britney Spears’s follow-up to ‘99’s “… Baby One More Time.” The album “Oops!… I Did It Again” is out this week, though her debut is still resonating through malls across America. It’s no mistake–architects behind the acts know it’s crucial to ride the teen-pop wave until it breaks, because it swells only every 10 years or so (the ’90s brought us Boyz II Men, the ’80s New Kids on the Block and so on). In contrast, Hanson’s manager and dad, former oil-company contractor Walker Hanson, does not appear to be the Svengali who is “guiding” his sons to fame. Instead, he looks more like an Oklahoma tourist as he takes home videos of his sons in New York for “memories’ sake.” But Mr. Hanson’s old doo-wop records did prove the initial inspiration for Hanson, who started as an a cappella act when Zac was 6, harmonizing to ’50s tunes at local fairs, then eventually writing their own music and making two independent albums. “People ask, ‘Why did you start playing so early on?’ " says Taylor, as the van pulls alongside a pack of Hanson fans waiting outside the studio. A tame gaggle of girls stare sheepishly into the smoked windows. " ‘What was the thing that drove you?’ I guess we could’ve said let’s wait five years, but it wasn’t a conscious decision. The reason we did it is ‘cause, well, there is no reason. We were just three people at the age we were, playing music and harmonizing. That’s all–just three people, playing.” In the kid-pop realm, where every move is planned and every note polished, Hanson are still the unlikely leaders.
