Tulsa World

The Young Folks

Twenty years ago, three young boys in a family band called Hanson made pop culture history when they released an album that featured a hit called “MMMBop.” Brothers Isaac, Taylor, and Zac were all under the legal voting age when they released their debut studio album Middle of Nowhere after two previous indie albums.

Produced by the Dust Brothers, Middle of Nowhere went four times platinum, sold ten million copies, and yielded three Grammy nominations for the young musicians, including Record of the Year, Best New Artist, and Best Pop Performance. The success of Middle of Nowhere launched Hanson’s career globally and contributed to the bubblegum pop boom of the late ‘90s.

Since Middle of Nowhere was released so early in Hanson’s career (Isaac was sixteen, Taylor was thirteen, and Zac was eleven) topics on the album trend towards the young and naive–which is absolutely not a negative, since their main fanbase was made of tween and teenage girls. Songs like “Speechless” take on relationships with a hint of funk inspiration, while the ballad “Weird” discusses how everyone feels like they don’t fit in at one time or another. The schmaltzy “I Will Come to You” explores the bond of friendship with some serious “That’s What Friends Are For” vibes.

You can’t talk about Middle of Nowhere without talking about what started it all: “MMMBop.” Their lead single from the album–and most successful single to date–reached number one in twenty-seven different countries at the height of its popularity. If you were coherent during the late ‘90s, chances are you’ve come into contact with this bright, upbeat track that is so often mistaken for a song made of pop-y nonsense.

While the chorus might not be made of definable words, the verses explore keeping the things and people that matter close to you, since life can be so fleeting. Originally, “MMMBop” was a slower ballad, but morphing it into one of the ultimate examples of bubblegum pop is what skyrocketed it to the top of the charts and made Hanson stand out at the time. As Entertainment Weekly put it in their review, “‘MMMBop’ isn’t some rocker-rock novelty. It’s fully realized pop that just happens to be sung by kids, and the same goes for Hanson’s equally yummy debut album, Middle of Nowhere…there’s something utterly natural and unaffected by it.”

Those who only remember “MMMBop” might mistakenly label Hanson as a one hit wonder, and they would be wrong. Their second single “Where’s the Love?” hit multiple Billboard charts and is still celebrated today. While not a single, “Look at You” is a fun, funk-inspired song all about dancing that has energy rippling off the chords.

One of the strongest songs on the album was originally a hidden track on the CD, taking its place after eight silent tracks. “Man from Milwaukee” is an upbeat, slightly silly rock song about meeting a man who thinks aliens are going to abduct him. Inspired by the band breaking down near Albuquerque and seeing alien tourist paraphernalia, the track has a super catchy, rhyme-ridden chorus. Considering “Man From Milwaukee” shares album space with infamous earworm “MMMBop,” this is saying something. These tracks helped to round out the album and earn a stamp of approval from Rolling Stone, who said, “You don’t have to be a Bop magazine subscriber to fall for the cheesy bounce of ‘Where’s the Love’ or “Man from Milwaukee.’” Their energy and uninhibited enthusiasm made a name for them in a jaded music market.

Of course, certain songs don’t quite hold up the way others do. Album opener “Thinking of You” feels kind of outdated; Taylor’s vocals edge too close to whining on this love song and don’t age as well as some of the other songs.  Listening to serious ballad “Yearbook” nearly made me laugh out loud. This thoughtful ballad about wondering where someone missing from the yearbook went is hindered by the inclusion of dramatic renditions of yearbook-isms at the opening like “See you in September” and “You’ve been a great friend to me.” Even with these, you can’t deny that Middle of Nowhere is a dynamic pop rock debut that deserves its due.

Yielding a still-existing fan club, two documentaries, multiple tours, and a host of unauthorized biographies, Middle of Nowhere launched Hanson to worldwide popularity, providing for a fanbase that is still intensely active today. In addition to their contribution to the pop culture pantheon, Hanson continues to maintain their record label 3CG Records, release albums, sell out concerts–and even brew their own beer. They’re a stellar example of successful–and adaptive–musicianship and business sense, and it couldn’t have happened without the success of this album.

E!Online

Back in 1997, JNCO jeans and butterfly clips reigned supreme.

The Olsen twins could solve any crime by dinnertime, women were asking their stylists for “The Rachel” and there was an infectious song called “MMMBop” topping charts and stealing hearts around the world. Most of these late-nineties fads fizzled out, but Zac Hanson, Taylor Hanson and Isaac Hanson—the members of the logically named band Hanson—kept right on rocking and bopping-ba-duba-dopping long after our Tamagotchis died and flannel fell out of fashion.

May 6 marks 20 years since the release of Hanson’s debut studio album, Middle of Nowhere. This was the CD (or cassette—it was 1997, after all) with some of the brothers’ most widely known songs to date, including “Where’s the Love,” “Weird,” “I Will Come To You” and, of course, “MMMBop.”

In an exclusive interview with E! News, Zac recalls playing “a lot of concerts in Oklahoma” prior to 1997. “It wasn’t like every once in a while we’d do a show…We were playing two concerts a week for about three years,” he says. “I think we had experienced just enough sensation and, like, having fans in a meaningful way to not be completely blindsided by just the level of success that that first record had.”

“The first girls we heard screaming were not at Paramus Park Mall in New Jersey when we did our first public performance after ‘MMMBop’ came out,” the father of four adds with a laugh. “Like, we had heard girls screaming like twice a week for several years—you know, the experience is the same, but then it’s multiplied by tenfold, one thousandfold, and so you have like a grasp on how to deal with it.

“It’s still shocking, right, because it’s just like, ‘Oh my god. Are they gonna eat me? Are they gonna kill me? Do they love me? Like, what is this?’ And so I think those things were helpful, like it was a little bit of preparation that made it possible.”

For a while back then, Hanson was ubiquitous. The boys performed on all the morning shows and did the whole late-night circuit. They were the musical guests on Saturday Night Live and even poked fun at “MMMBop’s” popularity in a skit called “Torturing Hanson” with Will Ferrell. Hanson received three Grammy nominations, including for Best New Artist, and Middle of Nowhere sold over 10 million copies worldwide.

Mike Prior/Getty Images

Hanson released a Christmas album, Snowed In, in November 1997, followed by a more rock-centric album, This Time Around, in May 2000. Although nothing matched the commercial success that came with Middle of Nowhere, the brothers continued to sell records and concert tickets to their loyal core fan base. Still, Hanson was hit hard when their original label, Mercury Records, merged with Island Def Jam in 1998.

“When we were signed to Mercury, we had partners,” Zac says. “We had people we trusted there, and by the time we got to our second record, we had already been through one merger and lost most of the people who had worked with us on Middle of Nowhere. And by the time we went into making record number three [Underneath], it was just so clear that the choice to stay was the choice to work with people who just we had no connection with.”

Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images

“When you work with a label, you are asking them to do things,” Zac explains. “It’s, ‘Hey, we have a partnership. I want you to do this thing. I hope that you’ll spend money in this area. I want you to release this song. I want you to give me the money to make an album.’ And so, you have this relationship, which is how the whole music industry culture has been built for generations now…and that’s natural.”

But in Hanson’s case, the disconnect between the band and its label seemed to be holding them back. The brothers became frustrated “asking for permission” time and time again, says Zac, so after several years spent making their third album, they “took the final leap to say, ‘Here’s an album. If you don’t release this, then you need to let us go.'”

In 2003, Zac, Taylor and Isaac parted ways with their label, and instead of signing with another, they started their own independent label: 3CG Records. While this gave them the creative freedom they craved, it meant they no longer had the big budget of a traditional label backing them—in other words, Hanson would need to fund themselves. Fortunately, the guys hadn’t blown that “MMMBop” money on fast cars and Cribs-style digs.

“We were lucky that I guess our parents were frugal enough that they instilled in us this ideas of like invest in the things you wanna do…so we didn’t end up buying Ferraris or big mansions,” says Zac. “We live in like nice houses, but not like crazy houses [with] crazy things. The things we ended up buying that were crazy were like microphones, and buying desks and building studios.”

Shrewd planning has allowed Hanson to put out four albums on their own independent label, and they’ve enjoyed complete control over their music and its release.

“I think maybe it would be better put to say, it’s not that we simply took control of the business, but we decided we no longer wanted to operate under business as usual,” says Zac.

Every year Taylor, now 34, Isaac, 36, and Zac release new songs exclusively to paying members of their online fan club. They’ve continued touring and are currently on the road with their Middle of Everywhere Tour celebrating 25 years of playing together as a band. They’ve co-founded a music and craft beer festival, The Hop Jam, and even launched Hanson Brothers Beer Co., the proud brewers of MMMHops Pale Ale.

All three brothers settled down early and are all fathers now to their own Hanson broods (in addition to Zac’s four, Taylor has five and Isaac has three).

Among this next generation, there are “definitely several that are musically inclined and musically capable,” Zac says. “I think that’s just genes…It’s definitely there, yeah.”

Zac isn’t saying there’s a Hanson 2.0 in the future (although he would “absolutely encourage” his kids to pursue a career in the arts “if they have the drive, if they’re saying, ‘I really wanna do this'”), but he does think he and his brothers will keep right on MMMBoppin’ as a trio for years to come.

“I hope what we’ll continue to do is make the same kind of scary choices we’ve made up until now,” says Zac. “I think those kind of choices have really continued to inspire us to make some of our best work…and so if we do that, I have zero doubt that 25 years from now you’ll see Hanson playing all over the place.”

MMMBop forever.

SALON

EnlargeHanson (Credit: Getty/Brenda Chase)

In other words, 1997 had plenty of openings for sounds that were (comparatively) a little more unorthodox. Enter Hanson, a trio of fresh-faced Oklahoma brothers who stormed the charts with “Mmmbop.” The affable, bubblegum-pop tune spent three weeks at No. 1 in the U.S. and was nominated for two Grammy Awards. Its nonsensical but irresistible chorus — lots of “doo wop,” “duba dop” and “ba doo” sounds — also confounded linguists. The band’s record company saw opportunity in the gibberish, however: In a 1997 People interview, Mercury Records’ Steve Greenberg pointed out that the chorus “means the same thing in every language,” which aided its global success.

“Mmmbop” was only one part of Hanson’s world domination, however. On May 6, 1997, the band released its major label debut record, “Middle of Nowhere,” which peaked at No. 2 on the U.S. album charts, spawned five worldwide hits and eventually went quadruple platinum.

On some level, the record represented a can’t-fail proposition. Songwriting contributions come from Mark Hudson (who had collaborated closely with Aerosmith and Ringo Starr, among others), ’80s hitmaker Desmond Child and the husband-wife musical powerhouse Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. The record was also co-produced by the Dust Brothers, who were known for their work on Beastie Boys’ “Paul’s Boutique” and Beck’s “Odelay.”

AV CLUB

Screenshot: YouTube

On May 6, 1997, Hanson released its major-label debut Middle Of Nowhere, which went on to sell 10 million copies and, if you were under the age of 15 at the time, be something you either despised or adored, with probably no middle ground.

While the album had a couple of singles, it is best known for “MMMBop,” which is, with the hindsight of age, obviously a remarkably tight pop song. But it’s also one of those songs that sounds inimitably of its time. A lot of the credit and blame for this goes to producers The Dust Brothers, fresh off the success of Beck’s 1996 Odelay! The duo was able to give the scrappy young three-piece band the glossy finish of post-Jagged Little Pill pop, giving the drums a metronomic kick and turning the guitar lines into immaculately clean Glen Ballard-style flourishes. There’s even some ornamental scratching on the hook, because it was the late ’90s and that’s what people did.

Still, we remember the song for its hook, which has lead to a whole lot of cover versions over the years. The brothers themselves actually originally recorded the track a year before Middle Of Nowhere, albeit in a slower moving, more somber version. In an interview last year to celebrate the 20th anniversary of that version, the band said that there has never been a good cover of the song.

Have you heard any good covers of it over the years?

Taylor Hanson: I gotta be honest: No.

Isaac Hanson: You know why? People can’t sing the chorus right. Most of the time they syncopate it wrong.

Zac Hanson: I think “MMMBop” probably needs a really good cover …

T.H.: Someone needs to either make it totally their own in a genuinely unique way, or it needs to be a band that has a sensibility for old R&B. Fitz and the Tantrums could maybe do it …

I.H.: If Bruno Mars were interested, he’d probably find a way to kill it.

Of course, the version we all know is their collaboration with The Dust Brothers, which is now celebrating the conclusion of its second decade upon this green Earth. To celebrate, let’s go through some of the many cover versions of the track that even Hanson thinks suck. Here, for example, is a metal one, in case you wanted to hear the track with swear words:

There are a lot of wounded acoustic covers, which is actually befitting Hanson’s original, pre-Dust Brothers version of the track.

Here is a British boy band called Five To Five doing it:

Here is—fucking hell, another British boy band doing it:

Here is much more famous British boy band One Direction doing it:

They do not appear to respect the song, which is regrettable. They should respect “MMMBop” more.

The consensus pick for best cover, at 1.5 million views on YouTube, appears to be this doo-wop version, which does indeed swing:

This cover, on the other hand, seems to be more into covering The Dust Brothers’ beat for the track, which is a nice change of pace.

Lastly, here the song is recreated through the wonky Japanese synthesizer otamatone:

Happy birthday, “MMMBop.” May breathy young people fuck up the syncopation on your hook for many more years to come.

NewsOK

Oklahoma band of brothers Hanson celebrated their 25th anniversary making music with a performance of their breakout hit “MMMBop” today on “Good Morning America.”

The Tulsa trio – Isaac, Taylor and Zac Hanson – still have those great sibling harmonies going for them.

As previously reported, the band also showed off those harmonies Wednesday night at a star-studded Carnegie Hall concert honoring fellow Oklahoman Jimmy Webb. Surprisingly, Hanson performed the legendary songwriter’s “Highwayman,” known as the inspiration for the name of the country supergroup featuring Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash.

Founded in 1992, the trio of brothers began performing classic rock ‘n roll and soul music, and writing original material, crafting a distinctive blend of harmonies and organic soulful pop-rock. Besides Hanson’s 25th anniversary, 2017 also marks the 20th anniversary of the band’s debut release “Middle Of Nowhere,” led by the iconic single “MMMBop,” which introduced the group to the world.

As previously reported, Hanson announced earlier this year its extensive “Middle Of Everywhere 25th Anniversary World Tour.” The trio will kick off the tour in their hometown of Tulsa with The Hop Jam 2017. Billed as Oklahoma’s largest craft beer and music festival, the fourth annual Hop Jam will take place May 21 in the heart of downtown Tulsa’s historic Brady Arts District. The 2017 Hop Jam festivities will include more than 200 craft beers and music headlined by Hanson, the festival’s co-founders.

The tour will feature performances of the group’s most widely known material alongside fan favorites encompassing their extensive catalog. In select markets, Taylor Hanson will DJ the “Dance Like You Don’t Care” after-party, which will feature an eclectic mix of modern and 90’s favorites, according to a news release.

Coinciding with their benchmark 25th year together, over which the group has released six studio albums and sold more than 16 million albums, this year Hanson also will be releasing “Middle Of Everywhere – The Greatest Hits,” a comprehensive collection which includes hit singles “Mmmbop,” “Where’s The Love,” “Weird,” “This Time Around,” “If Only,” “Penny And Me,” “Thinking ‘Bout Somethin’,” “Get The Girl Back,” plus the new single “I Was Born.”

“Good Morning America” co-anchor Lara Spencer revealed today that Hanson’s greatest hits album will come out Sept. 8.

Bustle

In an mmmbop they are not gone: On Friday, pop rock trio Hanson dropped a lyric video for “I Was Born.” Yes, we have a brand new jam from Issac, Taylor, and Zac, ya’ll. “I Was Born” is a fun and delightful song that is sure to please Hansonheads far and wide. It has been a whopping 20 years since the brothers Hanson mmmbopped their way onto the charts with their debut track “MMMBop,” and whaddya know? The MMMhops brewers still got it.

While this tune is a beautiful gift to us all, it didn’t come as a total surprise: In March, Hanson shared an acoustic rendition of “I Was Born” on YouTube, promising that the studio version of this to-be-released song would be out later in the year. A month and some change later, and here we are with a fresh Hanson track on our hands.

Thanks to lyrics like “I was born to be someone no one’s ever been/No one’s ever been before” and “I was born to do/I was born to go/I was born to be/Someone,” “I Was Born” packs quite the uplifting and inspirational punch. Go ahead and let the song’s happy energy wash over you. Oh, and let the song’s heartening lyrics wash over you. Oh, and don’t forget to the lyric video’s pleasant vibe wash over you. You can check it out here.

This new single is not the only thing the group has in store for 2017: In March, Hanson announced they will be embarking on a world tour. Mmmbop, ba duba dop, indeed.

Hollywood Life