Mens Journal

NETHERLANDS – JANUARY 01: Photo of HANSON (Photo by Paul Bergen/Redferns)

The 1997 song topped the charts in over 17 countries, but few registered the existential crisis in its lyrics.

Key Points

• Hanson’s “MMMBop” blends upbeat pop with deeper themes of fleeting relationships and youth.
• Zac Hanson explained, “MMMBop represents a frame of time or the futility of life.”
• The song’s optimistic message encourages cherishing meaningful connections despite inevitable change.

Summer, youth, yellow, scat singing — these intertwined ingredients for Hanson’s MMMBop, now hailed as one of the greatest songs of all time by Rolling Stone and Spin, seem like happiness personified.

The three blonde, shaggy-haired adolescent brothers, Isaac, Taylor, and Zac Hanson, respectively aged just 17, 14, and 11 at the time of their chart-topping 1997 hit, offered a sun-drenched song detailing friendship and fun — or at least, it seemed to on a surface level.

Written entirely by the Hansons, the pop track was originally a slower, guitar-focused record on their 1996 demo album, also named MMMBop. The sound (which you can check out here) was arguably closer to Nirvana than the Jackson Five-influenced sound that listeners came to know and love, thanks to producers the Dust Brothers, who decided to turn up the feel-good factor.

What gets lost in the new edition, for many listeners, however, was a sort of lyrical existential cry for help, such as: “You have so many relationships in this life/Only one or two will last
You go through all the pain and strife/Then you turn your back/and they’re gone so fast,” something that was later confirmed by Zac in retrospective interviews as an adult.

“What that song talks about is, you’ve got to hold on to the things that really matter. MMMBop represents a frame of time or the futility of life,” Zac told SongFacts in 2004 (documented by Bustle). “Things are going to be gone, whether it’s your age and your youth, or maybe the money you have, or whatever it is, and all that’s going to be left are the people you’ve nurtured and have really built to be your backbone and your support system.”

“In an mmmbop they’re gone,” the Hanson brothers sang of their fading friendships and adolescence.

In the same interview, Zac cited The Beach Boys as an influence on the track. “The first music that we got into was ’50s and ’60s music,” he explained (via American Songwriter). With this connection in mind, the song bears a striking similarity to Brian Wilson’s work on the Pet Sounds album in particular — upbeat and rooted in traditional music, but with great focus on loneliness, existentialism, and even death.

However, like Wilson’s work, it’s not all doom and gloom from the Hanson classic. The brothers ask, “When you get old and start losing your hair/Can you tell me who will still care?” and later answer their own question with a sense of measured optimism: “Plant a seed, plant a flower, plant a rose/You can plant any one of those/Keep planting to find out which one grows.“

Parade

It’s been 29 years since Hanson’s “MMMBop” blared through our radio speakers for the first time, but it feels like it was just yesterday.

In 1997, three brothers from Tulsa, Oklahoma, Isaac Hanson, Taylor Hanson, and Zac Hanson, also known as the pop-rock band Hanson, broke through in a massive way with their major label debut album, Middle of Nowhere.

The May 6 release quickly shot to No. 1 in several countries like the UK, Australia and Germany, though it peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, blocked from reaching the top spot by pop superstars, the Spice Girls.

Still, it turned the trio into global pop-rock sensations almost overnight.

At the center of the album’s success was the lead single, “MMMBop,” a catchy earworm with an infectious chorus that became one of the defining pop hits of the late 1990s, and remains a nostalgic bop all these years later.

Issac, now 45, previously told The Guardian that they listened to a lot of rock and roll growing up, along with a “lot of doo-wop,” which influenced the chorus.

“We recorded it in a one-car garage, put it on an independent album and sold several thousand copies at local gigs,” he said.

While the original version was “slower and more brooding,” it was rejected by all record companies before Mercury turned it into a smash hit.

The rest is history.

In a landscape dominated by teen boy bands, “MMMBop” stormed the charts, with the breakout smash hit peaking at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and staying there for three weeks, while reaching the Top 10 in many countries across Europe.

The song’s success was powered largely by radio plays, though it was heavily in rotation on MTV as well.

The album sold over 10 million copies worldwide and earned three Grammy nominations. And while “MMMBop” remains a large part of the success, the additional five singles were also well received, including “Where’s the Love,” “Weird,” “Thinking of You” and “I Will Come to You.”

The Governor at the time, Frank Keating, even declared May 6 as “Hanson Day” in Tulsa to commemorate the major release of the three brothers whose melodies reached audiences all across the world.

To this day, Hanson’s fanbase remains strong and dedicated, with Middle of Nowhere remembered as one of the biggest debut albums of the era, with “MMMBop” their signature and most recognizable hit.

A quick listen to the single’s youthful pop-rock melody will instantly transport you to 1997, as the band was on the cusp of their teen global domination.

American Songwriter

Lyrics are more about how they make you feel than what they really say. Of course, poetic lyricists are celebrated for their command of language, but complexity doesn’t always equal a great song. The three hits below are testaments to that fact. The choruses of these songs are really just nonsense, in the best way possible. They mean very little but had a massive impact on listeners when they were released.

“MMMBop” — Hanson

“Bubblegum pop” is a great offender of nonsense lyrics. Many songs that match this descriptor are more about exciting audiences than making them think deeply. That fact is showcased in the chorus of Hanson‘s “MMMBop”: Mmmbop, ba duba dop ba / Du bop, ba duba dop ba.”

Though the chorus is a little light, the verses add a bit of grit to this pop classic. The trio sings about the fleeting, precious nature of life throughout most of this song. They lighten that emotional load with a scatting chorus that feels like little more than nonsense.

MSN

Hanson’s success was unexpected yet they managed to turn one of their late ’90s songs into a teenage anthem that still resonates in the minds of millions of millennials to this day.

The Hanson brothers became huge stars in 1997 with “Mmmbop”. At the time, Isaac, Taylor, and Zachary were 17, 14, and 12, respectively. Their lives changed over night that year.

With one of the most famous songs of the 20th century, the Hansons were nominated for three Grammys in 1998, reached number 1 in 27 countries including the USA and their debut album “Middle of Nowhere” sold more than 10 million copies worldwide.

Nothing happens by accident. Steve Greenberg, an executive at Mercury Records, discovered the original version of “Mmmbop” by accident and saw the song’s potential. Before that they had been rejected by 13 labels.

It was the summer of 1996 when the entire Hanson family (seven siblings and their parents) relocated from their hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma to Los Angeles to record their first album. They had to take on the gods of the moment like the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC – not an easy task!

Mercury Records invested a lot in the promotion and the three young talents threw themselves into it. Interviews, big concerts, concerts in remote villages, photo shoots, book signings…

The machinery was there, but Hanson’s motto was to make it clear that they were authentic. “We wrote all our songs ourselves and played all the instruments ourselves. We’re not a ready-made band,” Isaac told the Los Angeles Times in 1997.

The teen magazines of the time helped Hanson’s popularity to reach unimagined heights. Every fan had a favourite, but oddly it was Taylor and Zachary who drew the most attention as Isaac was deemed too old at just 17!

But the Hanson phenomenon didn’t last long. More specifically, as long as it took them to release their second album “This Time Around”. The success did not materialize and Mercury Records decided after merging with Island Def Jam to separate from the teenage trio.

The great experiment “Hanson” turned out to be an insane one-hit wonder, but trying to replicate the success of “Mmmbop” was an impossible mission. In 1999, two years after their breakthrough, the band’s career began to wane.

Stars like Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and the Spice Girls had established themselves and pushed them out as teen idols.

The record company even went so far as to withdraw the funds earmarked for the tour to promote the album, leaving the three brothers paying for the tour out of their own pockets in late 2000.

A year later, the Hansons formed their independent label and left the mainstream world to achieve a style and status that allowed them to work together as brothers and as a band to this day.

In modern times, the Hansons have changed a lot, or maybe not that much. It is true that more than 25 years have passed. They have matured, but the three are still recognizable as adults.

The most remarkable thing about today’s Hansons, however, is that Isaac, Taylor and Zachary have a total of 15 children… and counting!

Interestingly, Isaac (1980), the eldest brother, has the fewest children, contributing only three to the newest Hanson generation.

Isaac (right on the photo) has been married to Nicole Dufresne since 2006. He met his wife at a concert and admits he fell in love with her as soon as he saw her on the fifth row from the stage. It happened in New Orleans in 2003.

Since then, the couple has had two boys and one girl: Clarke Everett Hanson (2007), James Monroe Hanson (2008), and Nina Odette Hanson (2014).

It’s Taylor (1983), the band’s middle brother, who brings the most children to the family, with a total of seven children.

The band’s lead singer married Natalie Anne Bryant in 2002 when he was just 19 years old. Since then, Jordan Ezra (2002), Penelope Anne (2005), River Samuel (2006), Viggo Moriah (2008), Wilhelmina Jane (2012), Claude Indiana Emmanuel (2018) and Maybellene Alma Joy (2020) have all joined the family.

The band’s youngest, Zac (1985), has five children, giving the three band members a total of 15 children.

Along with his wife Kathryn, they are the parents of John (2009), Junia (2011), George (2014), Mary (2017) and Quincy (2021).

The question is, will they keep adding to the family? It looks like Zac is sticking with five. “It could all be over,” he admitted to US Magazine.

A similar attitude seems to have been taken by Isaac, who seems happy with his three children. “I think the ship has sailed for me. I don’t think I’ll have any more children,” he said in the same interview, in 2021. Whether Taylor decides to have an eighth child remains to be seen.

The three brothers seem well aware that they want to convince their 15 children… not to form a band! However, they “have a guitarist and a couple of keyboardists, so we’ll see,” Isaac told US Magazine.

But they know firsthand: “If your passion is music, we will encourage you to pursue your dreams. And if you want to be a surgeon, that’s fine too,” jokes the older brother. And yes, that is Elijah Wood, at the height of the Lord of the Rings boom in 2003 posing with the brothers.

And if there’s one thing the Hansons members believe in, it’s their passion for music. Raised by their parents along with four other siblings, they grew up listening to  cassettes of Rock and Motown classics.

“We were homeschooled and spent a lot of time reading poetry and listening to rock ‘n’ roll. Our parents were very supportive and even tolerated a drum kit in the living room of our Oklahoma home,” Isaac recalled in a 2018 interview with The Guardian.

After leaving Mercury Records in 2003, the Hanson brothers founded the independent label ‘3CG Records’ to, among other things, release the 100+ songs that were rejected by their previous label for their second album ‘This Time Around’, which “only” sold just over a million copies.

And that to this day. Hanson is still active. In 2018 they released ‘String Theory’, a compilation of their hits with the Prague Symphony Orchestra. In 2021 they released their seventh studio album, ‘Against the World’.

And if that wasn’t enough, in the summer of 2022 they went on a world tour that took them to Europe, the United States, Latin America and Australia. A tour so big that it begs the question, can Hanson really be considered a one-hit wonder?

By the way, in case anyone is wondering: Yes, they did take all the children and their partners with them on tour. Just by having the family attend, they guaranteed a large audience!

Hanson’s 2022 tour wasn’t just a fluke. The band continues to perform regularly, particularly in the US. In fact, if you go to the band’s website you can see a long list of upcoming performances for 2026!

yahoo

Cape Cod Times

A wave of ’90s nostalgia will be rolling in with the tide this summer at the Cape Cod Melody Tent as some of the decade’s most popular bands get set to take the stage.

Whether you grew up listening to these bands or you’re someone whose parents did, chances are you’ve come across some of these hit songs at one time or another. One band is led by Bob Dylan’s son, while another consists of three brothers who once ruled the airwaves with a single word – IYKYK.

Here’s a look at the four ’90s bands you can see perform live this summer at the Melody Tent.

The Wallflowers

One of the biggest albums of the ’90s will be played in full when The Wallflowers come to the Melody Tent on Thursday, Aug. 13. Band leader Jakob Dylan and company will celebrate the 30^th anniversary of their landmark album Bringing Down the Horse, originally released on May 21, 1996. The album produced the song “One Headlight,” which reached number one on the Billboard Singles Chart and won two Grammy awards. Other notable songs off the record that also received Grammy nominations include “6^th Avenue Heartache” and “The Difference.”

Not only will The Wallflowers play Bringing Down the Horse in full, they will also pay tribute to Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and perform 1982’s Long After Dark album in its entirety as that record celebrates its 50^th anniversary. Dylan inducted Tom Petty into The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.

Hanson

You can’t have a ’90s summer without some “MMMBop.” The Hanson brothers — Isaac, Taylor and Zac — will bring the end-of-the-millennium power pop energy with them to Hyannis on Thursday, July 16. While “MMMBop” off their 1997 debut album Middle of Nowhere catapulted them to fame, the brothers have also recorded five additional studio albums since then and have over 16 million albums sales to their credit. Come for the “MMMBop” and stay for what else these ’90s icons have up their collective sleeve.

Collective Soul

Collective Soul recently celebrated their 30^th anniversary with the release of their 12th studio album Here to Eternity. You’re sure to hear some material off that when Collective Soul perform at the Melody Tent on Wednesday, Aug. 26. It’s almost guaranteed that you’ll also hear classic radio hits like “Shine,” “The World I Know,” “Where the River Flows,” and “December”—the latter three of which appeared on the group’s self-titled 1995 album that went triple platinum.

Everclear

Anniversaries are a thing right now if you’re a band that came to prominence in the ’90s. Alternative rock group Everclear recently celebrated the 30^th anniversary of their second album Sparkle and Fade, which spawned the hit “Santa Monica.” Everclear followed that up in 1997 with So Much for the Afterglow, which included the hit singles “Father of Mine,” “I Will Buy You a New Life,” and “Everything to Everyone.” In total, the band has had 12 Top 40 Hit Singles and earned platinum-selling status along the way, as well as a 1998 Grammy nomination for Best Instrumental Rock Performance for the track “El Distorto De Melodica” off Sparkle and Fade. You’ll be able to hear these songs and more when Everclear play at the Melody Tent on Thursday, July 30.

People

The singer and his brothers have more than a dozen tour dates scheduled through the end of a year

• Taylor Hanson said he prefers touring over a Las Vegas residency because it allows him to connect with fans worldwide
• Hanson released its latest album in 2022 and has over a dozen shows scheduled through December 2026
• Taylor performed Nick Drake’s “Pink Moon” at the Grammy Hall of Fame Gala on May 8

Boy bands may be having a moment in Las Vegas, but that doesn’t mean Hanson is ready to take the leap.

Taylor Hanson — who is part of up Hanson alongside his brothers Isaac and Zac — explained to PEOPLE at the 2026 Grammy Hall of Fame Gala that while concert residencies have their benefits, he prefers to tour.

“I think residencies make a lot of sense for bands. I like moving. I like being on the move,” he said on Friday, May 8. “One of the best parts about making music is being able to see the world. So I could see why [a residency] would be appealing, and I wouldn’t say it will never happen, but I would miss going to the places that I get to go to.”

Hanson, 43, shouted out visits to cities like Milan, New York and Sydney as a “cool perk” of the job, and said he loves meeting fans from all over the world. He and Zac, 40, and Isaac, 45, released their most recent album in 2022.

“No one has an answer for why people continue to show up to shows and follow bands. For me, I do music because I love it, and hopefully fans feel that,” he said. “It’s an exchange of love. It’s a connection… It’s just an honor to get to be a part of people’s lives through music.”

The “MMMBop” singers have more than a dozen shows coming up for the rest of 2026, starting in June and running through December. Their touring schedule will take them around the country, while other boy bands like Backstreet Boys and New Kids on the Block hunker down in Las Vegas with residencies at Sphere and Dolby Live at Park MGM, respectively.

Hanson was on hand at the third annual Grammy Hall of Fame Gala to perform Nick Drake’s folk classic “Pink Moon,” which was among 14 songs inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

“I love this song. Nick Drake is a lesser known artist as far as the hits and the charts go,” Hanson explained. “He was somebody that was not really known in his lifetime as much as he was after, and his music just hits my heart and has really touched so many people.”

Other songs being inducted include “Rhythm Nation 1814” by Janet Jackson, “Dreamboat Annie” by Heart and “All Eyez on Me” by 2Pac.

Parade

29 years ago, three brothers became global sensations almost overnight, selling 10 million album copies.

Key Points

• Hanson’s “MMMBop” became a global hit after debuting in 1997.
• The song and album “Middle of Nowhere” achieved major chart and sales success.
• Hanson’s legacy endures, with “MMMBop” remembered as their signature hit.

It’s been 29 years since Hanson’s “MMMBop” blared through our radio speakers for the first time, but it feels like it was just yesterday.

In 1997, three brothers from Tulsa, Oklahoma, Isaac Hanson, Taylor Hanson, and Zac Hanson, also known as the pop-rock band Hanson, broke through in a massive way with their major label debut album, Middle of Nowhere.