It started out as a simple song, somehow it grew into a mind numbing chant.
I was driving home from work one night flipping through the channels on the radio dial when I settled on a "pop" radio station. One of my favorite songs ended and I was about to change the station when an upbeat song started and stopped me from condemning it to radio oblivion. The lead singer had a high-pitched voice and the instruments sounded raw, but good. Then, the chorus came out of my speakers and stuck to my mind like a child clinging to its parent on the first day of preschool, "Mmmbop, ba duba bop." I did not really comprehend the words at first; it sounded like something Little Anthony and the Imperials would have sung thirty years ago. It was just a fun song, definitely not something that I would hear on the radio today. It did not fit in with the hard rock angst of Aerosmith or the wallow-in-my-misery music of Alanis Morrisette. My parents reared me on the music of the fifties and sixties. I grew up knowing more about Bobby Darin and Fontella Bass than anyone my generation considered a musician. I can give you the name and artist of any song from 1950 through about 1973; after the mid-seventies I am lost. My mother still teases me because she thinks I was born in the wrong generation.
The song ended before I could fully grasp all the words and commit them to memory. I arrived home but waited in the driveway until the next song ended, so that I could find out who sang this song and if I could buy it somewhere. Unfortunately, the disc jockey never gave me the information that I wanted. I was forced to drag my school books into my house, not knowing anything about that catchy song. After eating my supper, I went upstairs and tried to study for my upcoming calculus test. That one line of the song was in my mind all night long; "Mmmbop ba duba bop," was on repeat throughout my head. Not that calculus was that interesting, but I needed to study. I fixed my eyes on the page thinking, "Maybe if I stare at it long enough, I can make it adhere itself to my brain." Guess what? It did not happen. I finally gave up on my studying. It became brutally apparent to even the teddy bear that sat next to me on my bed, that I was not going to get anything done with that song on my mind. I couldn’t even consider it a song, just a few mindless words that found their way into my head like unwanted guests. I fell asleep that night wondering what the song was about, who wrote it and why it was so damn catchy. I kept thinking, "If this song ever makes it onto main stream radio, the country could be doomed; men, women and children roaming the country with those inane lyrics forever branded into their brains."
I woke up the next morning and somehow made it through my calculus test doing remarkably well considering I had to stop myself from writing the cosine of "x" was "Mmmbop". For some reason that song stuck in my head. I usually get songs stuck in my mind but never for this long. I began to monopolize the car radio in the morning on the way to school hoping to hear the song. I had my stereo on at all times just in case it came on. I could not remember the beginning of the song so every song that I was not completely sure of became a "suspect." The song seemed to vanish; the radio station failed to play it. Until one day, weeks after I heard it for the first time, I caught the last few notes of the song that had ransacked my mind for so long. Thankfully the DJ said that the group consisted of three brothers from Oklahoma. He also made a joke about the high pitched voice that sang the song. I was taken aback by the fact that these were men’s voices and that the DJ would make fun of them. I could not let it go. I was destined to find out who these brothers, this Hanson were. After work, almost every night, I went to the local Tower Records and searched for the song. I knew that the title was "Mmmbop" but other than that I did not know much. It takes about two or three weeks for a single to come out into the record store. This is the music industry’s way of making the American public suffer; they stick a song in your head and make you wait two weeks before you can buy it.
I could not understand why I was so fascinated by this song. Even when I liked the New Kids On The Block, I could wait until their CD came out before ransacking the store shelves looking for it. After finally finding the single, I looked at the cover. There were three boys lying on the grass looking somewhat depressed. "Well that explains the high-pitched voice," I thought. The oldest member of the group could not be older than fifteen. The youngest of them looked to be only nine or ten. I guessed that the boy in the middle was the lead singer because he looked to be about twelve or thirteen. Old enough to have a trained voice, yet young enough to hit the high notes with little resistance because he had not hit puberty yet. This would deepen his voice, as it did to my brothers and every other male in the world. I bought the tape and popped it into my stereo when I got home. I played that tape all night long, committing the words to memory. I could not understand all the words, so I made up my own where I saw fit. I do this a lot and when I actually do find the words, it is as if someone finally turned the light on, "Oh! Well that makes more sense." I tortured my best friend with it by sneaking it into the tape player in her car. She, to this day cannot stand to listen to any song by Hanson (I think I scarred her for life). I constantly played it on my Walkman at work. I think I did permanent damage to my brain. The song is welded to the side walls of my skull forever.
Most of the female population under the age of fifteen goes to bed dreaming of walking down the aisle and becoming Mrs. Zachary, Taylor or Isaac Hanson. Not only do young girls like this band, but many women in the "Baby Boomer Generation" like them too, possibly because they bring back the type of music from the 1950’s and 1960’s. If you ask any junior high school girl who or what is Mmmbop is. It is almost a guarantee that their mouths will go on non-stop until you are filled with more information about the brothers Hanson than you really wanted to know. Personally, I really do not care what hand Isaac writes with or what shampoo Taylor uses. I mean no disrespect to Zachary but I could have gone through life not knowing what color toothbrush he has. Unfortunately, for as many people that like Hanson there seems to be an equal number of people that do not like Hanson. The Internet is filled with Anti-Hanson webs sites and they have been the punch line of many jokes. But for most of the female population, they want to know anything and everything about them.
I read that they were releasing a full CD, but did not pay much attention to it. I just figured that they had one hit; that due to their age, their other songs would not be as good. About a month after I bought the single, I saw the band on a morning show. They sang live and were surprisingly good. Despite the fact that it was becoming blatantly obvious that the lead singer, Taylor, was having difficulty singing the song. In the course of a few months his voice had deepened somewhat considerably. The band’s knowledge of their individual instruments struck me. Isaac, the oldest at sixteen, plays the guitar. Taylor, fourteen, sings lead, plays the keyboard and other various percussion instruments. Zachary, the youngest at age eleven, plays the drums. I can only imagine how talented he is to master an instrument at that young an age. I have absolutely no rhythm even now in my late teens, but at eleven I was still more interested in skinned knees and softball to even be able to fathom mastering an instrument. After I saw that show, I saw Hanson everywhere. They were on MTV numerous times. Their video was as upbeat as the song itself. The video shows what most boys do at their age do, fool around. The video does not have some deep hidden meaning or theme. It just shows the brothers having fun.
In the end of June, I went to Spain with friends. Before I left, I taped a few hours of American radio so I could have something to listen to on the long plane ride. "Mmmbop" was on that tape and I listened to it all the way across the Atlantic Ocean. While we were in Spain, the number one song was, you guessed it, "Mmmbop." My friend whom I tortured with the tape a few months earlier almost fell out of her chair when she heard it come over the radio in the middle of Madrid. She almost choked on her food when she found out it was number one.
Whether or not I wanted to admit it, I somehow became caught up in the Hanson mania and bought the full CD. I never expected much to come out of the rest of the songs but as I scanned the lyrics for "Mmmbop," I realized that the song had a strong message imbedded in its oh-so-catchy chorus. "You have so many relationships in this life/Only one or two will last/ You’re going through all this pain and strife/Then you turn your back and they’re gone so fast/So hold on to the ones who really care/In the end they’ll be the only ones there." I realized that "Mmmbop" is an amount of time, a very short amount of time, "In an Mmmbop they’re gone. In an Mmmbop they’re not there." It amazed me that a song that was so catchy and upbeat had such a deep meaning behind it. For as many times as I had heard the song, I never actually listened to the lyrics. I was apprehensive to listen to the rest of the CD but put it on while I was cleaning my room. The rest of the CD is as good as "Mmmbop" if not better.
The people that have disregarded the band as boys "just fooling around" have been entirely misinformed. These three brothers have more talent than most of the rest of music industry combined. Anyone that puts them in a class with anyone like New Kids On The Block or the Partridge Family is wrong and misguided. Those that aim to ridicule these young boys for their "bubble gum" music by ignoring it are being unfair. Hanson is not trying to hurt anyone through their music; they are just having fun. Two million girls just happen to like what they do.
As the summer went on, I saw a special on television that showed the band performing in New York. My heart went out to them because they all looked extremely tired. Zachary seemed to be having a hard time keeping his eyes open and the other two just looked completely worn out.
I have heard people express anger toward their parents, saying they were pushed into the spotlight and that they are not letting them grow up like normal children. I take that into account but I do not think that getting to travel the world and seeing more than I can ever dream of seeing, is all that bad. If it is true that they were forced into music or that they do not like being "Hanson," I hope that they have the chance to stop whenever they want. Though from what I have heard about these brothers, their maturity far surpasses their age. Yes, granted I have heard that the youngest has the interesting talent of being able to speak while belching but, hey, he’s only eleven.
I wish them all the luck and happiness in the world.
Meanwhile, thirty years from now I will be walking down the street with the chorus to that song in my head. The song that caused me to act like a hormone driven twelve year-old girl seeing a teen idol for the first time.