WE'VE GOT THE MUSIC...

Someone told me today that "Hanson are fags."  Hanson are fags...hmm...not very original, not very polite or civilized, not very intelligent, and not very true.  And I HATE that word, but I answered back with my usual (although equally juvenile) response:  "Oh yeah?  Well, you must really like them then!"

But  it struck me that this is the only defense people have against them.  They can't argue musically, because if they know anything about music, they know that they will lose at any attempt to legitimately discredit Hanson's musical abilities.  So they attack them personally.  They latch on to a time when they had long girly hair, they ridicule the pitch of their voices, they question their sexuality.  It is because they don't have a legitimate argument.  Because HANSON IS THE REAL FREAKING DEAL!

And I would like to say for the millionth time that I don't expect or even want everyone to like Hanson.  It's about respect.  The respect they deserve.  They deserve to be evaluated fairly,  based on their talent and nothing more. 

Just for once, it would be nice for someone to either legitimately challenge them or shut the hell up...

I almost have to laugh at myself when I'm playing guitar and a chord change just does something to me that makes me want to burst into tears. 

I need to be in the music industry!  Music isn't just something I love, it's a HUGE part of who I am, and frankly I'm kind of mad at myself that it took this long for me to figure out just how huge that part is.

I think people who are Hanson fans are all sort of this way to some degree.  I think we latched on to them eleven years ago because there was something about "MMMBop" we just couldn't escape even if we had wanted to.

But we didn't even want to, because somehow we knew that "MMMBop" meant freedom, even then.

We know it does now because it allows us to be out of the ordinary.  We have been given something that we will not abandon just because someone else doesn't understand it.  And some of us may have never had the opportunity to go against the grain because of our introverted personalities.

Their story is remarkable and even when we're bitching about the fact that they never get enough recognition for being as amazing as they are (Does anyone besides us know who the youngest Grammy nominated songwriter is?), we wouldn't really want it any other way. 

Because we have this part of us that makes us unique.  We appreciate beauty, truth, and greatness where it is otherwise unrecognized.  And I don't think any of us has ever been too keen on sharing that with the masses.

They make us proud of our generation in a time when the rest of the world looks down on us.  They make us hopeful for change.  They make us realize that there are things in life that are worth holding on to, no matter how much crap you have to take for it through the years.  They make us believe in ourselves and know that life is worth all the hardships because if you're strong enough to face them, if you're strong enough to break, you'll be whole again in the end.

They know this.  I know this.  I know this, at least in part, because they know this.  Because crazy as it seems, we are in some way connected.  Their pain is a pain I feel as if it were my own.  We grew up together.  They are like brothers to me in a way I don't expect anyone outside our lives to understand.  Call it crazy and obsessive all you want.  But do not attack them in front of me.  You have a right to your own opinion, but I also have a right to expect you to respect me by respecting them.  You don't have to like them, I don't expect you to, but do not belittle them!  Because I feel the pain of those comments as if it is myself who is being disrespected and belittled.  I don't expect you to understand WHY I feel this way, just understand that I do.  I love them.  They are as much a part of me as my own family whether that makes sense to you or not.  Playful banter is fine but I think we all know the difference between playfulness and disrespect.  Calling me obsessed is way less harmful than calling them one-hit wonders.  Because I AM obsessed, but they ARE NOT one-hit wonders.  I do not criticize the abilities of your favorite actors/singers/sports players in a disrespectful manner so please extend to me the same courtesy.


This may not apply to any of you but I just want it said before any incidents occur because it's getting harder for me to deal with the comments when I see how much good they are doing in this world and how often it is going unnoticed.


I leave you with a few very profound and often quoted words from Thoreau:

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.  Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away"

So, today I stumbled on this quote from Taylor Hanson, back in 1997, when he was only fourteen.

"Alot of teen bands are criticized for being fake.  But they are not hated.  I think we are hated because it scares people that we could be real."

I was amazed that, at the age of fourteen, he was able to articulate exactly what the world's problem with them was.  And this is the same problem they have with Hanson today.  They're scared  of how REAL they are.  

The world is fake.  We all know this to be true.  The fact that Hanson can be so young, and so talented, and not be a music industry gimic with major label execs behind the scenes pulling the strings, has frightened the general public for eleven years.  So the world will hate them, because people hate what they don't understand.

But why resort to hating people who are undeniably talented.  Why be afraid of greatness?  When guys hate them is it because Hanson is a threat to their masculinity or something equally asinine and juvenile?  Or is it because we know that they have something we don't. 

We were never that successful at their age.  The world doesn't really have a precedent for an 18-year-old record label CEO who actually OWNS the label with his two brothers who are both under the age of 25.  Or an 11-year-old with a Grammy nomination for his songwriting.  The world didn't have a precedent in 1997 for three cute little brothers who actually COULD play the heck out of their instruments and take the world by storm doing it.  We don't understand it.  Is that what scares us?

I could write an entire book about what Hanson means to me, and some days I wonder if that's not the best idea I've ever had.  Maybe the only people who would read it would be those people who are as crazy as I am.  Those who brand their skin with huge circular symbols to prove it, those who spend ridiculous amount of money to see their favorite band 5,10,15+ times a year.  Because they know what I know.  We have seen true greatness.  And we are not afraid.

They're really just a bunch of dorks like the rest of us...












P.S.  I have the next two days off of work so I'm planning on trying to catch up on commenting and/or writing for the group.  Crossing my fingers....

     So, today at work someone randomly says to me, "Hanson is still making music?"  And of course, for a split second I was like "what the...? How the heck did you know to ask ME?"  But then I remembered, "Oh yeah, I'm the loony with "HANSON ROCKS" written gigantically across my back windshield.  

     I realized that I had forgotten it was there.  And this might not seem like that big of an oversight to some people, but I assumed that the expectation of ridicule that goes along with driving around with the word "Hanson" on your car would have reminded me that it was there.  So I realized that I'm no longer ashamed.  AT ALL.  I may have been hasseled for 11 years, but I emerged victorious and undaunted.  

     People often wonder why I am so attached to them.  Why my love of Hanson goes so far beyond normal music fan love.  And I think part of it is BECAUSE I've had to live with the constant contempt and blind hatred that people have for them just because they wanted to start making music young.  No matter how you look at it, Hanson has always inspired an unusual amount of hatred and the fans have had to live with people treating them like they are stupid, immature, ignorant, etc.
     
     But because they never gave a crap about what people thought about them, we all learned to do the same.  And it seems that over the course of several years, some of us have learned to apply this attitude to our lives overall.  So, basically, if anyone's wondering why I love Hanson so much, it's because they taught me not to give a crap if no one understands it.

Umm...yeah...this is another music post because MUSIC ROCKS THE WORLD!

BAD SOLUTION

Well, you've got to move it
Or you're gonna lose it
Time won't always be there on your side

You've got to choose it
If you're gonna prove it 
But change is gonna come, you can't deny

What I wanna know
Is what choice you're gonna make
Every good debate
Has a bad solution

Who took the first shot?
Who started the riot?
I thought we were marching peacefully

We've got the music
But we've got to use it
Shouldn't we be dancing in the street?

I wanna know
what choice you're gonna make
Every good debate
Has a bad solution
What you choose to see
Might define your fate
Every good debate
Has a bad solution