Ok, I think I'm justified in saying that 6 or so months ago when the official release date for Hanson's new album was announced, we (the fans) were ecstatic. Finally after almost 3 years, a new album and the guys will finally gain the respect they deserve and all this other fab stuff.
But now, two-weeks after the US release date, those ideals are no longer. They debuted at 19 and in the second week slipped into the 70's on the charts only selling 85,000 copies of TTA. So what went wrong? The album got almost unanimously positive reviews from even the harshest critics. God knows they promoted it. So why?
The fans changed. Bottom line. The real fans, the fans who have been supporting them all along, are still here. But unfortunately, the other fans, the fans who just liked Hanson because it was cool to at the time (in '97 when they came out) along with BSB and N'Sync and Brittney and all the other boy bands and candy girls, have moved on. Period. When the guys took their break and were out of the spotlight, they focused on all the other stuff. And when Hanson DID come back, and weren't doing the bubble gum pop thing, the fans didn't even bother listening.
Another reason was airplay. You can put Hanson on every cover, of every magazine and on every talk show in the world, but if you can't get them on the radio, it doesn't matter. But MTV and radio is focused on keeping with what's hot now. So really, if your not a dancing boy harmony group or a blonde female dancer/singer. You're screwed. Once again, it wasn't the Hanson sounds they wanted, so they didn't put it on heavy rotation and get it heard.
And now comes rumors (from the NY Times, day before yesterday?) that the guys won't be able to do an actual tour because they were dropped by the promoter for poor album sales. Of course, they'll do radio promo stuff and maybe they'll finance it themselves doing smaller venues, definitely no 20,000 seat arenas. But the saddest thing about that is that not only will we as fans miss out on seeing them live, but the guys might miss out on doing what they say they love most, playing live.
So, what do we as fans do with this situation? Well, there's a few things we can do. Aside from buying the CD and requesting Hanson. E-mail Hansonline, post on Hanson.net, E-mail Christopher Sabec, E-mail Def Jam, make a banner for your webpage, and just say whether they sell 1 album or 100 million, the real fans are still here and we want them to tour and we still support them. (be nice if you do write to those people, please)
Bottom Line? In the sea of mediocre, over produced, cookie cutter images and songs that is 'the music business' right now, Hanson was just ahead of their time. I truly believe that. And I also think that in 5,6,7 years, when all these boybands and such are gone, Hanson will still be here, still be playing their songs, writing and producing and the world will be ready to accept it.
~ Summer