Why I'm Obsessed with Hanson by JOSHUA GLENN RELATED PODS Just when you thought the bubblegum pop band Hanson was finally going to slip off the cultural radar, they went and signed a contract to star in a movie about the "life story" of a young pop band... named Hanson. This Baudrillardian turn of events (where the simulacrum becomes more real than the "real") is particularly weird because the "lives" of the Brothers H add up to just over 40 years -- which is about how old most musicians have to be all on their own before anyone gets around to making a movie about them. I have to confess that this news is, well, music to my ears. I've been obsessed with Hanson since I first saw their "Mmmbop" video, directed by Tamra Davis. Like a 15-year-old girl I swooned over Tay's androgynous looks (I thought he WAS a 15-year-old girl!), and like many millions of others this summer, I bought the album the day it arrived in town. After many, many repeated plays (to the great enjoyment of my co-workers here at Tripod) I even figured out the lyrics to "MMMBop." The mainstream press can't figure out what to say about these fresh-faced kids from Oklahoma. E! Online, for example, waffled: "The perfectly blended pubescent squeals of the Hanson brothers' voices make for radio-friendly pop that shouldn't make you gag." (Why even mention gagging?) And TV Guide takes the prize for sneakiest insult by comparing the Hansons with apparent enthusiasm to bands so terrible nobody today can even remember what they sounded like: "We finally have some songs on the radio than can rival the glory days of '70s AM fodder from the DeFranco Family and Paper Lace." (Who??) But who cares what the mainstream press says about anything, right? When I want the low-down on a pop culture phenomenon, I go straight to the world of fanzines (e-fanzines, in this case.) Like Tripod member NiJohn's helpful list of Hanson links, which led me to the amazing Hanson Face Game. Ostensibly, the point of this game is to see what Tay's face would look like on Isaac's head, or vice-versa -- but the truly cool part about it is seeing what the Hansons would look like if they had no faces at all!! People magazine's typically half-hearted story on the brothers Hanson quotes their manager as saying that the group's hit song's nonsensical refrain ("Mmmbop-ba-duba-dop") "means the same thing in every language." But what does "mmmbop" mean? Upon inspection, the song turns out to be an almost Buddhist reflection on the transitory nature of all things: "Hold on to the ones who really care/In the end they'll be the only ones there/When you get old and start losing your hair /Can you tell me who will still care/...Mmm bop, ba duba dop (etc.)/...In an mmm bop they're gone./In an mmm bop they're not there." So as it turns out, an "mmmbop" is a unit of time during which everything that matters to you in life can vanish. So you'd better make a movie about it -- while you still have your hair.