Make good stuff, then make it easy for people to buy it. There’s your anti-piracy plan.
Jonathan Coulton, definitively. (via merlin)
It’s Unique to Get Three People to Agree on Lyrics
Hanson - Strong Enough to Break
I realize Hanson is lighter fare than I normally serve up here, but if you think the sugary bubblegum pop of “MMMBop” is all there is to these three brothers, then you couldn’t be more wrong. I, like many others, had originally written off the trio’s music as kiddie music—by kids for kids—but Taylor Hanson’s unexpected appearance in supergroup Tinted Windows prompted me to take a closer look at these brothers from Tulsa, OK. What I found is that they are actually extremely talented and accomplished multi-instrumentalists who write their own songs—high-quality pop craftsmanship at that—and have some serious vocal chops to boot. Say what you will about them, but if you honestly listen to Hanson’s music with an open mind, there’s no denying these guys are the real deal.
Hanson struggled with the corporate politics of Island Def Jam executives, specifically A&R representative Jeff Fenster, for the better part of two years while trying to make what would have been their third major-label studio album—and their first proper album with IDJ who had acquired the band in a corporate merger with former label Mercury Records as the band was putting the finishing touches on its second disc—before finally parting ways with IDJ in May 2003 after months of redirection, misdirection, false starts, restarts, and stalling. In 2004, the band released the documentary Strong Enough to Break chronicling these and other music business shenanigans while providing insight to the brothers’ creative process and frame of mind amid—and despite—all the nonsense. It also serves to document the creation of their own independent label 3CG Records and the release of “Underneath” a long and frustrating 40 months and 80 songs after beginning work on the album in early 2001. Drummer and youngest member Zac sums up the whole affair this way:
There was a very key moment in the middle of 2001 when we went from trying to make a record to trying to get a record made. (emphasis mine)
Ultimately, “Strong Enough to Break” shows us a band trying to free itself from the creative shackles of the corporate music machine in order to reclaim responsibility for its own musical destiny and how the album “Underneath” proved to be the turning point in that decision. And if you stick around until the end of this (admittedly long) 13-episode drama, you’ll be rewarded with a little surprise that will have you cheering the Hanson brothers’ determination to strike out on their own.
Enjoy!
