Please hear me out...

Tonight I was fortunate enough to attend one of the finest rock and roll shows that i've ever seen. But I couldn't find anyone to go with me, even though they would have gotten in free on the headliner's guest list. In the weeks leading up to the concert, more than one person laughed at me when I excitedly told them what band I was going to see. I've seen the group four times before and even hung out with them on the tour bus and traded burned CD's of our favorite music. My friends just shrug when I tell them about it. Nobody cares. This is the life of a Hanson fan.

It was ten years ago that Hanson exploded into pop music with 'Mmmbop'. That was the height of their success. The song was number one in thirty countries at the same time. They did a worldwide tour of huge venues...and then vanished. Well, they didn't really vanish. They just went back to the studio to record another record like any band would. When that follow-up was released in 2000, nobody really noticed. Their label dropped them, and so the band formed their own record company and have been running their own career as independent artists ever since.

I guess you can't have a huge hit song that is the very definition of bubblegum pop and then expect the entire world to take you seriously when your next album is more mature and rock driven. That gives the general public way too much credit on their intelligence. It just doesn't work that way. Once society puts you into a box and labels it, you're supposed to stay there. Nobody understands that bands grow and change over time, especially one whose members were all under fifteen years old when their debut was recorded. It's ludicrous isn't it? How could anyone expect a twenty-six year old to still be making the same music he did when he was fifteen?

The Hanson that I saw tonight was an incredible rock band, pure and simple. They're just as sick of their past as everyone else is, and so they still play like they have something to prove - because unfortunately they do, even ten years into their career. They want to be taken seriously, and rightly so, they've worked hard for it. To not take them seriously now is to not have heard anything they've done since their first album. I'm not suggesting that everyone needs to like them. But to disregard and mock them without hearing how far they've come is to speak out of ignorance.

In the world of independent bands that I live in, everyone is struggling to 'make it' and be taken seriously as artists. These bands know what it's like to be harshly judged and have no one care about the music that they work so hard to create. Many of the members of these bands are the very people who mocked Hanson to my face and refused to believe that anything they create could be seen as art. It's a sad irony that I rarely take the time to point out.

Maybe if they'd seen the incredible show that I saw tonight, they'd understand.

--Ozzy