You might hate them because of "MMMBop," or maybe you hate them because you think it’s their fault teen pop became popular. Whatever your reasoning, maybe it’s time to give the Hanson brothers a second chance.

It was the summer of ’97 and three androgynous brothers — Isaac, Taylor and Zac — from Oklahoma invaded homes with the help of MTV and the infectious, sunny grooves of "MMMBop," an immediate success on the charts. Hanson’s major-label debut "Middle of Nowhere" rode that tune’s giddiness all the way to an eight-times platinum designation.

Next thing you know, the Spice Girls, the Backstreet Boys, N’Sync, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera are tearing up the charts, making teen pop the new big thing. Yup, it all started with Hanson.

The big difference is that the brothers wrote and produced pop songs that could have been hits in any time period; of course, drummer Zac was 11 at the time. Thus, the teen-pop boom began and folks credited Hanson with starting it all.

"When you reach so many people with one particular song, it’s hard to get them to accept you as something else," says keyboardist and lead vocalist Taylor in a phone interview while on the bus to Kansas City. "We weren’t much like those other artists, but that doesn’t mean we’re still not connected to them."

Taylor’s theory makes sense. In 2000, Hanson released its second proper album, "This Time Around," and the record struggled to sell 500,000 copies. The songs on that disc represented a step forward for the band, but the buying public didn’t care; they wanted another "MMMBop."

"The real fans still come to the shows and buy the records," explains Taylor. But after the dismal results of "This Time Around," Hanson basically got dropped from its major label and sent to the minor leagues, one of the label’s small subsidiaries. But the guys quickly decided it wanted to start its own label.

"We wanted the opportunity to send our messages out the way we want," Taylor says. "The idea of being on a major is not a gamble because it’s like a bank that gives you money to finance everything, but at the point we were at, we wanted to control our own content and dictate where we go."

Where Hanson went is "Underneath." The band recently released the mature and vibrant record to a salivating public. The disc debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s independent sales chart. And since the guys get about $6 for every album sold — as opposed to about $2 when on a major label — it’s basically like selling three discs for every one purchased.

"But this is really about passion," says Taylor. "We wanted to be in a position to say, ‘Hey, this is about our passion.’ Making music is who we are; it’s what we do. We’re three guys who are passionate about making a connection with people and putting a premium on the music."

"Underneath" is a letter sent from the days AM standards filled the air. The sound is a cooler, more hip combination of Jackson Browne and Joe Jackson, with some contemporary influences like John Mayer and Michelle Branch.

Not only have the fans responded through buying the record, but the band’s tour, which stops at the Oakdale Theatre Tuesday, can count among its successes a 10-minute sellout in Chicago.

"Our show is a rock and roll show, a bunch of instruments and it doesn’t matter what we’re playing," Taylor says. "There’s lots of up and down and it draws people in. I’ve never been one to leave people in their seats."


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Patrick Ferrucci can be reached at (203) 789-5678 or pferrucci@nhregister.com.