Think radio sucks? You're not alone
Indie band Hanson talks with the 'Nique about music revolution
By Hillary Lipko

If you think you know Hanson, think again. As Taylor Hanson, 21, stood on a chair on a makeshift stage in the courtyard of Georgia State University last Tuesday afternoon, shouting his frustrations about mainstream radio and music to a crowd of several hundred students, one could almost feel a shockwave tear through the crowd as he dropped one f-bomb after another.

" Did he just say f - ? " one member of the audience said to a friend, surprised that a member of a band so many perceive to be squeaky clean just spat the ultimate in obscenities.

By the end of Taylor's furvored lecture and their brief two-song set comprised of "Strong Enough to Break" and "Penny and Me," songs from their third studio release, Underneath, the perceptions about Hanson held by many in the crowd seemed to change. "They're pretty cool," another audience member commented.

The short acoustic set and college activist-style lecture in the courtyard was supposed to be the culmination of a two-hour interview spot on Georgia State's radio station, WRAS, but due to what proved to be a logistical snafu on the part of the station, the interview didn't happen. While Hanson may have gained a few new fans at GSU that day, that was not their primary objective.

" We're just here - if you get into Hanson because you're like, 'Wow, that's cool . I didn't understand what they were saying, 'maybe you get into [the band]. But it's not about that. It's about creating a movement saying, 'You know what? We're getting s**t shoved down our throats by corporate media," Taylor said.

"It's specifically bad now, and there's this massive opportunity for us to support the better stuff like the new independent stores [on] the internet, college radio stations, independent bands, live music, " Taylor explained.

In a sense, Hanson is on a mission to mobilize college students to start speaking out about mainstream media. During breaks in their promotion of the international release of Underneath, Hanson is stopping at universities around the country, rallying a base of music fans to become active in an issue that has irked fans and musicians alike for years.

"There is music out there that's not being represented and whether [you call] up your radio station and [tell] them they suck, that they don't represent the people they think they ' re marketing to or whatever, it's just the idea of being active in music," Zac Hanson, 19, said.

"There's two ways you could go with it: you could go and make sure you're telling the radio stations that 'We're not happy,' but I think the more important thing is to be proactive in the actual finding a new way to be searching out stuff," Taylor said.

The members of Hanson talked at length about the importance of the internet and independent radio in the proliferation of independent music. "College radio stations like the one that you guys have are unique to the United States and Atlanta is one of the only places in the United States where the [college] radio stations are as powerful as they are.

"You're really able to reach a lot of people and potentially have a lot of impact. And the value of that is you're able to do things that other radio stations are not. because they're not interested in the fan perspective, whereas you guys actually are; you are the fans," Isaac Hanson, 24, said.

Citing some numbers regarding radio listenership, Isaac also explained how mainstream radio's audience has declined in the past six years as people are turning to alternate methods of getting the music they like. " [People] are discovering music, basically, through their friends and in a big part through the internet in some form," he said.

Hanson, unlike many bands, sees the internet as a wonderful tool for promoting music and promoting lesser-known bands, and while they don't fully support what is considered to be illegal downloading, they do see why it is so common.

"I think downloading is both saving and killing the music industry at the same time; it's saving it by the audiences actually finding a way to discover music because the severely consolidated ... industry has pushed diversity out the window," Isaac said.

Hanson also talked about how a band's website can provide more information and more content about a band and about their albums than liner notes ever could. Because you can often find out anything you'd ever want to know about a record's production credits on an artist's website, a quick search for a band or singer can sometimes return some pretty interesting results, which could be considered a testament to the internet's power as a promotion tool.

"I looked up Ben Folds on the internet and all of the sudden William Shatner came up and I'm like, what the - Ben Folds produced the most recent William Shatner album. It's a great album.

"But that's something that could never have happened in a record store. Because all of a sudden [a search] pulls up all these references that relate to Ben Folds," Zac said.

Throughout the course of their interview with Technique, Hanson discussed technology, piracy, radio, the music business and their new independent label, 3CG. Toward the end, Taylor addressed the cancellation of that morning's radio interview.

"The radio station got really nervous and cancelled the appearance because they were afraid of fans being here and because a lot of people who are fans, who have been fans [started calling] ... and that scared the radio station.

"That should be the norm for independent music, because passion is what you want. You want people who are like, 'Damn, this does something for me. I'm excited about this; this is part of my life. This is part of who I am,'" he said.

To those who just can't seem to take the message or the issue seriously because it's Hanson that is talking about it, Taylor had this to say, "I think a lot of people are like, 'What the hell? Hanson's talking to me about independent music? F & shy; - you.' [But] if you choose not to hear a message because you don't like the messenger, you're just shooting yourself in the foot."