When HANSON broke into the pop music scene by mid-1997, their music easily caught my listening ears. MMMBop sounds so different from all that boy band music at that time i.e. Backstreet, Boyzone, etc., etc. I was really impressed and swept away by MMMBOP that I immediately started looking for the album which has that song MMMBOP in it. I didn't even know who the artist is that time.

Was i surprised to find out that the artist behind the song were actually boys? I really thought that the song was sung by a female artist like Jill Sobule or Bic Runga. The moment I listened to the first song 'Thinking of You', I fell in love with HANSON. All songs sound different from each other and listening to every one is a totally different experience. I was an instant fan.

I started buying stuff that has anything that has to do with HANSON; be it posters, stickers, bookmarks, magazines, and T-shirt (?). My friends then started to share my interest in liking them. I may have not influenced them into liking HANSON like I did but at least they appreciate the guys' talents and can compose great songs way beyond their age.

But there came a time when being a HANSON fan was uncool. I cannot comprehend why? It even came to a point when I had to confront two girls at national bookstore when they started laughing upon seeing me reading HANSON SCRAPBOOK. It turned out they're fans of those LOSER, COPY-CATS, TRYING-HARDEST-TO-BE-LIKE HANSON CLONES, the moffats. I don't want to imagine what could have been had I not resisted the urge to slap their pathetic faces.

Well, I guess with age and maturity, I started listening to other genre of music which I would not even think or consider my kind of listening materials. I started digging rock bands especially the those that sounds satanistic (they say) like SLAPSHOCK, DISTURBED and POD.

Last Tuesday, I had lunch with my bestfriend, Paulo. We met at Powerbooks and he told me he saw the latest HANSON album. Without thinking twice, I buy it right then and there. I don't know why, but I was very excited to hear how almost seven years of absence had made a difference in their music. I had a randomly played the songs in the album for a minute of two just to have a general perception of their music. But I will be setting aside this weekend just to listen and probably reminisce those times that I have been, and I realized just now, that I am and forever will be, a HANSON fan.