Tagged As: Jonas Brothers, Concert, Hanson

The Jonas Brothers have hit the music scene as the newest group to capture the heart teenage girls (or more accurately tween girls) that want their rock stars to sing up beat, romantic bubble gum lyrics.

This is far from a new phenomenon. This has been a “discovered” market since music became mass produced and available across the nation and the globe. As soon as a song could be recorded and sent to stores and homes around the world, gaggles of girls have been able to dream of innocent romantic relationships with the lead singer or the guitarist (the drummer is probably a more adult dream and the bassist never gets any adoration).

The Jonas Brothers-Kevin, Joe, and Nick- are following in the footsteps of the groups like the Beattles, the Monkeys, and Herman’s Hermits. This group brings back images of a group that had its hey day not to long ago and is trying to make a new life for themselves now. That group is Hanson.

Hanson was also comprised of three brothers –Isaac, Taylor, and Zac. They also had the pseudo-rock style hair of the generation. Hanson had long, straight blond hair while the Jonas Brothers are rocking curly black mops. Hanson similarly produced pseudo rock music that was a more family friendly version of the scary grunge music of the times.

They sang about being happy and longing for the girl with an upbeat catalogue of songs like “MMMBop.” This was before the gut-wrenching realization that their lives were pointless and would end up like Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”

Once again, similarly, the Jonas Brothers are the cute, adorable not-so-suicidal version of Emo. Their music is driven by the packaged emotions. Instead of those emotions being about hating your life and regret and longing because of a broken heart or “difficult” life in middle class suburbia, the Jonas Brothers write the emotions at the beginning of a relationship or the longing for the pretty girl from afar. Both emotions come from the same place, just from the pre-decimated stage.

Hanson and the Jonas Brothers also came along at a similar time within the musical landscape. Hanson came at the end of grunge when the boy bands and girl groups were taking hold. The Backstreet Boys, N’Sync, and Brittney Spears were dominating MTV while they were breaking into the TRL top ten.

The Jonas Brothers are coming along as Emo is being called out and openly mocked by just about everyone. While no real boy bands have emerged, there are plenty of girl pop stars to choose from to replace Brittney’s teen-targeting lyrics. The very savior of their career, Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus, is such a pop star.

The ultimate forward looking question is whether the Jonas Brothers will be able to make the move from a Disney Channel-channel approved group with a target audience that stops listening once they become more aware of their sexuality and want heir music to reflect their more risqué dreams or if they are able to change with the times and tie themselves to a “dangerous” label that keeps the girls who had innocent dreams of make out sessions dreaming about them as they want to do more than be seen holding hands.

And now, for your listening pleasure, a trip to a nostalgic place.

You can purchase Jonas Brothers tickets for their upcoming tour here or you can get Hanson tickets as they make their comeback.