Hanson Uses New Media to Inspire and Take Action..
At age 12, Taylor Hanson co-wrote “MMMBop” with his two brothers. Two years later, the band Hanson dominated radio airwaves with the song and, like it or not, planted an impossibly catchy tune in our collective brains. It made the Tulsa, Oklahoma trio rich and famous — but given the shelf life of boy-band acts in the late 1990’s, it probably should have ended their career. And it did, to a degree … Hanson never sold 10 million albums again. But they survived, clinging just below the pop-culture radar and avoiding boy-band extinction because, well, they were never a manufactured boy band. They wrote their own songs. They sang. They played their instruments. Taylor may have been a teen heartthrob, but he wasn’t plucked from obscurity by a quick-money producer or manager.
Hanson continued to write and perform since their days in the spotlight. Surprise! Hanson didnt just get older; they got better. Along with the big steps that Hanson has taken in terms of their sound, the brothers are determined to use their talent as a tool for raising awareness about the disease and poverty that plague all of Africa, but South Africa and Mozambique in particular. After a group of Hanson’s friends from a Tulsa medical firm began donating technology to a hospital in South Africa to help fight HIV/AIDS, the brothers were inspired to take a trip to South Africa and Mozambique to leave their own mark. This was the trip that sparked Hanson’s desire to use music as an awareness tool. They stayed in an orphanage in Mozambique, and were actually in awe of the optimism of people surrounded by such disease and poverty.
So, the band set up their laptops in the orphanage cafeteria, which is in and of itself an amazing thing that is the result of new media, and they recorded the children’s choir for “Great Divide” – a track off The Walk. The choir sings ‘ngi ne themba,’ which means I have hope. After recording, Hanson decided to put the music to good use. They posted a blog entry on their website Hanson.net telling their fans that they could purchase The Great Divide for $0.99 on iTunes and all of the proceeds from the “Great Divide” downloads would go to the Perinatal HIV research Unit in South Africa. Hanson was beginning to use their website as this great tool to get their fans engaged and active in making a difference. This is something they couldnt have done before the internet. It can be as simple as spending $0.99 on a song. It doesn’t mean we must all go to Africa. It means we all have a role to play. The funds raised through the Great Divide allowed HIVSA- the non profit that supports the hospital, to launch a program called Areiketsetse le bana ( let us do it for ourselves and our children ) in Soweto and also in a rural area called Mpumalanga. This is one of HIVSA’s most successful programs and the impact and the number of people they reach is amazing. This is all due to Hanson, the fans and the internet as a medium of doing so. To think something so small like a song gave so much hope, it just amazes me.
Hanson has taken their most recent album’s title rather literally in their effort to expose people to Africa’s poor conditions. The band kicked off their “The Walk Tour” with TOMS shoes- a business that donates a pair of their shoes every time a pair is bought. In each city they stopped on The Walk Tour, they did a one mile walk barefoot to promote awareness about AIDS/HIV. They wanted everyone to connect with the idea that we take something so simple for granted. Some Africans dont even own a pair of shoes and have to do this everyday. After completing the walk, you got to be in front of the line to get into the show. TOMS shoes had a goal of selling 50,000 pairs of shoes. With Hanson’s support, TOMS shoes reached their goal. Then they went to Africa a few months later and dropped off the shoes in person, which is just taking what theyve done a step further. Also while in Africa, they posted a blog entry online asking fans to donate money for the DD Dilawayo School in South Africa, which desperately needed it. In the matter of only a few days, they raised $15,000 from their fans to help the school.
The ability to do all of this was due to the Internet generation and their website Hanson.net. Hanson.net gave them the access and outreach that they needed in order to get their fans to help out. They first put the idea up on their blog, then they used their blog as a way to let people know three hours before the show in each city, where they would be beginning the walk and what time it would start. If they didnt have the internet, they wouldnt have been able to personally reach so many fans in so little time. Imagine just three hours before each show fans checking to see where it would begin so that they could be there. Some fans already waiting in line or driving to the venue had to check the site on their phone. Also, the fact that they sold so many more TOMS shoes because of these walks is incredible. Yes, you are consuming in order to be an active citizen. But honestly, in the end it made such a huge difference that it was worth it to me to be a consumer and a citizen at the same time. All of this is just another way new media has completely changed our lives. New media and the internet generation has allowed Hanson and their fans to be active citizens. Without this, it just wouldnt work.
After The Walk Tour and their trip to Africa, Hanson has added a new section to their site, called ’Take The Walk’. “It is designed to keep you informed about everything were doing to take action on issues that are affecting the world, especially the AIDS/HIV epidemic and poverty is South Africa. We plan to provide you with simple tasks that will help make a difference in the world. Most importantly, we hope to inspire you to take action on your own” (Hanson.net). Here you can read blog entries, look for ways to help out, and watch a video Hanson put together from their time in Africa. Another way new media is being proactive and creative. They are also heading out on tour to do it all again this year. Starting just this week, Hanson will be continuing their Walk tour, doing one mile walks in each city and once again teaming up with TOMS shoes in hopes of donating more shoes to Africa. They are stopping on the east coast where I will be doing the one mile walks again in MA, NH and NY. Hanson also just announced that they are launching their own custom TOMS Great Divide Shoe. Included with every pair of shoes sold is a download card for their song Great Divide, as well as a special acoustic recording. The proceeds from the downloads will go to help HIVSA, an HIV research hospital in Soweto, South Africa. By purchasing these special shoes, not only are you giving a free pair of shoes to a child in need, you are helping to prevent the mother to child transmission of HIV/AIDS. The shoes are supposed to be released today on April 9th, but they are not available yet. It is just another exciting way for their fans to get involved.
Hanson also uses their website to get their fans more involved in their favorite band, which is key today in this media world we are living in. Hanson.net features a forum for fans to discuss whatever they want, and they also have a monthly newsletter. Most of the time fans know things before its even officially announced on the website. I dont know how they do this, but they do! This just goes back to what Henry Jenkins was talking about with fandom. These Hanson fans are one of the most passionate group of fans Ive ever encountered and many famous people have said that as well. Hanson fans know everything about them, see every show in the area, and are usually very dedicated at trying to get new Hanson fans. They will do anything and everything to meet them and this is coming from a hardcore, passionate fan that has had the experience of doing anything and everything to meet them. Hanson.net definitely caters to their loyal fans, the group of fans that will go to this site daily for updates. You can tell that they cater to their loyals because a lot of the stuff on this site is for fans that already know what their about and want to further interact with Hanson and the cultural activism that they are involved in. If you are a new fan though, you can also surely learn a lot from the site about the band.
I love that my favorite band is also one that wants to change the world, even if it is only by doing small things. Those small things add up to wonderful, big things. They make a difference and change peoples lives. Hanson is a lot different from other bands and other bands websites in this way. A lot of bands dont try to get their fans so involved in making a difference, and a lot of bands also dont walk a mile with no shoes on with their fans in each city they tour in. They are just so inspiring. But they wouldnt have been able to do any of this without the internet. The internet was the medium that allowed them and still allows them to reach their goals. They have already done so much with new media, and it will be exciting to see how much more will be done in the future. The outreach the internet allows for is unbelievable and in twenty years I cant even imagine how many more people can and will be reached by it. Nevertheless, the potentials are endless in this internet age.
Final Essay
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