Look, I know what you're thinking. Hanson? The "MMMBop" guys? The three brothers with the hair who somehow convinced an entire generation of middle schoolers to buy a cassette single at Sam Goody? Yes, that Hanson. And apparently, in the year of our lord 2024, they've done something that has the internet dusting off its collective pitchfork.
Here's the deal. Hanson—yes, they're still a band, and no, they never actually broke up, which is a fun fact that ruins approximately zero conversations—announced they're going on tour. Great, right? Nostalgia is a hell of a drug, and aging millennials will pay obscene amounts of money to briefly pretend it's 1997 again and their biggest problem was whether they'd taped the right episode of *TRL*.
But here's where it gets spicy. Tickets aren't cheap. We're talking "you could buy a used Honda Civic for this" levels of pricing for the good seats. And the internet, being the internet, did what it does best: complained loudly and at length.
One fan on X, formerly Twitter, formerly the place we all went to escape our feelings, wrote: "I loved Hanson before I could spell 'mortgage' and now I can't afford to see them because of one." That's a solid burn, honestly. Ten out of ten, no notes.
But wait, it gets better. The band reportedly responded to the backlash by pointing out that touring costs have skyrocketed. Which is true! Gas, venues, crew, insurance—it's all expensive. Nobody's arguing that. But there's something deeply funny about a band whose entire brand was "wholesome brothers singing about hope and love" getting dragged into a discourse about dynamic ticket pricing and service fees that cost more than the actual ticket.
Reddit, of course, had a field day. One user in r/Music wrote, "AITA for thinking a band that peaked when dial-up was still a thing shouldn't charge Beyoncé prices?" The comments were a beautiful cascade of "NTA" and people sharing stories about the time they saw Hanson at a state fair for twelve dollars and a corn dog.
Another user pointed out the cruel irony: "They sang 'MMMBop' about how everything is fleeting and nothing lasts forever, and apparently that includes affordable concert tickets."
Ouch. That one actually stings.
To be fair to Hanson, they're not the only ones doing this. Concert pricing has gone completely off the rails across the board. Taylor Swift, Bruce Springsteen, Zach Bryan—everyone's getting roasted for it. It's less a Hanson problem and more a "live music is now a luxury good" problem. But Hanson makes for a funnier headline because, well, *MMMBop*.
The band's defenders are also out in force, arguing that if you don't like the prices, you don't have to go. Which is fair. Nobody's forcing anyone to drop three figures to hear "Penny & Me" live. But that logic has never stopped the internet from being mad about anything, and it's certainly not going to start now.
So where does this leave us? Hanson is touring. Tickets are expensive. People are mad. The sun still rises in the east. Some things never change, and apparently, neither does the internet's ability to turn a mildly annoying pricing decision into a full-blown moral crisis.
Honestly, the whole thing is peak 2024. We can't agree on anything—politics, movies, whether pineapple belongs on pizza—but we can all come together and agree that concert tickets cost too much. That's the real American dream.
If you want to see Hanson, go see Hanson. If you don't, don't. But maybe, just maybe, we can stop pretending that a band from Tulsa, Oklahoma, is personally responsible for the collapse of affordable entertainment. They're just three guys who wrote a catchy song in 1997 and are now trying to make a living. Let 'em cook.
Or don't. I'm not your mom.
**Final Take:** Hanson charging premium prices is annoying, but it's not a crime. The real villain here is Ticketmaster, and that's a hill I will die on