Hanson Is Welcome New Kid on Teen Mags’ Block

The grunge years were boom time for the music business. But they were an arid stretch for a related industry: the teen-oriented magazines that have been a staple of the pop music world. Kurt Cobain wasn’t exactly your teen-pop heartthrob.

The three members of Hanson, however, are practically made for posters on the walls of 12-year-old girls, the core readers of such publications as 16, Bop and SuperTeen. And the success of Hanson, as well as the Spice Girls with their “girl power” appeal, has spurred a resurgence for these publications.

“Since we first put Hanson on a cover several months back, our circulation has increased 50%,” say Carrie Yasuda, managing editor of the Studio City-based monthlies Bop and BB. “It had been so long since we had that kind of fun, really positive, poppy group.”

The teen-pop world has always been cyclical, but the span between the New Kids on the Block’s reign, which ended around 1991, and the start of the Hanson era was longer and more barren than usual.

There wasn’t a complete absence of music in their pages--such acts as Boyz II Men and Immature filled out coverage of Jonathan Taylor Thomas, the TV heartthrob of recent years. But none of them had the dominant presence and appeal of Hanson.

“Hanson blew the lid off the whole thing,” says Hedy End, editorial director for both SuperTeen and Superstars. “We’re very happy about them and the groups they’ve opened the door for--like the Backstreet Boys, Boyzone, 98 Degrees and No Authority.”

The formula is no different now than it was when 16 debuted in 1957, with Elvis Presley and James Dean as its main cover subjects: Cute boys sell. The advent of Rolling Stone and Spin, MTV and the Internet, has done little to change it.

And the record companies are happy to play along again.

“There’s clearly a huge audience out there of mostly young girls who have perhaps been underserved by pop acts of the last decade or so,” says Dawn Bridges, senior vice president of media and artist relations at Mercury Records--Hanson’s home. “A lot of these magazines speak pretty directly to this group. If you’re looking for where a 12-year-old girl can get information, this is it.”

MCA Records is making the teen magazines a key in its marketing campaign for Aqua, a Danish group whose frothy “Barbie Girl” single is a rising hit.

“We’re definitely taking Aqua to them,” says Lillian Matulic, vice president of publicity of MCA Records. “These magazines are great to work with . . . and these fans are rabid.”

But End cautions about trying to push an act into that market.

“We’ve never been able to ‘make’ a group,” she says. “Our readers are the ones who express the interest. We can introduce new people, but the readers will tell us what interests them. We’ve seen some of our competitors try very hard to create a teen idol, and it never works.”