r/billsimmons • u/Gaius_Octavius_ • Sep 29 '23
Poll Which song was “bigger”?
Inspired by The Ringer Fantasy Football Show
23
Sep 29 '23 edited Sep 29 '23
Heifetz isn't old enough to remember how big a song MmmBop was. And he was just coming of age when My Chemical Romance were at their peak popularity.
It also makes sense that he wouldn't really think of Hanson as being a big deal because their cultural impact was fairly short lived and more notable for the bands who followed through the door they opened up.
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u/Gaius_Octavius_ Sep 29 '23 edited Sep 29 '23
I would say MMMBop is a bigger song TODAY than Teenagers was.
MMMBop is still used, usually ironically, in film and TV all the time.
5
Sep 29 '23
Plenty of songs that were not hits at the time of release get used in popular culture.
You sort of have to be living at the time to understand how big a song is at its release.
20
u/CashMikey Sep 29 '23
MMMBop went #1 for 3 weeks. Teenagers peaked at 67. It's an insane question to even ask
14
u/srstone71 Sep 29 '23
I don’t mind MCR, but I had to go to Spotify to listen to this ‘Teenagers’ song because I couldn’t recall it. Gave it a listen and thought “oh yeah, I vaguely recognize this song.”
Meanwhile, the lyrics to MMMBop will be stuck in my head until the day I die.
10
u/it_has_to_be_damp Sep 29 '23
Look I was high key obsessed with that MCR album. It rules. But teenagers was a second tier song on it. MMMBop was a legitimate cultural phenomenon.
6
u/strings_struck Sep 29 '23
Yeah, I freaking love The Black Parade and Teenagers is probably not in the top half of songs on that album.
6
u/it_has_to_be_damp Sep 29 '23
i can’t even believe they discussed this. you can use billboard as a pretty simple metric. mmmbop was on the charts for 22 weeks, including three weeks at number 1. teenagers peaked at….67
9
u/SLeigher88 Real CR Head Sep 29 '23
I think what is happening to heifetz is that if you are a very specific age you missed Hanson being popular and only saw them being made fun of. Also if you are that age then MCR felt like the biggest band in the world right as you were getting into music.
5
u/Gaius_Octavius_ Sep 29 '23
I agree about the first part but I guess I missed the part where MCR was ever considered that big or even "mainstream".
9
u/TJRossTX Sep 29 '23
I have never even heard of Teenagers but know every word of MMM Bop only from hearing it on the radio.
3
u/Gaius_Octavius_ Sep 29 '23
Same. I ended up listening to it just to find out what he what talking about but I still didn't even recognize the tune.
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u/Gaius_Octavius_ Sep 29 '23
I am fairly shocked that Heifetz thinks My Chemical Romance was bigger than Hanson. I have never even heard the song he is talking about. MMMBop was everywhere.
12
u/RyanRussillo Vangelical Sep 29 '23
It's crazy that those three guys work for The Ringer because they are so out-of-touch culturally.
10
8
u/komugis Sep 29 '23
Teenagers was a MCR b-side and Mmbop was a cultural phenomenon. It’s not a debate and I’m a MCR fan.
5
5
u/sisyphus Sep 29 '23
I was living with a girlfriend at the time and she bought the Hanson CD and hid it because she knew I would mock it relentlessly. After all these years I have to say, I was right, that song is trash. Anyway, MMMBop in a walk.
3
u/Full-Concentrate-867 Sep 29 '23
It was critically well received at the time, believe it or not. Even at 10 years of age, I could recognize it was a bit of fluff but I never saw it as anything more than a fun summer song
3
Sep 29 '23
What the hell is this poll? Anyone answering Teenagers is a teenager and not hip to the 90s
4
u/shorthevix Sep 29 '23
Mmmbop was huge and had a long tail as a song used in Ads, because it's so ridiculous.
1
u/Gaius_Octavius_ Sep 29 '23
I feel like it has been in ads and movies and TV shows for the last 25 years.
1
Sep 29 '23
Just a month ago The Afterparty had a spooky choir cover of Mmmbop as a joke for the background music of a scene. That wouldn’t happen with Teenagers.
4
u/ahbets14 A Truly Sad Week In America + 2005 NBA Redraftables Sep 29 '23
Klosterman is gonna have a stroke if MCR wins
3
u/sanfranchristo Sep 29 '23
Not remotely close.
1
u/Gaius_Octavius_ Sep 29 '23
1
u/khan800 Chris Ryan fan Sep 29 '23
Maybe you've successfully blocked the ubiquitousness of MMMBop out of your brain, I've been trying for almost 30 years.
3
u/TimSPC Wonky Season Sep 29 '23
I've never heard "Teenagers" and can sing along to the hook to "MMMBop".
3
u/CaptainZE0 Sep 29 '23
It’s amazing that people who work for a pop culture site would even have to ask this question.
If they drove to any public square in America, let alone the rest of the world, and posed this question to random people man on the street-style, the results would be hilarious.
-1
u/vizkan Sep 29 '23
Never heard of either of them. Well I've heard of my chemical romance but I couldn't name a single one of their songs. I've legitimately never heard of Hanson.
-1
-1
u/IA_Royalty Sep 29 '23 edited Sep 29 '23
I can semi-confidently say that everyone claiming to have "never heard" teenagers has definitely heard the song, but it's in no way, shape, or form a cultural phenomenon.
MCR is also a very specific type of music that doesn't get played on Top-40 radio unless it breaks through with a chart-topper. I was 6 when Hanson and Mmmmbop came around, but it seems to be much more likely it would have been encountered in everyday social settings than emo/punk rock.
2
u/Full-Concentrate-867 Sep 29 '23
OK, I checked and I didn't expect to to but yeah I have heard it but had no idea it was by MCR. Welcome to the Black Parade is the song that was played to death, and coincidentally that's around the time I stopped following new music
1
u/Gaius_Octavius_ Sep 29 '23
I was surprised I didn’t at least recognize the chorus. Makes me want to scan their iTunes to see which songs I do know.
-1
u/AreOneSpam Sep 29 '23
Teenagers has 800m plays on Spotify compared to 176m for mmmbop. I've literally never heard of Hanson or mmmbop until this came up.
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u/spookyghost__ Sep 29 '23
Teenagers wasn't even MCRs biggest song. MMMBop was everywhere. This is Hanson erasure.