Hanson - MMMBop

What this video is

Released in spring 1997, 'MMMBop' arrived at a pivotal commercial inflection point: the alternative/grunge era was collapsing and major labels were pivoting back to melodic, youth-facing pop. Mercury Records deliberately chose indie-credentialed collaborators — producer team the Dust Brothers and director Tamra Davis — to give the video and album a patina of hipness that smoothed mainstream acceptance. The video's…

Why it matters

The MMMBop video is a landmark document of the mid-90s teen-pop resurgence that directly preceded the TRL era. It demonstrated that youth-pop acts could achieve credibility through director choice and production aesthetic rather than genre — a playbook adopted widely in the 1998–2001 pop…

The director

Tamra Davis (born January 22, 1962, Studio City, California) is an American film, television, and music video director with over 155 music videos to her credit. She built her early reputation directing videos for Sonic Youth, The Lemonheads, Tone Loc,…