The 2015 MOEY Awards

Anyone that is part of a fan base knows that sometimes the love in that community wears thin. Sure, we have our happy bonding moments (i.e. when you hear a Hanson ringtone several aisles away in Target, and it’s necessary to “walk” over and find out the source so you can meet your new BFF). But for every one of those moments, there’s another where it’s more of a “You’re my sister so I have to love you, but I kind of want to throw things at you right now” type of love. If you stick around long enough, you’ll see a lot of ups and downs in the fan community. You stay because your love for the band that brought you together is stronger than any petty argument.

Let me apologize in advance, because the sap content going forward in this post is high. We're talking maple syrup for days.

THE MOEYs

What are the MOEYs?
Where can I vote?

I’m writing this to say how blown away I was by all of the support I saw during the entry period, and I'm seriously proud of our fan base as a whole. Each entry required a specific number of views or likes in order to qualify as a submission. And instead of an outbreak of competition or favoritism, everyone supported each other. Videos without enough views were actively pushed by friends and often complete strangers. People “liked” and shared content from others that would inevitably become their own competition. I would love it if there was a surprise category for “best supporting role” to award someone who really went above and beyond to promote others, even if they made no entries themselves.

For several weeks now, Hanson fans have been working hard to submit some truly impressive and entertaining material. I know exactly where my comfort zone is, so I stuck with a written entry. To be honest, the video categories terrified me. I have tons of respect for every person that had the guts to enter for the lip syncing categories, and there were so many. There were great recreation videos, a construction paper stop-motion video, and some classic hairbrush-in-your-bedroom-mirror style lip syncing moments just to name a few. Picking a favorite would be impossible, and I’m seriously glad I wasn’t faced with the task of narrowing down the submissions. I'm in great company in my prospective categories and liked several of the concept albums during the entry stages myself. Everyone that entered should feel accomplished, and nobody should be made to feel bad about being chosen or not chosen as a finalist.

I’m hesitant to share this post because I know exactly how sappy it is, and I’ve talked myself out of it and deleted three different versions already. I really don’t want it to come off as a “vote for me” tactic, though I know tackling the MOEY topic at all is probably going to come off that way at least a little. I’ll end by saying it was fun to participate as an entrant and a spectator, and I think everyone that made the effort and had the courage to enter deserves a round of applause. It’s amazing the level of street teaming and camaraderie that can be inspired by a little plastic monkey, a little determination, and a big supportive community of fans.

Best Fan Community Hanskeys for all. :-)