""Goodbye, Grunge-Hello, Hanson!"

A new batch of kids is talkin' 'bout their generation. And the message is: "MMMbop"

The first time Zachary Hanson saw his own face on MTV, his reaction was a bit different from that of most rock stars, "I said, 'Look at the cute girl-no, wait, it's me!'" says Zachary, a cherubic 11-year old who won't be needing a shave until the next millennium. Zach, one-third of the pop-star siblings known as Hanson, wasn't the only one doing a double take: across a broad spectrum of pop culture, 1997 was the year when a new youthquake rocked the business-on both sides of the stage.

The new faces reflected an enormous new demographic bulge in the U.S. society. There were 37 million 10 to 19 year olds in 1997, and the number will soar to 42 million in the next decade. Think of them as the baby boomers' babies. These youngsters turned their back on the dark anxieties of the last great movement of pop culture, the grunge wave of the early 90's, to revel in brighter, more innocent moods. Out is the old rallying cry, Nirvana's gloomy Nevermind: in was the new rallying cry, Hanson's inanely catchy MMMbop. Yes, the teenyboppers were taking over, from the pop and country charts in music to TV and the movies. And what do they want to see? More teenyboppers of course. Here are three reports from the front:

HANSON TRIO: "People are coming back to music that's fun and upbeat, and younger artists are filling that gap," says Patti Galluzzi, senior vice president of music and talent at MTV. The potent brother act Hanson led the tot-pop brigade, which also included the groups Radish and Silverchair, as well as guitarist Johnny Lang, 16.

Hanson is composed of Zachary (drums), 13 year old Taylor (keyboards) and 16 year old Isaac (guitar). Raised largely in Tulsa, Okla. the brothers are endearingly innocent and spontaneously rambunctious. Their mother schools the three (and three younger siblings) at home, and their father works as a financial exec for an oil-drilling company. Early on, the family traveled a lot, and the brothers passed the time listening to their parents' vintage records- "Johnny B Goode, Splish Splash [and] Good Golly, Miss Molly," remembers Isaac. They began singing at local events, sent tapes to record companies and landed a deal with Mercury.

Next stop: Hansonmania, with the single MMMbop reaching no. 1 within a month, and the album Middle Of Nowhere (no doubt a reference to Tulsa, not cosmic anomie) selling more than 3 million copies in its first three months of release. Says Taylor: "The alternative thing is fading. People don't hate their parents as much anymore."