{"id":728411,"date":"2026-08-05T15:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T15:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/728411\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T15:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T15:44:09","slug":"like-backstreet-boys-but-less-sultry-how-the-jonas-brothers-notched-up-20-years-of-pop-stardom-against-the-odds-pop-and-rock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/728411\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Like Backstreet Boys, but less sultry\u2019: how the Jonas Brothers notched up 20 years of pop stardom against the odds | Pop and rock"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Jonas Brothers appeared in the mid-00s in a blaze of smiles, dressed in shirts, suspenders and ties, singing sappy love songs that won the hearts of girls who quickly became obsessed with this Disney-signed band. Many assumed the fraternal trio would fade away, overtaken by whatever new act replaced them in the whims of teenagers. Yet this week marks 20 years since the release of their debut album, It\u2019s About Time<\/a>, and the toothsome threesome are bigger than ever.<\/p>\n

Kevin, Joe and Nick Jonas started out with danger-free pop-punk, evolving into a kind of broad-brush feelgood pop. Their true breakthrough was in 2008 with US No 5 hit Burnin\u2019 Up<\/a>, teeing up three back-to-back US No 1 albums as they became the youngest group to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone. The usual dreaded \u201ccreative differences\u201d precipitated a six-year hiatus and the pursuit of solo careers and acting. But they reformed in 2019 in spectacular style, getting their first US No 1 hit with Sucker<\/a>, and by last year they had the clout to sell out the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, where the World Cup final was later hosted.<\/p>\n

This evolution from Disney cornballs to legacy act is as unexpected as it is remarkable. \u201cThey\u2019re slick, and sometimes over-produced,\u201d says Nate Sloan, co-host of the podcast Switched on Pop. \u201cBut they genuinely love making and playing music and that\u2019s what draws me to their continued work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sloan argues that the key to their success is dogged devotion to honing their craft. \u201cThey\u2019re committed to their art in a way that people may not realise,\u201d he says. \u201cThey were writing their own songs from when they were preteens, and even when they sought out professional songwriting collaborators they opted for more daring voices.\u201d He cites Jon Bellion, the hip-hop leaning singer-songwriter who co-wrote and co-produced 2023\u2019s The Album.<\/p>\n

\u2018They were great, sweet kids\u2019 \u2026 the band in their early days<\/p>\n

Another collaborator who was there right at the beginning is Michael Mangini, co-producer of their debut album. \u201cThey do what every artist that has a 20-year career has to do: evolve,\u201d he says. Rock-leaning tunes about adolescence \u2013 including a cover of Busted\u2019s dumb time-travel anthem Year 3000, with the original\u2019s horniness significantly dialled down \u2013 have given way to mature music about fatherhood. \u201cThey\u2019re not the same people that they were when they were teenagers, so it would be ridiculous to make a record that has those types of lyrics,\u201d continues Mangini. \u201cSome artists don\u2019t deviate but I think the ones that have true longevity, they grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mangini witnessed the band\u2019s formation in person during a 2005 meeting with Steve Greenberg, then president of Columbia Records, who would end up co-producing It\u2019s About Time with Mangini. \u201cI was hired to come and meet Nick\u201d \u2013 the only brother signed to the label at the time \u2013 \u201cand somehow in a meeting the conversation turned into: \u2018You should become a group,\u2019\u201d says Mangini, after learning that Joe had done some work on Broadway and Kevin played guitar and could sing background vocals. \u201cThey certainly weren\u2019t thinking of themselves as a group called the Jonas Brothers. As a matter of fact, they hated the name,\u201d Mangini laughs. But they signed a deal with Columbia after a demo impressed other execs.<\/p>\n

At the time, Nick was just 12 years old, while Joe was 15 and Kevin was 17. \u201cIt required me to remember what it was like to be that young again,\u201d Mangini says. \u201cIt was fun and they were great, sweet kids. I\u2019ve worked with tons of other young people but Nick had a point of view when writing songs. He, at 12, could sit down with me, who had been writing songs for 20 or 25 years at that point, and have something to say and be able to articulate it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their brotherhood contains \u201cthe blend of complementary roles that powers the most successful bands\u201d, Sloan says. \u201cNick is the youngest but also seems to have the strongest creative vision; Kevin is the eldest but seems most comfortable in a supporting role; Joe is the most entertaining, and the greatest frontman in many ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haven\u2019t strayed far \u2026 Joe Jonas in Camp Rock. Photograph: John Medland\/Disney Channel<\/p>\n

Columbia envisaged them as a classic boyband. \u201cThen when we got into the studio and we started working through writing songs, it sort of took a more edgier, rock, pop-punk leaning vibe.\u201d But debut album It\u2019s About Time flopped at No 91 in the US charts, and Columbia dropped them.<\/p>\n

Disney\u2019s recording label, Hollywood Records, saw the potential revenue in these three unthreateningly handsome young lads and snapped them up in 2007. They featured as themselves on sitcom series Jonas, and starred as fictional band Connect 3 in teen movies Camp Rock and Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam.<\/p>\n

While Disney-schooled stars such as Britney Spears<\/a>, Miley Cyrus<\/a> and Sabrina Carpenter<\/a> moved away from the brand with deliberately racy material, the brothers have hardly drifted from wholesome cheesiness. \u201cHow do Disney Channel stars show the world that they\u2019re adults? A really sexy video,\u201d says Shasta Smedsrud, a millennial fan from near Seattle. The Jonas Brothers, though, \u201cbroke off from Disney gracefully and just kept going\u201d, though they are returning to that era with Camp Rock 3, premiering on 13 August.<\/p>\n

For many of their fans, predominantly millennials and older gen Zs, it comes as a shock that their debut album is turning 20. \u201cWow, I feel old,\u201d says Smedsrud. She remembers watching the music video for SOS<\/a> on Disney Channel in 2007. \u201cIt was almost like the Backstreet Boys but less sultry. I think that\u2019s why they did so well for us,\u201d she said. She now gets a hit of nostalgia from songs like this: \u201cWhen you hear Joe do his usual on the guitar or Nick\u2019s little riff, you get really excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back in the 2000s, physical media was thriving and magazines and fanzines dominated the fandom; Smedsrud recalls having a diary solely dedicated to Nick Jonas, who she obsessed over. \u201cI would cut pictures out, and be like: this song is about me, or when I see Nick he\u2019s going to recognise me and we\u2019re going to get married,\u201d she laughs.<\/p>\n

A spectacular comeback \u2026 performing at the Grammy awards in 2020. Photograph: John Shearer\/Getty Images for the Recording Academy<\/p>\n

The boys\u2019 clean-cut looks meant they initially appealed more to girls than boys, though there are some male fans, too. \u201cMy girlfriend and her family were my gateway,\u201d says 30-year-old Jordan Corman, who got into them in his late teens and remains a fan. \u201cThe teenage boy mindset was if you like the Jonas Brothers, there\u2019s something wrong with you,\u201d he says. \u201cBut they actually just make good music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smedsrud describes her three children under six as \u201clittle fans\u201d of a band who \u201cdon\u2019t really use profanity, so it\u2019s kind of safe for your kids\u201d. Monica Andre, a 27-year-old teacher from Oregon, told her kindergarten class about seeing a Jonas Brothers concert the previous weekend, and the children asked who they were. \u201cSo I was like, let\u2019s draw Joe, just for fun,\u201d she says. Andre shared the drawings on TikTok, which circulated online, with the brothers themselves commenting on her post. Since then, her class has become infatuated, and particularly inspired by Kevin\u2019s journey from having a more supporting role to launching a solo career alongside the band in 2025. \u201cIf you\u2019re sharing something you love and it makes you happy, it makes them happy,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Will the Jonas Brothers still be around 10 years from now? \u201cCertainly,\u201d Mangini says. \u201cI don\u2019t know if they\u2019ll still be making records, but 30 years from now, they\u2019re going to be touring and people will still be showing up. Because once something\u2019s part of your growing up, there\u2019s a special love for it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Jonas Brothers appeared in the mid-00s in a blaze of smiles, dressed in shirts, suspenders and ties,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":728412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,128,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-728411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=728411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/728412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}