Sounds and Rythm

The Jonas Brothers:
An American Pop Rock Band

Compiled by Shushmita Ahmed

THE American pop rock boy band Jonas Brothers gained its popularity from the Disney Channel children's television network. From Wyckoff, New Jersey, the band consists of three brothers: Paul Kevin Jonas II (Kevin Jonas), Joseph Adam Jonas (Joe Jonas), and Nicholas Jerry Jonas (Nick Jonas). In the summer of 2008, they starred in the Disney Channel Original Movie Camp Rock. The band has released four albums: It's About Time, Jonas Brothers, A Little Bit Longer, Lines, Vines and Trying Times. In 2008, the group was nominated for the Best New Artist award at the 51st Grammy Awards and won the award for Breakthrough Artist at the American Music Awards. As of May 2009, before the release of Lines, Vines and Trying Times, they have sold over eight million albums worldwide.

The band started as a solo project for Nick Jonas. At the age of seven, Nicholas began performing on Broadway. He has acted in several plays, including A Christmas Carol (in 2000 as Tiny Tim and as Scrooge at eight), Annie Get Your Gun (in 2001 as Little Jake), Beauty and the Beast (in 2002 as Chip), and Les Misérables (in 2003 as Gavroche). After Les Misérables closed, he performed in The Sound of Music (as Kurt) at the Paper Mill Playhouse.

In 2002 while performing in Beauty and the Beast, Nick had written a song with his father called 'Joy to the World (A Christmas Prayer)'. With background vocals from the Beauty and the Beast cast, Nick performed the song on the 2002 annual Broadway 'Equity Fights AIDS' album, Broadway's Greatest Gifts: Carols for a Cure, Vol. 4. In November 2003, INO Records received a demo copy of 'Joy to the World (A Christmas Prayer)'. While Nick was working on his solo project, Joe followed in his footsteps to Broadway, appearing in Baz Lurhmann's production of La bohème. According to Nick, this was also the first year the brothers started writing songs together.

The Jonas Brothers' first single, 'Mandy', was released on December 27, 2005. Its music video was shown on MTV's Total Request Live on February 22, 2006 and reached number four. Another song, 'Time for Me to Fly', was released on the Aquamarine soundtrack, also in February. The Jonas Brothers also created the theme song for the second season of American Dragon Jake Long, airing from June 2006 to September 2007 on the Disney Channel.

The Jonas Brothers made several appearances on television. They guest-starred in an episode of the Disney Channel show Hannah Montana titled 'Me and Mr. Jonas' and 'Mr. Jonas and Mr. Jonas'. They also performed 'We Got the Party' with Miley Cyrus in the episode, which premiered after High School Musical 2 and was viewed by 10.7 million people that night.

They started to work for the Children Foundation to support programmes that motivate and inspire children to face adversity with confidence, determination and a will to succeed. And they think the best people to help children are their peers kids helping other kids who are a little less fortunate. Since 2008, Bayer Diabetes Care has partnered with Nick Jonas as a diabetes ambassador to promote the idea for young people to manage their diabetes, as Nick was diagnosed with diabetes when he was 13. Nick testified in the U.S. Senate to promote more research funding for diabetes.

The Jonases are known for their wholesome, “family-friendly” image and they are now in the highest summit of their success indeed.

(The writer is a student of Law, University of Chittagong.)
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonas_Brothers.