Disney music not only for adolescents

February 9, 2010 by Maki @ 2:13 am | Comments (6)

This is for all of us older fans out there =)

The most fun I’ve ever had was when I went to a Jonas Brothers concert with my younger sister.

We anticipated the event for months. We read every interview in every teen magazine, watched every talk show appearance and crossed out the days on a “Countdown to JoBros” calendar proudly displayed on the fridge.

When the concert finally came, we had a blast hanging around Phillips Arena, buying T-shirts and trying to get a glimpse of our favorite stars before they went on stage.

Yes, I am one of “those” girls — the ones who haven’t quite outgrown their pre-teen *NSYNC and Backstreet Boy fan days.

I actually have a Jonas Brothers poster in my room, my ring tone changes with every song Justin Bieber releases and I genuinely enjoyed Miley Cyrus years before playing “Party in the USA” at bars was funny and ironic.

It seems as if I am alone in my fandom. Attempts to express or even defend my musical taste have been met with incredulous stares and threats to destroy my iPod.

I guess those reactions are understandable, as I fully realize this behavior is not quite normal for a senior in college, but I can’t help what I like. At some points I don’t understand why my 16-year-old sister and I seem to be the only ones who give this music a chance.

It may be mass-produced and over-marketed, but I’ve read and seen enough interviews with the Jonas Brothers to know that they truly do write their own songs and play their own instruments and really have a passion for the music they record.

Also, few Hollywood actors can pull off a tuxedo the way the Jonas Brothers can. Did you see them at The Grammys?

And Justin Bieber is a perfect example of the modern rags-to-riches story. A normal kid from a small town in Canada posts a few Youtube videos of himself singing and becomes an overnight sensation, hanging with such hip-hop heavy hitters as P. Diddy, Wyclef Jean and Usher.

Despite what I think is a good reason to give the teenybopper set a second chance, I still get laughs and taunts when I try to convert others into fanatics like myself.

So I’ve given up. I know a futile task when I see one, but what’s wrong with not acting your age every once in a while? Yes, of course college comes with responsibilities that one must take seriously.

For most it’s the first time living away from home or being financially independent, not to mention dealing with the temptations of downtown and the complications of adult relationships.

For seniors waiting for the dreaded G-word — graduation — at the end of the semester, this time of year is spent frantically searching for jobs and preparing for that so-called real world that surely awaits us after we leave UGA’s cushy nest.

But why does it all have to be serious? We should keep in mind that we are still young.

As corny as it sounds, in the world of Miley and Jonas there are no job interviews or overdue bills to pay or term papers to write.

It’s a way of realizing that life is not just a jumble of responsibilities and chores, but that there is time to enjoy the simple things that give you pleasure, no matter how age-inappropriate.

Maybe I’ll forever be the only Jonas fan on campus, but there are plenty of other ways to hold on to the last fleeting bit of youth.

If a Friday night seems better spent having a Mario Kart tournament and watching The Lion King than going downtown with the rest of your friends, I say go for it.

Embrace your 13-year-old self.It might be the best Friday night you’ve had since middle school.

—Bailey Keiger is a senior from Atlanta majoring in magazines.

Source: Bailey Keiger for University of Georgia’s redandblack.com

Joe Jonas Tweet talks Victoria Justice

by Maki @ 2:12 am | Comments (0)

Sporting a rolled up pink bandana, Joe Jonas digs into his jacket pocket as he returns to his car in Silver Lake, Calif., on Monday afternoon (February 8).

Besides writing music and passing on a role on ABC’s Brothers & Sisters because of a scheduling conflict, the 20-year-old musician and Nick starlet Victoria Justice have been tweet-talking each other a lot as of late.

Passing notes about the Grammys and midnight bike clubs are adorable, but JJJ loves the convo about Avatars and Dragon Fighters. Vic ’s advice for Joe: “You use a sword? I fight them with my bare hands.But that’s after years of training, you’ll get there one day.”

Source: JustJaredJr.com

GregGarboOnline Interviews Garbo

February 8, 2010 by Bella @ 9:27 pm | Comments (6)

One of our amazing affiliates GregGarboOnline had the chance to sit down interview garbo…Again =) This is the first part of the two part interview! Be sure to check out their site & follow them on twitter! @GregGarboOnline. Enjoy the first part of the interview!

Where to buy Nick’s VMAN issue

by Maki @ 9:26 pm | Comments (6)

We’ve been asked about this a lot and just got an email on our inbox that we NEEDED to share with you:

I have been hearing from some people that they are having a hard time finding the V Man Magazine issues with Nick on the three covers. I have been having trouble as well and I looked at so many places. The other day I went on vman.com and you could buy the magazine on the website but it said sold out. So just before I went on and they have more in stock!!!! I am so excited! On the home page there is a link in the upper left hand corner that says purchase your copy now. You can either order one for $7 or all three for $20. I just wanted to let you know about this! : ) Thank you.
From, Samantha

Thank you so much Samantha!!

UPDATE: Thanks so much Anja for letting us know that you can also purchase the magazine on ebay!

Nick Jonas Vs. The Box

by Bella @ 6:26 pm | Comments (11)

Nick Jonas was nice enough to take a moment from his busy touring schedule with his new band Nick Jonas and the Administration to answer a few of your questions for Rhapsody’s newest video series,”The Box.” Does Nick believe in Aliens? Watch and find out, and be sure to check out our last episode of “The Box” featuring LADY GAGA.

Source: Rhapsody’s “the Box”

Nick Jonas: A Kid After a Boomer’s Own Heart

by Bella @ 5:57 pm | Comments (15)

Is Nick Jonas still aiming his act at the Jonas Brothers’ target teen-’n'-tween audience… or at their parents? That’s the question you might ask after hearing the youngest JoBro’s first solo album, Who I Am. (”Solo” may or may not need an asterisk next to it, since the billing for this album and tour goes to a group name, Nick Jonas & the Administration.) You may recall the famous blues lyric “The men don’t know, but the little girls understand.” Nick is in such a consciously throwback vein, you might want to reverse that famous equation back, to account for the music’s boomer-friendliness: The little girls may not know, but their middle-aged aunties and uncles will understand.

And what there is to understand is this: Nick Jonas is reinventing himself, at the advanced age of seventeen and a half years old, as a soul man. The Jonases have always been a little bit retro for contemporary teen idols, mind you, but this is a slightly different, even more retro brand of pop revivalism. On the brother group’s best album, 2008’s A Little Bit Longer, they had perfected the frantic power-pop style of the late ’70s and early ’80s, and seemed on the verge of becoming a more earnest Cheap Trick for modern youth. But they more or less abandoned that style on their last album, and it wasn’t quite clear what Nick, the creative mastermind of the trio, was going for. Now it’s clear: He wants to revert back past late ’70s new wave to early ’70s pop-R&B. What a difference a few years make, when you’re time-traveling to the recent (but still before you were born) past, right?

Jonas has said repeatedly that he’s a huge Elvis Costello fan, and he did a joint Q&A with Costello in Rolling Stone a couple of years ago. And when it came time to explain the “…& the Administation” name he chose for his backup band, he referred to his fondness for Elvis Costello & the Attractions. So I had some hope he might be trying to make this side project a stab at making an adolescent My Disney-Radio-Ready Aim is True. But taste in ampersand-group names aside, it turns out that Who I Am couldn’t rely any less on his Costelloian instincts. He’s relying on another guy with glasses that he’s hooked up with before: Stevie.

Yes, young Nick is determined to make his wonder years sound like his Wonder years.

Not that he’s aping just one guy or even just one style, but the era he wants to evoke is unmistakable. The album opens with “Rose Garden,” the tale of a girl who grew up in tough circumstances, the toughness designated by… wah-wah guitar! By the third track, “Olive & an Arrow,” it’s clear we will be in for heaping doses of Wurlitzer organ and little or no synthesizer. He does actually wait till track 8, “State of Emergency,” to introduce what sounds distinctly like a Stevie-esque clavinet, although the earlier “Last Time Around,” which is based around funk guitar instead of keyboards, has a very Wonder-struck vocal hook. “In the End” is a very subdued, bluesy ballad that has Nick calling out “Take it, Tommy” to keyboard player Tommy Barbarella, and you won’t be surprised to know that the piano solo that follows is (to these ears) all about the Fender Rhodes. Several of the players are alumni of Prince’s old bands, so it’s surprising that Jonas doesn’t make much effort to cop from the man from Minneapolis–instrumentally, that is. Vocally, his falsetto leaps and occasional yowlings are right out of the Purple Handbook.

How deeply felt is all this? Emotionally, Jonas is on about his hundredth song about being betrayed by some young femme fatale, so either he has had an active love life full of opportunists, or he is still just milking one very bad third-grade experience. It doesn’t all sound like schoolboy conjecture, though: When he sings “I want someone to love me, for who I am,” in the title song and first single, it seems pretty clear he’s been loved for who he isn’t at some point or another, and the stricken-dead sentiments of “Vesper’s Goodbye,” although a little drama-queen-ish, convince me that whatever else he is borrowing from his elders on this album, it’s not somebody else’s broken heart. The closing number, “Stronger (Back on the Ground),” moves beyond the tropes of romantic torture into possible gospel territory.

And musically? I’ve always hated to grade on the age curve, because there are enough young people doing good work that “pretty good for a teenager” doesn’t cut it anymore. (And I’ve maintained that A Little Bit Longer held up just fine against the work of much more veteran power-pop bands.) Yet Jonas is leaping into such mature styles here that I am inclined to cut him a bit of a break here, when the results are only moderately and not quite overwhelmingly successful. If a 30- or 45-year-old had made this record, there are things we would like about it and things we’d consider hackneyed. But a 17-year-old? Come on.

We’ve already come to think of Jonas as a veteran, since the Jonases had four studio albums before this. But that shouldn’t get in the way of some astonishment that a fellow of this age even has these instincts, let alone will follow them–possibly to his own commercial detriment, as these sounds may feel a little peculiar to the “Party in the USA”-trained ear. Natural talent aside, Jonas deserves credit for being smart enough to rip off the past, and also smart enough to do it in subtle enough ways that the references and influences won’t be quite so blatant as I’ve made them sound.

The danger for young master Jonas is that, as seriously as he takes music, he’s on a career carousel that will encourage him to indulge himself as a multi-hyphenate at the cost of being an artist. He’s spoken of squeezing this album in during a two-week break last year–which makes you want to grade it even higher on the curve, but also makes you wonder what he could have done if he’d devoted more time to the project. He put the band on the back album sleeve, to sell it as a true group project, but by his own admission only met them as they were going into the studio. Something may have to be sacrificed if he really wants to emulate his musical heroes.

(That said, I’m hesitant to suggest he call off his acting career, because JONAS, the Disney Channel sitcom, is actually a pretty funny series. And miraculously, they even figured out what to do on it with Nick’s non-smiling, earnest persona, versus his brothers’ comedic goofiness… which was: have fun with and play off that very too-soulful-for-this-world quality.)

It’s always tempting to compare the teen idols of today with the ones of yesteryear, particularly among those who think they’re doing today’s young stars a favor by pointing out that Svengali-driven fluff has always been among us. And certainly there are a lot of terrific pop records being made by Disney-derived singers like Miley, Demi and Serena, who don’t have strong artistic temperaments and are only as good as their collaborators, which is often very good indeed and sometimes not so.

But what we do have now that we didn’t in the Bobby Sherman era is a couple of teen auteurs, in the form of Nick Jonas and Taylor Swift. (Taylor just graduated from that category by turning 20, but she’s counted for the last four years.) These two will be around the music scene in some capacity for the next couple of decades whether you like it or not. I suggest older music listeners opt for the former, because their combination of DIY career independence and reliance on solid musical traditions bodes well for the future, in a time when there aren’t always many encouraging signs. One young man or woman alone does not the future of music make, but listening to Who I Am, I’m again encouraged to believe that the kids are all right, after all.

Source: Huffington Post / Chris Willman

Kevin Singing On ‘Jonas’

by Bella @ 5:52 pm | Comments (28)

Kevin Jonas sings “Scandinavia” in an episode of ‘Jonas” this is a different version then the ones that aired in the states.

Joe Jonas Celebrates Super Bowl Sunday

by Maki @ 8:43 am | Comments (20)

Joe Jonas pushes up the rim of his glasses as he walks and talks with a few pals after dining at Umami Burger on Super Bowl Sunday (February 7) in Los Feliz, Calif.

We’re not sure which team the 20-year-old musician was rooting for, but according to his tweets, he must’ve enjoyed the halftime show. Joe shared, “The Who’s mullet drummer.. Yes.”

During the upcoming week, Joe and BFF Demi Lovato will be taking over Downtown Disney in Disney World for a private concert.

Source: JustJaredJr.com

HQ Photo Update that’s off the chain!

by Maki @ 3:59 am | Comments (14)

Basically, because all the albums are Nick J related ; )

HQ – Los Angeles, CA – 01/26 – Credit JonasWorld

HQ – Nick’s interview at the Wiltern – 01/28 – Credit JonasWorld

HQ – Nick & Selena arriving at the Jim Henson Studio – 02/01 – Credit JonasWorld

HQ – Nick grabbing a bite outside of his house – 02/02 – Credit JonasWorld

HQ – Nick Selena Joe JT have dinner at Phillipe Chow – 02/02 – Credit JonasWorld

HQ – Nick greets fans after Jimmy Kimmel appearance – 02/03 – Credit JonasWorld

Re-Doing Fan Center.

February 7, 2010 by Bella @ 9:46 pm | Comments (10)

If you noticed we have a fan center on the site. The fan center includes aim icons, avatars, wallpapers and blends. Most of the stuff that we have in the fan center is very old and we want to update it! I for one am not good at any type of graphic design! So we are looking for a visitor or two that would be willing and qualified to make these! We want to be 100% fair while choosing someone so we have an application that we want you all to fill out when applying, which is located below!

Name:
Age:
Experience With WordPress?
Experience Level:
Sample Wallpaaper:
Sample Avatar:
Sample Blend:
Sample AIM Icon:
Avaliability:

Please email your application along with sample work to JonasWorld.Org@Gmail.Com, We are accepting applications from anyone over the age of 13. Can’t wait to see all your work! If you have any questions please feel free to email us with those as well!