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’s About Time, and the toothsome threesome are bigger than ever.
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’ Up, 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 “creative differences” 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, 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.
This evolution from Disney cornballs to legacy act is as unexpected as it is remarkable. “They’re slick, and sometimes over-produced,” says Nate Sloan, co-host of the podcast Switched on Pop. “But they genuinely love making and playing music and that’s what draws me to their continued work.”
Sloan argues that the key to their success is dogged devotion to honing their craft. “They’re committed to their art in a way that people may not realise,” he says. “They 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.” He cites Jon Bellion, the hip-hop leaning singer-songwriter who co-wrote and co-produced 2023’s The Album.
Another collaborator who was there right at the beginning is Michael Mangini, co-producer of their debut album. “They do what every artist that has a 20-year career has to do: evolve,” he says. Rock-leaning tunes about adolescence – including a cover of Busted’s dumb time-travel anthem Year 3000, with the original’s horniness significantly dialled down – have given way to mature music about fatherhood. “They’re 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,” continues Mangini. “Some artists don’t deviate but I think the ones that have true longevity, they grow.”
Mangini witnessed the band’s formation in person during a 2005 meeting with Steve Greenberg, then president of Columbia Records, who would end up co-producing It’s About Time with Mangini. “I was hired to come and meet Nick” – the only brother signed to the label at the time – “and somehow in a meeting the conversation turned into: ‘You should become a group,’” says Mangini, after learning that Joe had done some work on Broadway and Kevin played guitar and could sing background vocals. “They certainly weren’t thinking of themselves as a group called the Jonas Brothers. As a matter of fact, they hated the name,” Mangini laughs. But they signed a deal with Columbia after a demo impressed other execs.
At the time, Nick was just 12 years old, while Joe was 15 and Kevin was 17. “It required me to remember what it was like to be that young again,” Mangini says. “It was fun and they were great, sweet kids. I’ve 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.”
Their brotherhood contains “the blend of complementary roles that powers the most successful bands”, Sloan says. “Nick 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.”
Columbia envisaged them as a classic boyband. “Then 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.” But debut album It’s About Time flopped at No 91 in the US charts, and Columbia dropped them.
Disney’s 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.
While Disney-schooled stars such as Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus and Sabrina Carpenter moved away from the brand with deliberately racy material, the brothers have hardly drifted from wholesome cheesiness. “How do Disney Channel stars show the world that they’re adults? A really sexy video,” says Shasta Smedsrud, a millennial fan from near Seattle. The Jonas Brothers, though, “broke off from Disney gracefully and just kept going”, though they are returning to that era with Camp Rock 3, premiering on 13 August.
For many of their fans, predominantly millennials and older gen Zs, it comes as a shock that their debut album is turning 20. “Wow, I feel old,” says Smedsrud. She remembers watching the music video for SOS on Disney Channel in 2007. “It was almost like the Backstreet Boys but less sultry. I think that’s why they did so well for us,” she said. She now gets a hit of nostalgia from songs like this: “When you hear Joe do his usual on the guitar or Nick’s little riff, you get really excited.”
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. “I would cut pictures out, and be like: this song is about me, or when I see Nick he’s going to recognise me and we’re going to get married,” she laughs.
The boys’ clean-cut looks meant they initially appealed more to girls than boys, though there are some male fans, too. “My girlfriend and her family were my gateway,” says 30-year-old Jordan Corman, who got into them in his late teens and remains a fan. “The teenage boy mindset was if you like the Jonas Brothers, there’s something wrong with you,” he says. “But they actually just make good music.”
Smedsrud describes her three children under six as “little fans” of a band who “don’t really use profanity, so it’s kind of safe for your kids”. 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. “So I was like, let’s draw Joe, just for fun,” 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’s journey from having a more supporting role to launching a solo career alongside the band in 2025. “If you’re sharing something you love and it makes you happy, it makes them happy,” she says.
Will the Jonas Brothers still be around 10 years from now? “Certainly,” Mangini says. “I don’t know if they’ll still be making records, but 30 years from now, they’re going to be touring and people will still be showing up. Because once something’s part of your growing up, there’s a special love for it.”
