Weekend Diversion: Jonas Brothers

Back in the Weekend Diversion post on June 16, I shared a video of the song “Cake By The Ocean” by DNCE (at the top of that post). The lead singer was Joe Jonas of the Jonas Brothers, though I didn’t realise that at first. Once I did, I knew I’d end up sharing new Jonas Brothers videos, since they re-formed earlier this year and their videos were playing on our now defunct free-to-air music video channel. And so, here we are.

I have to say first that I was never a fan. Part of that has to do that they began as a Disney product and focused on teen-oriented music at first. I just never paid attention to them, but I certainly knew who they were. I was only vaguely aware that they broke up in 2011. However, I saw youngest brother Nick on the American TV series Empire where he played a closeted young gay man.

Then came this year, and the release of their fifth studio album, Happiness Begins.

The video up top is for “Sucker”, the first single from their new album, and released March 1, 2019. I liked the sound of the song from the first, though I wasn’t watching the video the first time I heard the song. When I paid attention to the video, I realised who it was, and I was surprised. I hadn’t particularly followed their careers, obviously, so I wasn’t aware they were reuniting.

“Sucker” hit Number One in Australia (3x Platinum), Canada (2x Platinum), New Zealand (Platinum), Number 4 in the UK (Platinum), and Number One in the USA’s Billboard Hot 100—where it debuted at Number One. It also went Platinum in the USA. In New Zealand, it didn’t drop out of the NZ Top 40 until the first week of August.

Next up, their second single, released the following month, on April 5, “Cool”:



It’s fair to say that “Sucker” made me pay attention to the Jonas Brothers, and so I recognised it was them in “Cool” from my first hearing of it—and I liked it, too. I thought the video was fun, with its homages to earlier videos and a Miami Vice kind of vibe. I also thought that when combined with the lyrics, it showed the brothers poking some fun at themselves.

“Cool” wasn’t as successful as “Sucker” had been, hitting only Number 54 in Australia, 34 in Canada (Gold), 6 in New Zealand, 39 in the UK, and 27 in the USA’s. I agree that “Cool” wasn’t as good a song as “Sucker”, however, it was still fun. For me, that’s often enough.

The third song from their album was “Only Human”, officially released July 2 (though it first charted in New Zealand the week before):



I heard this song when it was on the NZ Top 40 chart, but i didn’t particularly connect with it. I thought the reggae influence was interesting, and combined with a bit of EDM, it pointed to something interesting that I’d like to see them and other artists play with some more. I never saw the video above until today because it was only released on YouTube on August 13, well after the music video channel was off air. Actually, the video was released well after it dropped off the NZ Top 40, which it did the third week of July.

Speaking of charts, “Only Human” was even less successful that “Cool”, hitting Number 57 in Australia, 52 in Canada, 36 in New Zealand, 64 in the UK, and 53 in the USA.

Even so, the album Happiness Begins was successful: So far, it’s hit Number 3 in Australia, Number 1 in Canada (Gold), 5 in New Zealand, 2 in the UK, and Number One in the USA.

I still couldn’t say that I’m a fan of the Jonas Brothers, but I do like some of their songs. I’ll also pay more attention when they release new songs. That’s actually a pretty good result.