Big Time Rush is an American boy band created in 2009 for Nickelodeon's television series
Big Time Rush.
The group consists of Kendall Schmidt, James Maslow, Carlos PenaVega and Logan Henderson.
They were signed to a record deal with Nick Records simultaneously with the television
series, and then the group was eventually signed to Columbia Records.
The show ran from November 27, 2009 to July 25, 2013.
The series' pilot episode featured the group's first promotional single, "Big Time Rush".
They have released 3 studio albums, BTR, Elevate, and 24/Seven as well as two EPs, Holiday Bundle
EP and Big Time Movie Soundtrack EP.
History 2009–10: Career beginnings and BTR
Nickelodeon signed Big Time Rush to a record deal in 2009 simultaneously with the television
series, Big Time Rush.
Then, Nickelodeon partnered with Columbia/Epic Label Group to produce the show and include
the original music to the show.
For the series, their debut single, "Big Time Rush", was released on November 29, 2009.
Officially announced by Nickelodeon, the series was first broadcast in the U.S. in November
2009, until it was eventually released worldwide.
It debuted during a one-hour special preview of the series and it is currently the show's
opening theme.
The series also saw the releases of other singles including "City is Ours" and "Any
Kind of Guy".
Big Time Rush also covered a Play song titled "Famous".
The song was released on iTunes on June 29, 2010.
Another song, "Halfway There", was released to iTunes on April 27, 2010 after its premiere
on the series.
The single has become their first to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number
93 due to digital sales.
On September 21, 2010, Big Time Rush released a promotional single, "Till I Forget About
You", to promote the release of their debut album.
The album, titled BTR, was released on October 11, 2010.
Soon after the release, the band went to Baltimore on October 12, 2010 to do an autograph signing
at Arundel Mills Mall.
The album debuted at number 3 on the Billboard 200, selling 67,000 copies in its first week
of release.
The album also peaked at number 4 on the Internet Albums chart and number one on the Soundtracks
chart.
Its track "Big Night" debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 79, making it their highest
peaking song.
The album was later certified Gold for shipments of 500,000 copies in the U.S.
In November 2010, it was announced that a Christmas special of Big Time Rush would debut
later that month, and that a Christmas EP would be released to coincide with the episode.
The EP, titled Holiday Bundle was released on November 30, 2010.
They covered "All I Want for Christmas is You", originally performed by Mariah Carey,
with fellow Nickelodeon star Miranda Cosgrove, but was not released as so.
Instead it was released as just them and it came with a new Christmas beat, "Beautiful
Christmas".
On February 15, 2011, "Boyfriend" was released as the band's first official single to mainstream
US radio.
"Boyfriend" peaked at number seventy-two on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming their most
successful song to date.
It peaked at number 30 on the Billboard Pop Songs chart in March 2011.
A remix of "Boyfriend" which featured New Boyz was leaked onto the internet.
Big Time Rush was nominated for MTV's Breakthrough Band award honor in 2011 as well.
Big Time Rush has made several appearances at KCA Also, Big Time Rush was nominated for
the 2013 Premios Oye!
award in Mexico, with their single "Boyfriend" nominated for the Best International English
Song of the Year.
However, they lost to Rihanna's single "Diamonds".
2011–12: Elevate and film
The group announced they would be recording their second studio album, just after Nickeloden
renewed the series for a third season.
On July 22, 2011, the band released a promotional single, "If I Ruled the World" featuring Iyaz,
in anticipation of their second album, Elevate.
Elevate was released on November 21, 2011 and debuted at number 12 on the Billboard
200, selling over 70,000 copies in its first week.
Though for a lower peaking than their previous, the album sold more copies than the previous
album.
The first single, "Music Sounds Better with U", written by the band and Ryan Tedder from
OneRepublic, was released on November 1, 2011.
The song peaked at number twenty-six on the US Pop Songs.
To promote the release of their second album, the group had their first headlining tour,
the Better With U Tour, which took place over sixteen dates in February and March 2012.
JoJo opened for Big Time Rush for the first five dates, while One Direction opened for
ten of the sixteen dates.
In late February, Big Time Rush announced a national summer tour starting July 5 at
the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, OH.
Cody Simpson, Rachel Crow and Leon Thomas III will be the opening acts in the American
venues, whereas Victoria Duffield and Tyler Medeiros will be opening in the Canadian cities.
The band announced they would be starring in their full-length 2012 film, Big Time Movie.
The movie features them traveling to London, England.
In Big Time Movie, the four members of the band Big Time Rush head to London for their
first big world tour but instead get mixed up in a mission to save the world.
The film was released on March 10, 2012 in the US to Theaters, while a Germany release
was on September 22, 2012.
Due to the promotion, the group recorded cover of The Beatles songs and released an EP, Big
Time Movie Soundtrack EP.
However, the film received mixed to positive reviews from most contemporary film critics,
many comparing them to The Monkees but praising their fun, carefree image.
However, the film was a success, having over 13 million views in a week.
2013–present: 24/Seven and Independence from Nickelodeon and Columbia Records
In 2013 Nickelodeon renewed the Big Time Rush series for a 13-episode fourth season, production
started on January 7.
The band also released a song titled "Like Nobody's Around" which according to the premiere
episode "Big Time Invasion" was outlining the history of professional, successful, and
All-American Boy Bands; the Platters, the Temptations, the Jackson Five, New Kids on
the Block, Backstreet Boys, and *NSYNC, in response to the British Invasion of rival
act, and less successful One Direction.
"Like Nobody's Around is the second track on both the standard and deluxe version of
Big Time Rush's third album.
On April 15, in an interview on Cambio, Big Time Rush announced that "24/seven" would
be released sometime in early June 2013 and that the fourth season of "Big Time Rush"
will air on May 2, 2013.
On April 18, Big Time Rush revealed that "24/Seven" would be released either June 4 or 11, 2013.
On April 20, nine tracks from the album was leaked.
On June 4, EW released the full 10-song Standard version of 24/Seven online.
The Deluxe version of 24/Seven has also been leaked on YouTube and a different version
of "Love Me Again" was leaked with it.
EW released a different version of "Get Up" and "Song For You" than what was leaked previously.
Big Time Rush's 3rd album 24/Seven was released on June 11, 2013 and revealed the album cover
and track list April 29, 2013.
"24/Seven" saw less success than its preceding record "Elevate" which led many critics to
draw comparisons between the band's third album and the famous *NSYNC's third album
"Celebrity"; nevertheless, singles such as the up-tempo party anthem title track "24/Seven"
and the slower, powerful rock ballad "We Are" still allowed the new record high success
in the United States as well as countries such as Mexico and Brazil.
"24/Seven" has reached Gold several countries since its release.
The members of Big Time Rush are currently on a short hiatus pursuing other ventures
personally.
Big Time Rush were nominated for World's Best Group, Best Album and Best Live Act for the
ceremony in Monte Carlo, Monaco at the Salle des Etoiles Venue for the 22nd annual World
Music Awards on May 27, 2014.
It was later confirmed that same night after the awards show that Big Time Rush had won
the World's Best Live Act trophy, which makes Big Time Rush the very first and only Nickelodeon
act or artist in history to win a World Music Award trophy to date.
In 2014, the band embarked on their new concert tour called Big Time Rush Live 2014 World
Tour, to support their latest album, 24/Seven.
It's their fourth official tour and their first world tour.
The tour began on February 7, 2014 in Grand Prairie Texas and finished on February 23,
2014 in Guatemala.
Despite its name, the tour is not quite a world tour as there were only 11 shows in
total and only in United States and parts of Latin America.
All of Big Time Rush's members have confirmed that they are planning a tour to follow up
the Big Time Rush Live 2014 World Tour with a new tour in the summer of 2015.
Kendall has also admitted while having been dropped from Columbia Records, it opens up
doors for Big Time Rush to broaden its horizons.
This newly granted independence from Columbia Records and Nickelodeon will permit the pop
group to seek a more mature audience and will allow the members to experiment with new sounds
and meaningful lyrics, as have been displayed on Kendall and Heffron Drive's debut album
"Happy Mistakes".
Schmidt claims that there have been talks about new music as well as the idea of a movie,
although the latter was only barely confessed.
In various tweets in recent months, the members of Big Time Rush have also acknowledged their
distressed and grieving fan base and have made it aware that the boy band has not broken
up and the hiatus will only last while their short solo projects are being tested in order
to gain a wider audience for the original group.
Artistry Musical style and themes
Because the group is associated with the TV series and children network Nickelodeon, they
have been presented as a "child-friendly" group, but have musical differences.
In a review of their first studio album, BTR, Jessica Dawson from Common Sense Media wrote:
"Big Time Rush is a standout, not only because of their boyish charm and good looks, but
because their music is a cool blend of synth-pop, hip-hop, and boy-band harmonies."
Public image Carlos Pena, Jr. was interviewed September
2012, and talked about if Big Time Rush could exist outside of their series, where he replied;
"I think the music could stand alone, but I don't know if it would be as powerful.
The show has definitely been our main audience.
We have four million kids watching.
So when you put a song out, four million kids hear it.
When you put a song on the radio, you're not going to have four million people listening.
It's a blessing and a curse being on Nickelodeon – it's gotten us where we are now, though
some people are standoffish to us because of that.
But we have to be grateful that Nickelodeon gave us this opportunity.
Abandoning the show would not be the best idea."
The group has been compared to recent boy bands such as One Direction and The Wanted.
However, recent boy bands including One Direction and The Wanted have also not received rave
outcomes.
Michael O'Connell from The Hollywood Reporter said "One Direction is but one group in this
resilient and timeless fad.
They follow the recent success of fellow Brits [The Wanted] and Nickelodeon's cross-market
creation [Big Time Rush].
One [One Direction] is fluke.
Two [The Wanted] is a coincidence.
And three [Big Time Rush] is a trend that you want to father your unborn children.'
Melinda Newman from Washington Post stated "In the grand tradition of boy bands, these
acts share certain traits with their similarly manufactured pop ancestors: Members of the
Wanted and Big Time Rush auditioned for their parts at a casting call.
The members of One Direction were put together by Simon Cowell after trying out individually
for the British edition of “The X Factor.”"
However, she positively compared them to The Monkees by saying "Big Time Rush is similar
to the Monkees with its own TV series as a launchpad, and the group appeals to kids,
tweens, teens and also adults.
They are also credited as the pop group that have once again restored creditably, relevance,
and for relaunching boy bands back into the public eye once again."
In Parade Magazine's 2012 poll, Big Time Rush was voted the "Best Boy Band in the World,"
topping both One Direction and The Wanted.
Over 800,000 votes were cast.
The band was featured on the cover of the August 5, 2012 issue of Parade which was a
national top seller.
An interview and photo set highlighting the group's win that coincided with the honor
was featured in the same issue.
The magazine's web site also featured the group amongst its list of "Greatest Boy Bands
of All-Time," along with the bands NSYNC, and Backstreet Boys.
The Washington Times Magazine ranked Big Time Rush Number 15 of their Top 20 Best Boy Bands
of the decade in 2012.
and number 28 on the pop goes the charts website of the Top 40 Best Boy Bands of the past 25
years in 2013.
Discography
Studio albums BTR
Elevate 24/Seven
Extended plays Holiday Bundle EP
Big Time Movie Soundtrack EP Tours
Big Time Rush Winter Tour Big Time Rush in Concert
Better with U Tour Big Time Summer Tour
Summer Break Tour Big Time Rush Live 2014 World Tour
Filmography Marvin Marvin – themselves
How to Rock – themselves Figure It Out – themselves
Brain Surge – themselves Big Time Rush – themselves
Dancing with the Stars – themselves and James Maslow as a contestant for season 18.
The Penguins of Madagascar - Beavers References
External links Big Time Rush at the Internet Movie Database
Big Time Rush at TV.com Official site
Big Time Rush on MTV.com Blur's Song 2 on YouTube The song that Windows
Down sampled Big Time Rush announce split