"Sometimes you get frightened because there are so many people."

- Joe Jonas of the Jonas Brothers says fans can get out of hand.

Demi Lovato isn't an actress. She just plays one on TV.

Although the 16-year-old stars in Disney's Sonny With A Chance and appeared in Camp Rock, Lovato maintains acting is "like a hobby." And with good reason: the singer-songwriter made her musical breakthrough last year with Don't Forget, an album packed with bubblegum pop-rock like La La Land and Get Back (both co-written by Jonas Brothers). Critics compared the young Mexican-American to tween superstar Miley Cyrus and the Jonases. The album climbed as high as number two on the Billboard chart.

Lovato, who plays both piano and guitar, is once again being compared to Cyrus on her latest, Here We Go Again. Released earlier this month, the album has already spawned two hits: the Jonas Brothers-meets-Paramore title track and the delicate ballad Catch Me, a wistful song that hints the cute brunette would much rather be the next Kelly Clarkson than the next Hannah Montana. Lovato says her grown-up sound – she collaborated with John Mayer on one track – is just a reflection of real life: "I’ve just become a happier person over the last few months, because my life has hit this place where it’s very comfortable."

• The ATL's Young Jeezy drops his highly-anticipated third album, The Recession. "Previously criticized for strange rhymes and repeating lines, Jeezy delivers some great turns of phrase," commends Billboard.com. "Jeezy’s improvement as a lyricist is obvious. It’s almost hard to believe that there was a time when the highlights of his songs were his adlibs," gushes Vibe magazine, adding, "the Snowman has proven he won’t melt under the pressure of flashing lights."
• Beef-loving L.A. rapper The Game releases LAX, his follow-up to the platinum Doctor's Advocate. The Los Angeles Times thinks it misses the mark: "The Compton-raised rapper's conservative inclination to stick to the gangsta tropes of money, drugs and guns feels limiting at times, as does the album's bloated 1-hour-and-16-minute running time." URB magazine begs to differ: "Sure, it turns into some serious namedropping (almost always), but it’s also the reason why he’s three-for-three in the category of dope, dope records."
• After a five-year hiatus, veteran metalheads Metallica return with Death Magnetic, an album that is "the musical equivalent of Russia's invasion of Georgia — a sudden act of aggression from a sleeping giant," according to Rolling Stone. Music blog The Quietus says Death Magnetic "rinse[s] away the painful memories of watching Some Kind Of Monster, [which shows] Metallica as a bunch of whining, apron tied clowns with no social skills."
• Tween superstars Jonas Brothers release A Little Bit Longer. Entertainment Weekly gives it a "B+" and congratulates: "Assuming each generation gets the teen idols it deserves, then today's kids must have done something good — God knows what — to have merited the Jonas Brothers." Blender gives the trio 4 out of 5 stars for its feel-good pop-rock: "Becoming a teenager is confusing and scary. The Jonases offer a friendly road map."
• Solange Knowles attempts to shake the "Beyoncé's little sister" tag with Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams, "a peppy album, rich with thumping horns, crisp percussion and light piano melodies." Despite a whiff of praise, The New York Times concludes "Solange can’t quite keep up." Allmusic disagrees, calling it "one of the year's more entertaining and easily enjoyable R&B releases," because it's "fronted by … someone who is slightly more concerned with raw emotion and clowning around than technical prowess and polished product."

Jonas Brothers are boys in a band, but don't call them a boy band.

A cuter, happier and poppier My Chemical Romance for the Disney crowd, the three real-life brothers from New Jersey – 15-year-old Nick, 18-year-old Joseph and 20-year-old Kevin – write most of their songs and play their own instruments. Deeply religious siblings with Italian roots, the Jonas Brothers began as a solo project, when Nick Jonas, the youngest of the three, began performing on Broadway, appearing in plays like "Les Miserables," "A Christmas Carol" and "Beauty and the Beast."

In 2004, an 11 year-old Nick released two singles, "Dear God" and "Joy To the World," but his solo debut was shelved after Columbia Records execs listened to Please Be Mine, a catchy pop tune written by the three brothers on acoustic guitars. Nick's solo album finally saw the light of day in 2006, when it was retooled and released as the Jonas Brothers' debut, It's About Time. Album sales were less than stellar and the brothers were dropped from Columbia a year later. It may have been a blessing in disguise.

Disney's Hollywood Records, home of Miley Cyrus, Cheetah Girls and High School Musical, signed the trio in early 2007. Months later, the Jonas Brothers released their eponymous second album, featuring songs that are alternately bubblegum punk (Year 3000 and Hold On), power pop Kids of the Future, and country When You Look Me in the Eyes. After the trio teamed up with Miley Cyrus, aka "Hannah Montana," appearing on her wildly popular TV show and opening her concert tour, Jonas Brothers went platinum.

This year the Jonas Brothers are everywhere: they're starring in a reality series called "Jonas Brothers: Living the Dream," a movie titled Camp Rock and another film, J.O.N.A.S.!, that begins production in the fall. A Little Bit Longer, the brothers' third album, is scheduled for release in August. Nick says fans – and there's quite a few of them – can expect more of the same: "I think we've gotten a little better as musicians, so maybe the chords of the songs are a little different, more mature. But it's still fun, pop-rock music and lyrics."