Victorious Album

[Percival Blanco]

VictoriousMusic from the Hit TV Show is the debut soundtrack for the Nickelodeon TV series Victorious. The majority of the album was sung by the lead actress of the television series, Victoria Justice, with the Victorious cast being listed beside her. Some of the other singers on the album include Ariana Grande, Elizabeth Gillies, Miranda Cosgrove, Leon Thomas III, Matt Bennett, Daniella Monet and Avan Jogia. The majority of the album was written by Michael Corcoran, Dan Schneider, Savan Kotecha, Kool Kojak and CJ Abraham with Victoria Justice involved in the composition of "Best Friend's Brother" and Leon Thomas III on "Song 2 You".

The album was released August 2, 2011 by Nickelodeon Records, in association with Columbia.[3][4] All of the songs on this soundtrack appear on previously aired episodes of the first two seasons of Victorious. In the United States, the soundtrack debuted on the Billboard 200 albums chart at number five with 41,000 copies sold.[5] It also peaked at number one on the Kid Albums and Soundtracks charts.

The album features the heavy usage of synthesizers, drum machine and Auto-Tune, prominent in songs like "Freak the Freak Out" and "Make It Shine". The lyrical themes involve light romance, happy and sad, and assertions of self-worth.[1]

The mix of some tracks on the album are slightly altered in comparison to the versions heard in the show. The vocals of "Tell Me That You Love Me" are heard with a piano in the show, but the song has more instruments on the soundtrack. "Finally Falling" on this album removes Avan Jogia's opening verse. The show version of "All I Want Is Everything" has more prominent vocals from the other cast members. Full versions of the former two can be streamed at the show's student website, TheSlap.com.

"Make It Shine" was released as the first promotional single on April 13, 2010.[6] "Leave It All to Shine" was released June 10, 2011, as the second promotional single from the album and performed on the iCarly 90-minute special "iParty with Victorious" by the cast members of both iCarly and Victorious.[7]

Victorious in Concert (officially Victorious Featuring Victoria Justice: In Concert) was a one night only concert held on May 26, 2011 at the Avalon Theater[25] in Avalon, California.[26][27] The concert was free,[28][29] and was to promote the impending release of the soundtrack.[30]

Walmart Soundcheck financed the event, and filmed the show to air on the Walmart Soundcheck website.[26] Nickelodeon partnered with Walmart to release Victorious merchandise, and the concert aired on Walmart's in-store televisions during the back-to-school season.[32][33]

You just have to take the ratings with a grain of salt. Different reviewers are going to rate things differently. Not to mention have different tastes. This is one of those instances where I feel like IVM would benefit from having multiple reviews of the same album as I feel like the WatG album review would be totally different of Rob reviewed it.

Due to the popularity of such shows like Disney Channel's Hannah Montana and Fox's Glee, in which the cast performed the music as their characters, Nickelodeon decided to create a series titled Victorious with a similar theme, with the help of Columbia/Epic Label Group of Sony Music. It was created by Dan Schneider and its main cast consisted of seven actors, including Victoria Justice portraying the protagonist Tori Vega.[1] The first season was broadcast on the channel from March 27, 2010 to March 26, 2011. Due to the high popularity, a second season was created, which aired from April 2 to December 26.

While primarily considered a sitcom, Victorious featured characters performing the songs, mostly the original, in various episodes. Some of these were released on official digital music platforms, and some were available to listen to on the series' website TheSlap, the Nickelodeon website, and the website of iCarly (Schneider's another show on the channel). Justice's interview with ClevverTV was published on April 11, 2010, in which she revealed the soundtrack would be released after the first season. Ann Donahue wrote in an article for Billboard the full soundtrack would be released later that year, though that didn't happen.[2]

Daniella Monet, another cast member of the series, wrote on Twitter on March 2011 the soundtrack would be released in the summer of that year.[3] Later, it was revealed via both Justice's website and a press release by Columbia Records and Nickelodeon the soundtrack would be released on July 12, but for an unknown reason this date was pushed back.[4][5] The album's title (Victorious: Music from the Hit TV Show), cover artwork, new release date (August 2), and tracklist were revealed by the Idolator website.[6] The album became available for pre-order on July 13, and Justice announced the first 1,000 people would get it with a booklet signed by her.

Dan Schneider wrote the album would contain 13 songs.[7] Through the second press release, it was revealed the record would be published in two editions.[8] The first is the standard 12-song version which has been available for purchase on compact disc.[9] The second version, released as a digital download, includes the bonus song "Broken Glass", which has been stated by Columbia Records and Nickelodeon as an iTunes exclusive.[8][10] Despite this, this version was also later released on CD in early 2012.[11] These 13 songs are a selection from those performed in the first two seasons of Victorious.

Based on the liner notes, the songs on the entire album were recorded in seven different studios. Almost every song was recorded in the United States, with the exception of a portion of "Beggin' on Your Knees" which, out of three different studios, was recorded in one in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. As of around April 11, 2010, seven original songs had been recorded, confirmed by Justice during an interview with ClevverTV. Her tweets confirm "Make It Shine" was recorded on October 19, 2009, and "Leave It All to Shine" was recorded on September 4, 2010.[15][16] On the same day as the latter song was recorded, Daniella Monet also tweeted she was in the studio.[17] Recording dates for other tracks are unknown. Elizabeth Gillies tweeted she was in the studio on August 19, 2010, though it's unknown if it was about the music for Victorious.[18]

William Ruhlmann of AllMusic gave Victorious: Music from the Hit TV Show three stars out of five. Ruhlmann described the album as mainly teen pop, describing the first two songs, "Make It Shine" and "Freak the Freak Out", as typical of the genre due to their "relentless beats, synthesized instrumentations, nonstop simple, repetitive choruses, and Auto-Tune vocals". According to him, the lyrical part of the album is based on the themes of "light romance, happy and sad, and assertions of self-worth", the latter of which is about the song "Song 2 You". Additionally, he called "Give It Up" a "Britney Spears reject" and with "I Want You Back" he felt bubblegum pop is similar to that of 40 years ago. He ended his review by stating "Of course, what really matters is what Justice and her earnest fellow cast members look like, not what they sound like, especially given the cookie-cutter nature of this music."[19]

Victorious: Music from the Hit TV Show was the most successful worldwide of all albums by both Victorious and Victoria Justice. In the United States, the album sold 41,000 copies in its first week.[20] This resulted in it debuting at number five on the Billboard 200 chart (where it spent a total of 24 weeks) and the Top Current Album Sales chart (where it spent a total of 27 weeks).[21][22] The album also spent 64 weeks on the Kid Albums, including two at the top of the chart.[23] It spent its first seven weeks at number one on the Top Soundtracks chart, where it spent a total of 48 weeks overall.[24] After 2011 ended, the album appeared at numbers 9, 16, and 196 on the year-end versions of the Kid Albums, Top Soundtracks, and Top Current Album Sales charts, respectively.[25][26][27] After 2012, the album re-entered the year-end Kid Albums at number 10 (higher than Victorious 2.0: More Music from the Hit TV Show released that year) and Top Soundtrack at number 23.[28][29]

The album managed to appear on the charts in other countries. In Austria, the album stayed for six weeks, with one of them at number 35.[30] In Germany, it only appeared for one week at number 100 and last on the chart.[31] In Spain, it was also only one week, but higher, at number 36.[32] The album spent two weeks in Switzerland, peaking at number 69.[33] While in the United Kingdom the album failed to chart as high as in the United States, its stay length in terms of weeks is much better; after leaving the charts in 2013, the album made a comeback in 2020 and continues to appear regularly up to the present time as of 2023.[34] The album was certified silver by the British Phonographic Industry for 60,000 units, based on sales and streaming.[35]

To promote the album, four singles and two promotional singles were released, all performed by Victoria Justice. "Make It Shine" was originally released on the Nickelodeon website on March 9, 2010, before being re-released as the first promotional single on official music platforms on April 13.[36][37] It was used as the series' theme song and was performed four times, the most of any song, including in the first episode titled "Pilot". The song received a music video featuring the Victorious cast dancing on the series' set. The track managed to reach number 16 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart.[38] The music video for "Freak the Freak Out", a track performed on the series' episode of the same name, premiered on November 19 and features the cast hanging out at a club. The song was released three days later, becoming the first regular single.[37] It's one of the most commercially successful songs; In the United States, it peaked at number 50 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was later certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.[39][40] It also charted at number 176 in the United Kingdom.[41]

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