Miranda+Cosgrove's+Music+Career

= Needs a Byline = =__[|Music] Career __= Miranda Cosgrove's career began with the //iCarly// theme song entitled "Leave It All To Me." Cosgrove performs the song along with Drake Bell (her former castmate from //Drake and Josh).// The song was written by Michael Corcoran (also known as Backhouse Mike), a former bandmate of Bell's who has also composed and scored music for //iCarly, Drake and Josh, Zoey 101,// and //Victorious.// The song was released as a single in December 2007. It peaked at #100 on the Billboard Hot 100 and debuted at #1 on the Billboard Kids Album Charts.

Cosgrove's next move in her musical career was the June 2008 release of the //iCarly// soundtrack. The soundtrack included four songs performed by her which are: "Leave It All to Me", "About You Now", " Stay My Baby", and "Headphones On". The single "Stay My Baby" did not do well and failed to reach the charts, however the song "About You Now" became Cosgrove's most succesful single reaching #47 on the Hot 100 in January 2009.

On April 22, 2010, Cosgrove released her first album, // Sparks Fly. // The albums single, "Kissin U" was pre-released on March 22, 2010 and managed to debut at #87 on Billboard Hot 100. The album managed to sell 36,000 copies the first week and made it's peak at #8 on the Billboard 200. Cosgrove intended // Sparks Fly // to be completely different from the // iCarly // Soundtrack. In this album she claims she was much more involved in the co-writing of the songs and she plans for the album to prove that she is more than just another actress putting out an album. She explains the album will be mostly "love songs and just fun songs about hanging out with your girlfriends." By working with some of the best writers and producers in the business, Cosgrove manages to cowrite 1 of the 8 songs on her album (2 songs if referring to the deluxe edition of the album). However, one of the two songs, "Kissin U", was her most popular song to date.

Recently, on March 15th 2011 Cosgrove released her an EP entitled //High Maintenance// in order to prepare for the release of her next album. The album's single, "Dancing Crazy" managed to reach number 40 on the US Billboard Adult Pop Songs.

**__Style of [|Music]:__** Cosgrove's style of music has been described as mostly teen pop but can sometimes evolve to soft rock of electro-pop. Cosgrove's music seems to be very childish and songs are often about falling in love. Her hit songs can do very well with younger audiences, but she is far from becoming popular in the teen world. Although most of Cosgrove's work has been criticized for a lack of feeling in lyrics, her voice has only been complimented. Miranda has been singing for most of her life, and unlike certain pop stars today, actually has quite an impressive voice.

Cosgrove's music is probably most ideal for young girls that aren't quite old enough to be listening to Ke$ha or Lady Gaga. However, after her release of her new EP //High Maintenance// her lyrics have been called "a little iffy for the youngest tweens."

=__Writers. Cowriters, and Producers:__= Since the near beginning of her musical career, Cosgrove has been working with Lukasz Gottwald (mostly known as Dr. Luke). Dr. Luke has worked with many artists and has been named one of the top ten producers of the decade by Billboard. Dr. Luke is responsible for bringing Ke$ha to fame by co-writing and co-producing her hit single "Tik-Tok".

Cosgrove did not do much writing herself during the creation of her album //Sparks Fly//. She often performed and recorded songs that were rejected by Ke$sha, Avril Levine, and Susan Cagle. Many of her songs were also pre-written by song writers such as, Pete Sebert, Tom Meredith, and Shepard Solomon. Collectively these artist have co-written music for Hilary Duff, Ke$ha, Hanson, Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson, and Celine Dion.

=__Reception and Promotions:__= Most of Cosgrove's reception has actually been quite negative. Other than a few remarks about how her work will do well with the tween population, critics mostly feel that her music lacks feeling. Commonsensemedia.org says her album //Sparks Fly// is " Formulaic at best, painfully predictable at its worst".

In order to promote her new EP // High Maintenance // Cosgrove went on her "Dancing Crazy Tour" from January 24th to Febuary 25th. Opening for her was YouTube sensation, Greyson Chance, who gained popularity by covering Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi" in 2010.

Sources needed.