Elevate is the second studio album by American boy band Big Time Rush. It was released on November 21, 2011 by Columbia Records in association with Nickelodeon. The band worked with accomplished songwriters and producers for the album. These include those that assisted with the material from their debut album, such as Emanuel Kiriakou, Lindy Robbins, Nicholas RAS Furlong, Damon Sharpe, Eric Sanicola and Lucas Secon, along with other notable songwriters and producers, such as JR Rotem, Christopher Stewart, The-Dream, Jay Sean, and Ryan Tedder. The production process of the album took place between nine months to a year, most of which was during their touring process.
The album acts as the soundtrack to the Nickelodeon television series of the same name, which features songs that appeared in the series' second season and the upcoming television movie, Big Time Movie. Following the success of their first release, the band was inspired to be more involved in the writing process for this album, writing together or separately a total of eight songs. Elevate is mainly a pop and dance album, which incorporates elements of several musical genres such as electropop, urban pop, synthpop and rock with an Europop vibe in some tracks. The first single from Elevate, "Music Sounds Better with U", was released on November 1, 2011. The single was a Top 30 hit on the US Billboard Pop Songs chart.