Don't Forget - Development

Development

"Writing songs is what I turn to when I'm really upset or in a really good mood. Sometimes people listen to my music and they're like, 'Wow, that's intense. Go to therapy.' But you know, it's a result of how much I've been through. Just because you're on Disney Channel and you always have a smile on your face, they think you're perfect, and it's obvious that nobody's life really is."

Lovato started writing songs with the Jonas Brothers during filming of Camp Rock. Later in the spring of 2008, they co-wrote ten songs in a week during the band's headlining Look Me in the Eyes Tour. Lovato said, "I wrote it with them and they helped me. They obviously knew the situation, and then we got on the bus one night — songs just started pouring out." Before the tour's European leg, they went to the studio where the band co-produced the songs with John Fields. Speaking of the experience of co-producing, Nick Jonas said: "Being able to co-produce was really cool and definitely something we'll be doing a lot more of." Nick also complimented working with Lovato. The album was recorded in ten and a half days.

The inspiration behind "Get Back", a Jonas-penned track, was Lovato not wanting to write a mean or heartbroken song as she felt that there was enough of them. Instead, she wanted to write about getting back together with an old boyfriend. "It's kind of a fun, upbeat song and it's kind of just fun to sing to the person that I wrote it about", she said of the song. "La La Land" was written by Lovato and the Jonas Brothers about "the pressures of fame". Lovato said, "You get to Hollywood and a lot of times people can try to shape you and mould you into what they want you to be. The song is just about keeping it real and trying to stay yourself when you're out in Hollywood." The title track, also co-penned by the Jonas Brothers, was written about Lovato's experience of falling in love with someone who "just walks away, and goes somewhere else". "I went through an experience like that and wanted to write about it. I got over it, and now a year later I don't have those feelings about that person anymore", Lovato said. Musical influences for the album included Paramore, Kelly Clarkson, Christina Aguilera, Billy Gillman, Aretha Franklin and Gladys Knight.

The album's final track listing consisted of six songs co-written by the Jonas Brothers, including the duet "On the Line". The remainder of the album was produced by Fields. Lovato enlisted Rooney frontman Robert Coppola Schwartzman for the track "Party", stating that she put her "musical input and lyrics" into the song and Schwartzman helped her, mainly on the hook. Lovato wrote the song "Trainwreck" on her own and co-wrote most of the remaining tracks, except for "The Middle", written by Fields, Kara DioGuardi and Jason Reeves, and "Until You're Mine", written by Andy Dodd and Adam Watts.