:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/boy-bands-image-tout-38052e196ced412d906ddfd4efc7e4d7.jpg "Ranking the best boy bands of the ’90s and ’00s")
In the late-’90s and early-’00s, boy bands ruled all. While these pop stars were preceded by the likes of the Beatles and followed by the teen heartthrob assemblage that is One Direction, the duos, trios, quartets, and quintets of the millennium have a special place in pop history.
Ahead, Entertainment Weekly ranks the best boy bands who dominated the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st — and we’re not just talking about the Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC here. Enjoy this blast from the past, as we rate the likes of BBMak, Dream Street, Savage Garden, and more.
Long before he was Glee‘s Will Schuester, Matthew Morrison was a member of the early 2000s boy band LMNT (pronounced “element”). The actor crooned alongside Mike Miller, Bryan Chan, and Jonas Persch. Morrison talked to MrPorter.com about the gig in 2012, “It’s one of the biggest mistakes I’ve ever made in my life… It was at the height of *NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys, so I really thought I was going to make a lot of money being in a boy band… Singing and dancing to stupid, ridiculous songs didn’t feed my soul.” LMNT released their lone album, All Sides, in 2002 — with Jonas Persch replacing Morrison — and had moderate success on Radio Disney with their single “Juliet.”
In the late ’90s, a young Jesse McCartney teamed up with Greg Raposo, Matt Ballinger, Frankie Galasso, and Chris Trousdale to perform as the ever-dreamy group of teeny-boppers, Dream Street. The group saw its greatest success with the 2001 studio album Dream Street, led by the singles “It Happens Every Time” and “I Say Yeah,” but disbanded soon after. Trousdale died from an undisclosed illness in June 2020.
The other four members reunited virtually to perform as a tribute to Trousdale shortly after his death. “I don’t know if we’re going to tour,” McCartney told E! News after the reunion. “We definitely promised each other we’re going keep in touch more and see each other.”
In an attempt to be the boy band’s answer to the Spice Girls, 5ive was made up of British pop singers Sean Conlon, Ritchie Neville, Scott Robinson, J Brown, and Abz Love. While the group topped the charts in the U.K., it had just one hit Stateside with the 1998 single “When the Lights Go Out.” The track reached No. 10 in the U.S. and was featured on the group’s most successful album — the 1998 self-titled debut record, 5ive.
Led by singer Trevor Guthrie, soulDecision rose to fame with the 1999 single “Faded.” They attempted to distinguish themselves from other groups lumped into the boy band genre by writing and producing their own music. While they picked up a gig opening for Christina Aguilera, the Canadian boy band’s popularity plummeted soon after their debut album, and they dissolved following the release of their sophomore record, Shady Satin Drug. Their final tour took place in 2005.
Mark Barry, Christian Burns, and Stephen McNally formed the late-’90s/early-’00s British boy band BBMak. The group saw its highs with a 2001 appearance on Even Stevens and a No. 13 single with 2000’s “Back Here.” The group’s 2002 sophomore album, Into Your Head, included the single “Out of My Heart (Into Your Head),” but was BBMak’s last record before a 2003 breakup. The trio reunited in 2018 and released their third studio album, Powerstation, in October 2019, as well as the single “Painting Lights” in 2023.
Originally formed in the ’70s, New Edition saw a resurgence with the 1996 album Home Again. The multiplatinum record included the hit singles “Hit Me Off” and “I’m Still in Love With You,” and was the last big success of Ralph Tresvant, Bobby Brown, Johnny Gill, Ricky Bell, Ronnie DeVoe, and Michael Bivins. With the exception of sporadic reunions and performances, 2004’s One Love was New Edition’s last major project. The group received the Soul Train Awards Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012, toured from 2022 to 2023, and held a Vegas residency in early 2024.
A slightly rap/rock iteration of the late-’90s boy band, Crazy Town topped charts with the 2000 single “Butterfly.” The track hit No. 1 in countries worldwide and landed the band a spot in 2001’s Ozzfest. Falling in line with the widespread boy band sophomore slump, Crazy Town went on hiatus following 2002’s Darkhorse. The group got back together for the release of 2015’s The Brimstone Sluggers, but saw little impact with the collection. One of the band’s two singers, Bret Mazur, left in 2017. The other singer, Shifty Shellshock, renamed the group Crazy Town X afterward.
LFO — a.k.a Lyte Funkie Ones — gave pop fans the immortal lyrics, “I like girls that wear Abercrombie and Fitch / I’d take her if I had one wish / But she’s been gone / Since that summer, since that summer.” Made up of Rich Cronin, Brad Fischetti, and Devin Lima, the group dropped LFO in ’99, seeing success with the now-infamous “Summer Girls,” as well as the hit “Girl on TV.” LFO fell to the sophomore curse after 2001’s Life Is Good, disbanding in 2002. The group was going to reunite in 2009, but the planned third album never happened after Cronin died in 2010. The remaining members formed a duo and released the single “Perfect 10” in 2017, but that same year Lima was diagnosed with adrenal cancer. He died in 2018. Remaining member Fischetti still performs.
Quinnes “Q” Parker, Daron Jones, Marvin “Slim” Scandrick, and Michael Keith became 112 in the ’90s. The R&B boy band debuted with a self-titled album in 1996 and returned a year later with Room 112. The band topped singles charts with “Only You” and “It’s Over Now” before becoming a smash success with 2001’s “Peaches & Cream.” The Grammy-winning performers have reunited a few times and released their sixth studio album in 2017, 12 years after the certified gold album Pleasure & Pain.
Pop fans knew they loved Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones of Savage Garden before they met them, dreaming them into life. The Australian duo released Savage Garden in 1997, earning top-charting singles with “I Want You,” “To the Moon and Back,” and “Truly Madly Deeply.” The group continued its successful run with Affirmation in ’99, led by the single “I Knew I Loved You,” but announced their split two years later.
Lil’ Fizz, J-Boog, Raz-B, and Omarion formed the R&B boy band B2K on the eve of the new millennium. The singers got their footing with the “Uh Huh“-led 2002 album B2K. Within months, they released the holiday record Santa Hooked Me Up and the sophomore album Pandemonium!, featuring the smash hit “Bump, Bump, Bump.” After appearing in the 2004 movie You Got Served, B2K broke up as Omarion pursued a solo career. The whole group reunited in 2019 for a tour but did not release a new album.
Long before the Jonas Brothers, there was Hanson. Brothers Isaac, Taylor, and Zac Hanson dropped their debut album, Middle of Nowhere, in 1997. Led by the famed earworm “MMMBop,” the album hit No. 2 and went multiplatinum. The group continues to perform, releasing eight full-length studio albums and touring regularly. The band celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2018 with an album (String Theory) and tour featuring their hits backed by an orchestra. All these years later, the band remains proud of their earliest hit. “To ever have a song that is that widely known, to have anything that is that widely connected, is so rare that it’s really interesting to see it come of age and still hold water,” they told EW of “MMMBop” in 2018.
The Ashley Parker Angel-led boy band rose to fame on pre-MTV Making the Band (the first season aired on ABC). The pop stars dropped their self-titled debut in 2001, getting airtime with the hit singles “Liquid Dreams” and “All or Nothing.” O-Town hit the sophomore curse with 2002’s O2, but reunited sans Angel in 2014. The foursome released two albums, 2014’s Lines & Circles and 2019’s The O.T.W.N. Album, and continues to perform.
Brothers Drew and Nick Lachey, along with Jeff Timmons and Justin Jeffre, formed 98 Degrees in the ’90s. Complete with on-brand bicep tattoos, the boy banders dropped 98 Degrees in 1998, releasing 98 Degrees and Rising the following year with the singles “Because of You,” “The Hardest Thing,” and “I Do (Cherish You).” Led by the hit “Give Me Just One Night (Una Noche),” 98 Degrees’ third album Revelation arrived in 2000. The boys reunited more than a decade later, touring in support of the 2013 release 2.0 alongside New Kids on the Block and Boyz II Men. They released a second holiday album in 2017 (Let it Snow) and the single “Where Do You Want to Go” in 2021. The group also hit the road on a 25th anniversary tour in 2024.
As LFO famously sang, New Kids on the Block had a bunch of hits. An early entrant into the boy band craze, NKOTB was made up of Joey McIntyre, Donnie Wahlberg, Danny Wood, and brothers Jonathan and Jordan Knight. The group released its self-titled debut in 1986 and followed it up with 1988’s Hangin’ Tough and 1990’s Step by Step. The kids went on a hiatus after their fourth record, Face the Music, but reunited in the 2010s for a new album and tours with the Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees, and Boyz II Men. Decades into their existence, NKOTB released “Boys in the Band (Boy Band Anthem),” a 2019 music video that pokes fun at — but ultimately celebrates — more than half a century of boy bands. In 2024, they released their eighth studio album (Still Kids, featuring the lead single “Kids”) and will headline the NKOTB Magic Summer Tour.
R&B heavyweights Boyz II Men rose to fame with the 1991 release of Cooleyhighharmony and its accompanying singles “Motownphilly” and “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday,” as well as “End of the Road,” which was added when the album was rereleased in 1992. The 1994 album II and 1997’s Evolution took the new jack swing group to new heights, aided by the hit songs “I’ll Make Love to You,” “On Bended Knee,” and “4 Seasons of Loneliness.” While the group fell short of topping the charts in the 2000s, they continued to release albums, dropping Collide in 2014 and Under the Streetlight in 2017. Boyz II Men won three Grammys for their first three albums and ultimately garnered 15 nominations, the most recent being a Best R&B Album nod for 2009’s Motown: A Journey Through Hitsville USA.
Backstreet is officially back (alright!). One of the pop groups with the most enduring legacy, BSB first rose to fame in Europe in the 1990s, picking up fans in Germany before they made a name for themselves stateside. AJ McLean, Howie Dorough, Nick Carter, Kevin Richardson, and Brian Littrell made an impact with the 1997 U.S. release of Backstreet Boys before reaching massive success with 1999’s Millennium. Boasting hits such as “Quit Playing Games (with My Heart),” “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back),” “I Want It That Way,” and “Larger than Life,” the Backstreet Boys have pulled in nine Grammy nominations, five of which came in 2000. The quintet took a brief hiatus in the mid-2000s before reuniting. In 2013, they dropped In a World Like This. Six years later, the group released its ninth studio album, DNA, which was followed in 2022 by its first Christmas album.
Backstreet Boys may have longevity, but *NSYNC had the glory. The famed boy band debuted in the late ’90s with *NSYNC and its accompanying singles “I Want You Back,” “Tearin’ Up My Heart,” and “(God Must Have Spent) A Little More Time on You.” Then came 2000’s No Strings Attached, led by the now-infamous “Bye Bye Bye.” A few coordinated dance moves later, Chris Kirkpatrick, Joey Fatone, Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, and Lance Bass were international superstars. While Timberlake’s star power ultimately eclipsed the others, the group has a spot in pop history. The fivesome broke up shortly after 2022’s Celebrity but reunited for a single performance at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards. All five members wouldn’t reunite again until 2024 when they recorded a new song for the movie Trolls Band Together and appeared on stage at Timberlake’s “One Night Only” concert in Los Angeles, as *NSYNC is featured on the track “Paradise” on Timberlake’s sixth studio album, Everything I Thought It Was.
