I love music! I love listening to music, I love singing.
It may because I was born in 1980′s and had my puberty time on 1990′s, so I grew up with 1990′s music and I love it. In my opinion, that was the best period of music ever until mid 2000′s. On that time, there was good programs on MTv I liked to watch, good teen magazines and I knew music life from those. The music was dominated by boybands and girlbands, the genre of pop rocks, ballads, rocks, and mellow songs. It may be true, or perhaps I chose to only watch MTv or other television programs or the magazines about those music 
. I didnt really pay attention to other genres, especially the hard one.
These are some pop band that highlighted 1990′s music world until mid 2000′s (in my opinion).
1. Boyzone, an Irish boyband formed in 1993. I was a great fan of Boyzone due to my sister’s influence, especially to Stephen Gately. Some of their hits are “Love me for a reason”, “Picture of you”, “Words”, “A different beat”
2. Backstreet Boys, an American boyband formed in 1993. I think this is one of the greatest boyband ever. Although I dont fan them, and I dont know all of their songs (only the singles and the hits), but their songs are always good. Some of their hits are “I’ll never break your heart”, “As long as you love me”, “I want it that way”, “Shape of my heart”
3. Spice Girls, a British pop girlband formed in 1994. I think it is the biggest girlband in 1990′s pop music. Some of their hits are “Viva Forever”, “Wanna be”, “Stop”.
Spice Girls
4. N’Sync, an American boyband formed in 1995. Some of their hits are “Bye bye bye”, “It’s gonna be me”, “This I’ll promise you”
5. 911, a British boyband formed in 1995. Some of their hits are “Love sensation”, “Wonderland”, “Private Number”
6. 98 Degrees, an American boyband formed in 1996. Some of their hits are “Because of you”, “Give me just one night”
7. Five, a British boyband formed in 1997. Some of their hits are “Until the time is through”, “We will rock you”
8. Hanson, an American boyband formed in 1992. They became popular after their hits “MMMBop” on 1997. After that, they came up with hits “I will come to you”
9. Atomic Kitten, a British pop girlband formed in 1997. Some of their hits are “Whole again”, “The tide is high”, “Eternal flame”
10. Steps, a British pop group formed in 1997. They consist of 2 boys and 3 girls. Some of their hits are “It’s the way you make me feel”, “5, 6, 7, 8″, “Tragedy”, “Here and now”
Steps
11. A1, a British-Norwegian boyband formed in 1998. I listened to two of their albums and surprisingly I like all of their songs. ALL OF THEIR SONGS. Some of their hits are “Same old brand new you”, “No more”, “Caught in the middle”, “Everytime”
12. S Club 7, a British pop group formed in 1998. They consist of 3 boys and 4 girls, looks so crowded for me 
). Some of their hits are “Have you ever” (my fave!!), “Dont stop”, “Never had a dream come true”
13. Westlife, an Irish boyband formed in 1998. This is my favorite band ever!! …which unfortunately decided to split up this very year, 2011.. 
Some of their hits are “Flying without wings”, “My love”, “Uptown girl”, “If i let you go”
14. Blue, a British boyband formed in 2001 (which until I check in internet just now, I thought it was an American boyband ^^). Some of their hits are “If you come back”, “You make me wanna”, “All rise”, “One love”
Besides those bands, there are also solo singers for pop music/genre, such as Enrique Iglesias (hits : “Hero”), Robbie Williams (hits : “Better man”), Jennifer Lopez (hits : “Love dont cost a thing”), Jewel (hits : “Break me”), Shania Twain (hits : “From this moment on”). And also the everlasting singers such as Mariah Carey (hits : “Always be my baby”) and Celine Dion (hits : “My heart will go on”). There are also bands, such as The Corrs (hits : “Dont say you love me”) which have many great songs, The Cranberries (hits : “Zombie”).
Now, I want to give my opinion about the quality of boyband, objectively. I will also give comparison between selected big boybands from those 14. Although Westlife is my favorite, I will still judge them fairly because now im no longer their “craaaaaazzzzyyy” and fanatic fan. I like them because I see them have good quality. And here’s why.
S Club 7
Quality aspects
1. Vocal quality. This is the most important from any singer, and if its a band, each band member should have a good voice quality, not only the vocal leader. They should be able to satisfy : pitch control, voice character, vibration, breath control, and so on.
2. Vocal harmony and distribution. Between a solo singer and non solo singers (duet, trio, quartet, and so on), I like non solo singers more, because I like to hear vocal harmony. The combination of first vocal, second vocal and other vocals is a beautiful thing to expect from music. So for me, a band should be able to combine all voices into one good harmony to produce a great music. Furthermore, I know that a vocal group usually has the vocal leader who sings most of the time. It’s normal. The bad thing is that if the distribution is not even. Sometimes it looks even as if it’s only the vocal leader who sings, the other members are only background vocal. It shows that it is not good as a vocal GROUP.
3. Live performance. I hate lipsync. Singer should be able to sing in live performance, not only in recording with all enhancement technology. Some singers are awful in live performance, though I also find many singers who are much more awesome when they sing in live. I regards them very much. Moreover, no matter how great the vocal is, but singers wont make the audience fun, satisfied, and psyched if they sing in a stiff posture and static. Performance is also important, whether it is improved by dancing, lighting, costume, remix music and so on. But if the singers dance, hmmmm.. i wont like it if they do lipsync. They are singer, they should sing. They are not dancer. If they want to dance also, dont lipsync while dancing. Just dont sing. It’s more honest and we the audience can see that “okay, cool.. they dance!” not like “woow they dance, oh wait.. are they really singing?”
4. Song quality. As far as I see, people know a song first when they hear the song. They listened to it first, before they know how bad the vocal is, or even how bad the performance is. Even the awful-awful-awful singer usually has at least one popular hit, and not because of the vocal but because of the song quality and music quality. This quality aspect is rather not related to the band because it’s not the band’s job to compose a song, yet it can be a good point.
911
Because this article is all based on my opinion, I will select boyband that is “big” for me. Those are Westlife (of course), Boyzone, Backstreet Boys, N’Sync, A1.
Westlife (fully my objective opinion)
Vocal Quality : Westlife is the greatest band in terms of vocal quality, and not only Shane as the vocal leader but also each band member. Each of them has their own vocal characteristic and they can sing perfectly. They also show quality progress from the first album until now. Great!
Vocal Harmony and Distribution : The harmony of their vocal is amazing, I like it. With their characteristic, they can produce a good harmony. Especially after Bryan left the band, I can say the distribution of vocal part is more even and it makes them much better (to be honest, I’m a little bit bored with Shane’s voice sometimes).
Live Performance : The vocal perfomance is the best part, Westlife is much better when they sing live. With Mark’s improvised voice, they always sing beautifully. Im also sure that they never want lipsync, they are confident enough to always sing freely. Unfortunately, the other thing on performance is the down part of Westlife ). Vocal is their main power, but they cant really dance. Somehow their body are not good enough to dance, only Nicky is. I like his dancing style, some kind like “rebel”. But they always give a good music and stage+lighting enhancement. Sometimes Kian also performs with playing guitar. One good point for performance.
Song Quality : To be honest, I dont really follow their song again since their 7th album. Until 7th album, I like every songs of them but since then, it gets a little bit boring and old and not cheerful. It may because they are getting old and mature, especially after being married. hahha..
Westlife
Boyzone
Vocal Quality : I can say Ronan and Stephen have great voice and nice characteristics. Unfortunately, I cant say the same way for other members. When I hear them singing solo, their voices are not so good. Well, they can sing, but not very good.
Vocal Harmony and Distribution : The harmony is also good, but the distribution is very bad. In first album, the distribution was quite even, although Ronan and Stephen very dominated. Then after that, it felt like Ronan sings all the time with some songs for Stephen. I almost never hear Shane, Mike and Keith sing solo.
Live Performance : The performance is good, they can sing with their characteristic in live. But for me, sometimes Ronan and Stephen sing a little bit far away from the origin of the song. We can say it is improvisation, but if it gets too far, it wont be so good. And for the other members, I cant say anything, I dont hear them “sing” . They can dance, although not so frequent. They also give a good music and stage+lighting enhancement. Somehow I can say Boyzone and Westlife almost have the same style of performance.
Song Quality : I like their songs, always touching and enjoyable. But sometimes because of the un-even vocal distribution, I hear it like the song of Ronan, not the song of Boyzone.
Boyzone
Backstreet Boys
Vocal Quality : They have a great and strong characteristic. We can define and determine it when we hear their songs. The characteristic is very different from each other and it’s good. Although (may be only my taste) the voice quality is not very amazing, but great!
Vocal Harmony and Distribution : I like the harmony of different vocal characteristics. And the distribution is very even, all members often have their own part in one song. It is very great which shows that they dont depend on only the one vocal leader.
Live Performance : They have good performance! I see some of their performance and they do great dancing and very attractive. Cool! The live vocal is also good. I hope they dont do lipsync.
Song Quality : Very very great! Especially the hits, always become popular for a long time. Some of them even become everlasting songs. I really really like their songs.
Backstreet Boys
A1
Vocal Quality : A1 has very nice vocal quality. Each member has this own characteristic, and mostly are girly, but very good and powerful. They can sing and fit in their songs sweetly so they become a very boyband-ish boyband. Hahahah..
Vocal Harmony and Distribution : This is the only boyband that has a very evenly distributed. I dont know who the vocal leader is and for me each member can always be the one. I once read an article about them that they also write songs, and usually the song writter is the one who becomes the vocal leader on the song because he can feel more into it. Cool..
Live Performance : I see them in many of their performances, they not only sing but also play the instrument. Mark plays piano and Christian plays guitar. I rarely see them dancing, but I think sometimes they do although like once in a million. Hahaha.
Song Quality : I. Love. Their. Songs.. All of them. Very great, enjoyable, I can sing along easily and remember it quickly. Their songs are usually sweet and mellow. Very girly and boyband-ish 
A1
N’Sync
Vocal Quality : N’Sync has almost the same type as Boyzone, they have the very dominant vocal leader, Justin Timberlake. Honestly, I dont really know N’Sync, but im quite sure that the other members dont really have great and strong voices. Joshua is quite good though.
Vocal Harmony and Distribution : Like Boyzone, Justin and sometimes Joshua always dominate the vocal distribution. I almost never hear the other members sing.
Live Performance : They rock the performance!! I like their dancing, very powerful, cool, and very very very attractive. But I can also not 100% about the lipsync because I dont see their performance very often.
Song Quality : Their hits are very good. I like their popular songs but I dont really know their songs.
N'Sync
In conclusion, lets rate them from {Very Poor} 1-10 {Awesome of awesomeness}
Name : Vocal Quality {8} + Vocal Harmony and Distribution {6} + Live Performance (Voice {8} + Other {4}) + Song Quality {4}
Westlife : (9*8) + (7*6) + (8*8 + 5*4) + (6*4) = 72 + 42 + 64 + 20 + 24 =222
Boyzone : (4*8) + (3*6) + (4*8 + 5*4) + (6*4) = 32 + 18 + 32 + 20 + 24 =126
Backstreet Boys : (6*8) + (8*6) + (6*8 + 8*4) + (9*4) = 48 + 48 + 48 + 32 + 36 = 212
A1 : (7*8) + (9*6) + (7*8) + (5*4) + (9*4) = 56 + 53 + 56 + 20 + 36 =221
N’Sync : (3*8) + (3*6) + (4*8) + (8*4) + (4*4) = 24 + 18 + 32 + 32 + 16 = 126
So, the winner is Westlife!!! Hahhaha.. To be honest, I also like A1 very much because of their songs and their quality as vocal group. Even sometimes I prefer A1′s songs to Westlife’s. Well, again it’s just my opinion and it’s very related to music taste which is different from other person. You can have different opinion, indeed
