Put together by Maurice Starr, the producer who’d discovered New Edition, NKOTB wasn’t just that group’s vanilla cousin -- just ask the fans flocking to see them on this year’s reunion tour. Key songs: “I’ll Be Loving You (Forever),” “Step by Step” (Malcolm Taylor / Getty Images)
The ruling Lolita of the new millennium had a kitten voice, a perfect body and no qualms about exhibiting her pubescent charms; then she tried to grow up, and began the most embarrassing fall a celebrity has endured since Fatty Arbuckle. Key song: “Toxic” (Frank Micelotta / Getty Images)
Raven-Symoné/the Cheetah Girls
The Disney networks’ first star of the millennium was not a squeaky-clean rocker but a “Cosby Show” vet who knows her way around urban music. She’s released albums on her own and with the group the Cheetah Girls. Key song: “Fuego” (as part of the Cheetah Girls) (Axel Koester / For The Times)