There are a whole bunch of talentless groups from the nineties. some include pearl jam, backstreet boys and those nsinc losers.  The ones worth listening to were:
the melvins
soundgarden
alice inchains
nirvana
system of a down
butthole surfers
mudhoney
sonic youth

I would have Pearl Jam on my list. As well as:

TOOL
Danzig
Rage Against The Machine
Deftones
Dinosaur Jr.
Smashing Pumpkins
Pavement
Red Hot Chili Peppers

Definitely the Spice Girls and Steps. When I was 9, the Spuce Girls were my favourite group, then Steps from age 12 onwards. As well as Steps, I listen to bands and artists that ae around at the moment.

Definitely U2 and Pearl Jam. Didn't care for Nirvana.

REM
Oasis
Blur
Blutones
Shed Seven
Ocean Colour Scene
Cranberries
Radiohead
Savage Garden
Placebo
James
Crowded House
Stereophonics
Travis
Garbage
Jamiroquai
Greenday
New Order
Moloko
Idlewild
...to name but a few.

Lots of my favorite groups have been mentioned already except for Weezer. I agree with the following:

Pearl Jam
Nirvana
Soundgarden
Smashing Pumpkins
Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Radiohead
Oasis
Garbage
Green Day
The Cranberries
Savage Garden

On the r&b/hip-hop tip:

En Vogue
A Tribe Called Quest
PM Dawn
The Fugees
Salt N Pepa
TLC
SWV
Jodeci
Boyz II Men

Pearl Jam
Nirvana
Alice In Chains
Soundgarden
U2
Red Hot Chli Peppers
Greenday
Savage Graden
Crowded House
Smashing Pumpkins
Peter Gabriel
Aerosmith
Rolling Stones
Travis
Blur
REM
Placebo

Some great gropus mentioned above!  At this time I am really into, Wilco, Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt, and the Jayhawks - it was some fine rock country.

Took me a while but I really got into The Offspring.I would also add to the growing list
Feeder
Foo Fighters
Bush
Jesus Jones
Collective Soul
The Levellers
Killjoys
Rosetta Stone
Type O Negative

Mint Condition
Boyz II Men
Dru Hill(the first album is almost on the Boyz II Men level(almost to the point of sounding like them), thats why they were able to have hits from it   from mid 96-late 97, the 2nd album is certainly no slouch either)
Gin Blossoms
Korn
Outkast
SWV
TLC
Jodeci
En Vouge
Nirvana
Green Day
The Fugees
Bone Thugs N Harmony

On the dance tip:

-Any of the Norman Cook aliases (Pizzaman, Mighty Dub Kats, Fatboy Slim, etc.)
-Sunscreem (O3 was BEAUTIFUL, as are the hits "When" and "Looking At You" from '96...)
-Moby (pre-Play and I know I'll catch some flak for that, but again, on the dance tip...)
-Faithless
-Jamiroquai
-Arrested Development
-Shamen
-Everything But the Girl

The Spin Doctors!

Nirvana
Soundgarden
Aerosmith
Savage Garden
Marcy Playground (Sex and candy - big radio hit in 1997)
Oasis (some of you may not of heard of them.)
Pearl Jam (Ten and Vs. - fave albums)
Collective Soul (another great chart topping band)
Weezer (the blue album and pinkerton!)
Green Day (Love all their albums...Dookie,Nimrod,Insomniac...)
R.E.M (I like more of their 80s stuff,but Automatic For The People is sweet.)
Red Hot Chili Peppers (Blood Sugar Sex Magik and Californication are priceless)
Smashing Pumpkins (Siamese Dream,Mellon Collie,Gish..)

Nirvana
Red Hot Chili Peppers
The Fugees
U2
Oasis
Blur
The Cranberries
Rage against the machine
Green Day

RADIOHEAD!! One of the few 90's bands worth bothering with. Second in line would be Oasis.

Absolutely Vile

has this just slowly moved into listing our all time favourite bands/artists ?? If so..
Red Hot Chili Peppers
The Velvet Underground
Manic street preachers
David Bowie
Marilyn Manson
Madonna
Placebo
Pulp...also greenday for old times sake
                                                        et cetera...

Jodeci
Nirvana
Pearl Jam
Swv
Just to name a few
Oh yeah and the Red hot Chili Peppers

I thought Live was a great band initially.  Don't know what happened there...

Yes, I agree that many of the 90s boy bands including Backstreet Boys, N'Sync, and 98 Degrees are talentless, but I disagree with you about Pearl Jam.

Here's my list:  Blue Rodeo
                          Cranberries
                          Crash Test Dummies
                          Green Day
                          Nirvana
                          Offspring
                          Tragically Hip

U2 and Boys II Men.

90's groups that were worth listening to:

Rock:

Collective Soul(nice pop-rock goup.)

Stone Temple Pilots(my fave, Scott Weiland was the man for awhile.) It seemed like drug problems just hit him too hard.

Alice In chains

Green Day(good pop-punk band.)

Alice In Chains

Soul Asylum

Everclear(their 95-99 work)

Foo Fighters("Everlong" and "Hero" were pretty good songs.

Pearl Jam(Probably defined the 90's grunge era.)

Soundgarden

Red Hot Chilli Peppers(came back in 1999 and made it known they good still make good works as a band.) J

Depeche Mode(Maybe the best band of the past 25 years.) "Enjoy The Silence" is a timeless song. "Barrel Of a Gun" and Its No Good relased back in 1997 proved this group good still make good songs in the late 90's portion of the decade or for the 90's for that matter.

Live-had hits like "Pain Lies on The Riverside"(I like that song alot), Also scored hits with White Discussion, Lightning Crashes, and I Alone.)

R&B

Dru Hill(almost like 1960's Motown Group like Harmony's on songs like 5 Steps, and Sleepin In My Bed.)

SWV(1990's version of the Supremes with a hip-hop influence.) "Rain" was one of the best songs of the 90's.

En Vogue

Next(Butta Love and Too Close were the Jams.)

Total

TLC("Waterfalls" and "Red Light Special" is 90's R&B at its best.)

PM Dawn(they did alot of things: sampling, remakes, and orginal love ballads. Lots of different musical influences with this group.

Color Me Badd(They were pretty smooth: "I Wanna Sex Up" was their jam.) They had songs like "Slow Motion" and "I Adore Mi Amor" that were pretty good. "Turn Back The Hands of time" was a pretty sweet ballad.

Changing Faces: one hit wonder but "Stroke You Up" was a pretty good song.

Dance/Industrial:
No Mercy
La Bouche
Filter
Chemical Brothers
Nine Inch Nails

One hit wonders:

Screaming Trees
Candlebox
Nada Surf(They had that song "Popular") Everybody thought it was annoying. I was in High School when this song came out and still sounds very funny now.

Black Lab-"Wash It Away" was a solid single for rock radio.)

Mansun-Wide Open Spaces(same comments as Black Lab's hit.) I think both songs came out like at the same time.

Public Announcement(an R&B that had a hit with "Yippie Yo Yippie Ya".) Pretty Funny song to listen too.

Somethin' For The People(an R&B Group that a had a hit with the song "24/7" in 1998.)

I didn't know there was an actual group called "Rosetta Stone", when I was in Highschool...(sorry..late 80's)  ;D there was a bunch of guys who called themself "Rosetta Stone"..I think they stemmed from the HighSchool Band drum line. Cool name...Cool T-Shirts too, for that long ago..What do they sing?

Quoting:
Took me a while but I really got into The Offspring.I would also add to the growing list
Feeder
Foo Fighters
Bush
Jesus Jones
Collective Soul
The Levellers
Killjoys
Rosetta Stone
Type O Negative
End Quote

Nine Inch Nails
Filter
Tool
Primus
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Dream Theater
King Crimson (been around LONG before the 90s, but always good)
Pearl Jam
Orange 9mm
Messhugah
Six Feet Under
Fishbone
Blues Traveler
Living Color
Portishead
Blind Melon
Kyuss
Rage Against The Machine
Tori Amos
Type O Negative