Harry Styles vs. Justin Timberlake

[iHype.]

I noticed Harry has achieved a pretty similar trajectory to Timberlake, coming from a very successful boy-group then becoming the most popular member and having his first 3 consecutive albums perform very successfully. Who's career output is better at album #3?







Also, a quick versus I made of their 10~ biggest songs/highlights from these 3 eras:

As It Was vs. SexyBack
Watermelon Sugar vs. Cry Me A River
Sign of the Times vs. Mirror
Adore You vs. Rock Your Body
Late Night Talking vs. What Goes Around...
Falling vs. My Love
Golden vs. Suit & Tie
Music for a Sushi Restaurant vs. Senorita
Lights Up vs. Summer Love
Kiwi vs. LoveStoned

[SabrinaFan]

I voted Harry Styles, as IMO he has experimented with more sounds, whereas Justin's stuff all sounded pretty similar (with some minor changes) throughout his first three albums.

[leonagwen]

Timberlake has better songs. He had many hits. People on this forum are gonna pick Harry because of the hate of Timberlake because of the Janet Jackson superbowl incident.

[elementd5]

Justin and it’s not even remotely close.

[Ling-Ling]

Both have mid discographies with patchy albums (I still laugh every time I remember Harry's Hole won AOTY, like how?). But if I boil this down to the singles released from their first three albums, Justin wins.

[• Господин Умљеновић •]

Justin no doubt.

[🇯🇲 lucy88 🇯🇲]

Never been a fan of them both, but Justin had more singles that I did liked, so I voted for him.

[soulfulwings]

Harry Styles

[born]

I'm obviously team Harry here. And most of my favorites aren't even hits.

As It Was vs. SexyBack
Watermelon Sugar vs. Cry Me A River
Sign of the Times vs. Mirror
Adore You vs. Rock Your Body
Late Night Talking vs. What Goes Around...
Falling vs. My Love
Golden vs. Suit & Tie
Music for a Sushi Restaurant vs. Senorita
Lights Up vs. Summer Love
Kiwi vs. LoveStoned

[Active Aggressive]

Big fan of both, but despite Harry House being a flawless album, Justin's albums have been more interesting, so I go with Justin.

[Daenerys]

Justin's songs and content are better, and I would argue his songs are grander and better produced. I don't think that can really be argued. You could say that some of that is due to Timbaland's influence on pretty much all of Justin's work, but it's hard to deny the sense of scale that I feel Justin brings, and some of the cinematic qualities of his songs. Justin also has the edge in that he is clear and away more commercially successful than Harry, even just looking at their first three albums.

But I would say Harry has better musicality, versatility, and arguably is a more talented vocalist and perhaps artist overall. I think you could even argue that Harry has achieved more critical success than Justin. Which is kind of interesting when you think about the two of them. I think that says more about their genres of choice (Harry commercialized soft-rock, adult contemporary influenced pop vs. Justin's heavily R&B, Urban, and dance influenced-pop).

To me this is kind of like comparing Coldplay or U2 to Usher or Bruno Mars.

[jdanton2]

Justin easily and he had the better group.

[mkarns]

I like Justin; the revisionist bashing of him for the Janet Super Bowl appearance was a bit much, and his own SB appearance, while not great, was not the utter disaster that social media proclaimed.

But I like Harry better, and if given a choice between their bands would pick 1D as well.

[Fire]

As It Was vs. SexyBack
Watermelon Sugar vs. Cry Me A River
Sign of the Times vs. Mirror
Adore You vs. Rock Your Body
Late Night Talking vs. What Goes Around...
Falling vs. My Love
Golden vs. Suit & Tie
Music for a Sushi Restaurant vs. Senorita
Lights Up vs. Summer Love
Kiwi vs. LoveStoned

gee i wonder who i choose here

[beyoncelover]

I enjoy both but definitely have preferred Justin's first 3 albums and music overall. Also enjoyed both groups but I prefer *NSYNC overall.

As It Was vs. SexyBack
Watermelon Sugar vs. Cry Me A River
Sign of the Times vs. Mirrors
Adore You vs. Rock Your Body (This is a really tight one though)
Late Night Talking vs. What Goes Around...
Falling vs. My Love
Golden vs. Suit & Tie
Music for a Sushi Restaurant vs. Senorita
Lights Up vs. Summer Love
Kiwi vs. LoveStoned

[Troublemaker]

Harry Styles can be borderline boring

[taylor]

Sept 22, 2023 6:17:02 GMT -5 Ling-Ling said:

Both have mid discographies with patchy albums (I still laugh every time I remember Harry's Hole won AOTY, like how?). But if I boil this down to the singles released from their first three albums, Justin wins.

the scream i scrumpt!!! 

(voted for harry because of those song battles listed, he just won with ease.)

[Deleted]

I prefer Justin's music by far. FutureSex/Love Sounds is one of my all time favorites

[Ernesto]

Harry Styles without a doubt!

[Choco]

Justin was capable of greatness once, but the mediocrity avalanche he's unleashed post FutureSex is just too hard to ignore. I still voted for him but Harry has never done something as mediocre as "Filthy" so maybe he'll eventually get my vote.

EDIT: Oh I see this only counts Justin until 2020 Part I... yeah, Justin.

[El Superdactyl]

Please make more vs. threads!

[Music Fan]

Justin.

[myhouse911]

Singles i vote for Justin, and Albums, i vote for Harry. So, it's a tie for me?
As It Was vs. SexyBack
Watermelon Sugar vs. Cry Me A River
Sign of the Times vs. Mirrors
Adore You vs. Rock Your Body
Late Night Talking vs. What Goes Around...
Falling vs. My Love
Golden vs. Suit & Tie
Music for a Sushi Restaurant vs. Senorita
Lights Up vs. Summer Love
Kiwi vs. LoveStoned

[NeRD]

Harry tbh.

[cer1992]

Justin Timberlake by default, mainly due to the fact that I haven't been keeping up much with mainstream music since 2015 and, thus, don't know much about Harry Styles' discography.