Contemporary (1980-Now)

Adult contemporary music, frequently abbreviated AC, is a type of radio format that plays mainstream contemporary pop music, excluding hip hop and hard rock, and which is intended more for adults than teens. more...

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AC is generally divided into 4 groups; "Hot AC", also known as "Adult Top 40", "Soft AC", also known as "Lite", and "Urban AC", also known as "Urban Contemporary",and"Christian AC", (family friendly and spiritual lyrics) .Some radio stations play only Hot AC; some play only Soft AC, and some play both. It is not thus usually considered a specific genre of music, as it is merely an assembly of selected tracks of musicians of many different genres.

Hot Adult Contemporary

Hot Adult Contemporary was introduced in 1986 as a hybrid of Top 40 and oldies-based Adult Contemporary. The format was designed to appeal to adults who liked pop music but also liked more era variety than Top 40 offered. The first Hot AC station was WWMX (Mix 106.5 - "Baltimore's Best Mix of the 60's, 70's and 80's"). New songs with sufficient adult appeal but weren't too soft were mixed with popular oldies that weren't too old. By the early 1990s "Mix" stations appeared in most markets in the US. "Star" is another popular nickname, pioneered by Star 100.7 in San Diego, which is now known as Star 94.1.

Today, Hot AC radio stations tend towards slightly harder rock music, such as Lenny Kravitz and Aerosmith, and may occasionally play dance hits, such as those by Paula Abdul, Kylie Minogue, and Nina Sky. Madonna's more upbeat songs "Music" and "Ray Of Light" were big hits on Hot AC, but were not played on Soft AC stations, which are more likely to play her songs "I'll Remember", "Crazy For You", "Live To Tell" or "Take A Bow". Hot AC is slightly more alternative than Soft AC—3 Doors Down's "When I'm Gone" was a considerable Hot AC hit but is not played on Soft AC radio stations. All five of the hit singles from Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill are also staples of this format.

Some Hot AC stations have begun adding rap/hip hop music to their playlists to compete with Top 40 stations, but play less rap/hip hop than their top 40 counterparts.

Soft Adult Contemporary

Soft AC is also known as "lite" music, and many radio stations across North America that play Soft AC refer to themselves as "lite" stations. Other popular nicknames include "Magic", "Warm", "Sunny" and "EZ Rock". The format can be seen as a more contemporary successor to the Middle of the road (MOR), Beautiful Music or Easy Listening formats. The latter two were once common on FM radio. Sometimes, the margins blur between this genre and soft rock. And a few "lite" stations, such as WLTW-FM in New York City, WSB-FM in Atlanta, WYJB-FM in Albany, New York, and WJJY-FM in Brainerd, Minnesota have actually started to mix in more "Hot AC" songs into their playlist as well.

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