adult contemporary music

The tradition & historical record

Adult contemporary (AC) is a category of popular music catered to adult demographics, including record charts and radio formats that are focused on such music. The exact assemblage of adult contemporary music is influenced primarily by the popular music trends of a given era, and which trends and genres appeal more heavily to youth and young adults. It was originally established as a continuation of the easy listening and soft rock sounds from the 1960s and 1970s, acting as a counterbalance for the hard rock of the era, and later heavy metal and hip-hop: it initially focused on songs with varying degrees of influence from easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet storm, and rock. In the 1990s, adult contemporary began to accommodate a hotter sound more inclusive of contemporary pop, and developed sub-categories devoted towards specific genres. In radio broadcasting, adult contemporary formats typically target the demographic of adults 25–44, as they are favored among advertisers. They are differentiated primarily by their playlists, with "hot AC" stations usually focusing on uptempo mainstream music (including dance-pop, contemporary R&B, as well as pop, alternative, indie, and soft rock, while excluding more specialized types of hip-hop, hard rock, teen pop, and electronic dance music that do not appeal as strongly to older audiences), "mainstream AC" having a balance between current music and established hits from past decades, and "soft AC" having a more conservative sound. ¹

Adult contemporary traces its roots to the 1960s easy listening format, which adopted a 70–80% instrumental to 20–30% vocal mix. A few offered 90% instrumentals, and a handful were entirely instrumental. The easy listening format, as it was first known, was born of a desire by some radio stations in the late 1950s and early 1960s to continue playing current hit songs, but distinguish themselves from being branded as "rock and roll" stations. Billboard first published the Easy Listening chart July 17, 1961, with 20 songs; the first number one was "Boll Weevil Song" by Brook Benton. The chart described itself as "not too far out in either direction". Initially, the vocalists consisted of artists such as Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Johnny Mathis, Connie Francis, Nat King Cole, Perry Como, and others. The custom recordings were usually instrumental versions of current or recent rock and roll or pop hit songs, a move intended to give the stations more mass appeal without selling out. Some stations would also occasionally play earlier big band-era recordings from the 1940s and early 1950s. After 1965, differences between the Hot 100 chart and the Easy Listening chart became more pronounced. Better reflecting what middle of the road stations were actually playing, the composition of the chart changed dramatically. As rock music continued to harden, there was much less crossover between the Hot 100 and Easy Listening chart than there had been in the early half of the 1960s.