Growing up in the '90s and '00s, I have fond memories of "adult contemporary" radio stations.  They mostly played softer current hits along with a wide selection of songs from the 70s and 80s and were very ballad heavy.  Artists like Celine Dion were staples on AC stations while they didn't do as well in Top 40.  A lot of these were stations that billed themselves as "soft rock" and had names like Light, Sunny, Magic, etc and offered a lower-key alternative to Top 40.

Starting in the late '00s and accelerating in the early '10s, many of these stations started to tweak their format, moving away from what was traditionally considered AC.  The former "Hot AC" format became the new AC, with a focus on established Top 40 hits and recurrents.  Today, most stations still calling themselves AC take this approach.  In 2016, an AC station pretty much sounds like a very conservative Top 40.  You won't hear new music on it until it becomes well-established and they will usually play recurrents long after you no longer hear them on Top 40.  Instead of being its own format with its own songs, AC today is basically where pop songs go to die i.e. after they have been played out on Top 40, you can hear them on AC for a few more years.

Does anybody miss the old sound of AC radio?

We have a station here, B98, that has always played that style mostly. They do unfortunately play new stuff sometimes but for the most part they're still a decent channel. In fact one I don't mind listening to. Dalia comes on there late at night and she plays a lot of good stuff.

The best adult contemporary music is from pre-1999. It's all about the 70', 80's, and 90's, for me.

The music industry started targeting even younger people starting in the late 90's/early 00's. It's always been youth oriented, but in 1999, or somewhere around there, they targeted the ages 8 to 14 the most. I miss the days where the target age was more ages 12 to 25.

I mean, no offense, but an 8 year old doesn't have the emotional depth, or intellectual depth, of a 50 year old. Even if an 8 year old has an IQ, they're still emotionally an 8 year old.

There's always Muzak.

The best adult contemporary music is from pre-1999. It's all about the 70', 80's, and 90's, for me.

The music industry started targeting even younger people starting in the late 90's/early 00's. It's always been youth oriented, but in 1999, or somewhere around there, they targeted the ages 8 to 14 the most. I miss the days where the target age was more ages 12 to 25.

I mean, no offense, but an 8 year old doesn't have the emotional depth, or intellectual depth, of a 50 year old. Even if an 8 year old has an IQ, they're still emotionally an 8 year old.



I agree on this one cause this is about all I listen to.

I agree on this one cause this is about all I listen to.


I like the 50's and 60's, too!  :)

The best adult contemporary music is from pre-1999. It's all about the 70', 80's, and 90's, for me.

The music industry started targeting even younger people starting in the late 90's/early 00's. It's always been youth oriented, but in 1999, or somewhere around there, they targeted the ages 8 to 14 the most. I miss the days where the target age was more ages 12 to 25.

I mean, no offense, but an 8 year old doesn't have the emotional depth, or intellectual depth, of a 50 year old. Even if an 8 year old has an IQ, they're still emotionally an 8 year old.


I agree with this. I think 1999 was probably around the peak of AC radio. One reason is that the 90s had a lot of ballads that were a perfect match for the format but not high energy enough for power rotation on Top 40. Those type of songs fell out of favor in the 2000s and even more so in the '10s.

I agree with this. I think 1999 was probably around the peak of AC radio. One reason is that the 90s had a lot of ballads that were a perfect match for the format but not high energy enough for power rotation on Top 40. Those type of songs fell out of favor in the 2000s and even more so in the '10s.


So true. :(

I like the 50's and 60's, too!  :)


I also grew up listening to my Father's Doo-Wop music too.

I'm 12 and what is adult contemporary?

Just kidding. I'm almost 24 and what is adult contemporary? And what's a radio?

There's three English adult contemporary stations here. Two of them, as you described, just play the lighter Top 40 songs. My coworker calls it work-pop ;D The other one is publicly funded, has no ads and plays, er, I guess you could call it adult contemporary. It's not specifically ballads or anything, but it's softer music, and sometimes that includes country or rap or what people wouldn't think of as adult contemporary. It plays a lot of classics as well.

In the 1960s and early '70s, what would later be known as adult contemporary was known as MOR (Middle of the Road), in essence a format that was mostly soft to preclude most rock and roll songs (except for some softer crossovers like The Beatles "Yesterday" and Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water"), while not featuring old outdated music such as artists who are no longer actively selling well or too many sleepy instrumentals. Lots of Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Dionne Warwick, Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, and later Elvis Presley come to mind. It mostly targeted the 21-49 year old demographic, with most Rock and Roll being the dominion of kids & teenagers (the marriage age was lower back then and it became passe to enjoy rock music for many once you popped the question). However, as the '70s progressed and the first real settled down Rock generation came about, Adult Contemporary increasingly became the domain for soft rock artists such as Elton John, Billy Joel, Olivia Newton-John, and Carly Simon, along with some softer pop/country crossovers such as John Denver, Barry Manilow, and the Carpenters. In essence, "Adult Contemporary" became more or less the softer side of Top 40, with Top 40 itself becoming the real "MOR" sound of the decade with the rise of freeform FM rock radio and urban stations (soul/funk/disco). The artists who were popular in the earlier  "Easy Listening" era of the format by the end of the '70s had been pushed to the Adult Standards format that basically attracted the 40+ demographic, and as a result by the early '90s had aged too much to be attractive to advertisers, so in essence, the first wave of "adult contemporary" (the official chart was introduced in 1961) had dissipated around then.

AC essentially became the "VH1 generation's format" during the '80s and '90s, attracting a somewhat older audience than the MTV and alternative/dance crowd, but younger than the oldies crowd. This is where the Lionel Richies, post-Katz Chicagos, Michael Boltons, Whitney Houstons, Celine Dions, and Mariah Careys thrived with their ballads and occasional uptempo hits that pleased the Baby Boomer soccer moms and middle-aged workers, although when I was young, I enjoyed some of this due to it being family-friendly unlike much of the rap/metal of the time. That said, AC itself had its own splintering during the '90s: into "Hot", "Standard", and "Soft" formats. The "Hot" format was essentially the same VH1 crowd that targeted young adults with a format not unlike what the poster described above being essentially the "second run Top 40 station" along with a few songs that are too recent to be oldies. The "Soft" format was somewhere between the "oldies/classic hits" and the "Hot" format, by playing more older songs along with an occasional newer song, especially by an established artist who has had at least a few years of chart success. Except for a few songs on the "Hot" division, AC stations strayed from hip-hop and most hard rock, although in the 2000s some harder rock (not super heavy, but some Arena Rock/softer hair metal) encroached its way in on the softer divisions. Unfortunately, this only tightened the division between AC and Top 40, and ultimately is a big reason for the downfall of pop music. For the non-Hot stations, the average vintage of many songs continued to grow to a point that it was basically a classic hits with a twist station. You never heard, for instance songs from the '50s/'60s on an AC station back in the '90s compared to the amount of '70s/'80s on such a station this decade (for those stations that remain). This is  also the most common format that flips over to an all-Christmas during the holiday season. The DJ-less Adult Hits format has replaced many Adult Contemporary stations these days (the Jack or whatever his/her name stations).

In the 1960s and early '70s, what would later be known as adult contemporary was known as MOR (Middle of the Road), in essence a format that was mostly soft to preclude most rock and roll songs (except for some softer crossovers like The Beatles "Yesterday" and Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water"), while not featuring old outdated music such as artists who are no longer actively selling well or too many sleepy instrumentals. Lots of Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Dionne Warwick, Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, and later Elvis Presley come to mind. It mostly targeted the 21-49 year old demographic, with most Rock and Roll being the dominion of kids & teenagers (the marriage age was lower back then and it became passe to enjoy rock music for many once you popped the question). However, as the '70s progressed and the first real settled down Rock generation came about, Adult Contemporary increasingly became the domain for soft rock artists such as Elton John, Billy Joel, Olivia Newton-John, and Carly Simon, along with some softer pop/country crossovers such as John Denver, Barry Manilow, and the Carpenters. In essence, "Adult Contemporary" became more or less the softer side of Top 40, with Top 40 itself becoming the real "MOR" sound of the decade with the rise of freeform FM rock radio and urban stations (soul/funk/disco). The artists who were popular in the earlier  "Easy Listening" era of the format by the end of the '70s had been pushed to the Adult Standards format that basically attracted the 40+ demographic, and as a result by the early '90s had aged too much to be attractive to advertisers, so in essence, the first wave of "adult contemporary" (the official chart was introduced in 1961) had dissipated around then.

AC essentially became the "VH1 generation's format" during the '80s and '90s, attracting a somewhat older audience than the MTV and alternative/dance crowd, but younger than the oldies crowd. This is where the Lionel Richies, post-Katz Chicagos, Michael Boltons, Whitney Houstons, Celine Dions, and Mariah Careys thrived with their ballads and occasional uptempo hits that pleased the Baby Boomer soccer moms and middle-aged workers, although when I was young, I enjoyed some of this due to it being family-friendly unlike much of the rap/metal of the time. That said, AC itself had its own splintering during the '90s: into "Hot", "Standard", and "Soft" formats. The "Hot" format was essentially the same VH1 crowd that targeted young adults with a format not unlike what the poster described above being essentially the "second run Top 40 station" along with a few songs that are too recent to be oldies. The "Soft" format was somewhere between the "oldies/classic hits" and the "Hot" format, by playing more older songs along with an occasional newer song, especially by an established artist who has had at least a few years of chart success. Except for a few songs on the "Hot" division, AC stations strayed from hip-hop and most hard rock, although in the 2000s some harder rock (not super heavy, but some Arena Rock/softer hair metal) encroached its way in on the softer divisions. Unfortunately, this only tightened the division between AC and Top 40, and ultimately is a big reason for the downfall of pop music. For the non-Hot stations, the average vintage of many songs continued to grow to a point that it was basically a classic hits with a twist station. You never heard, for instance songs from the '50s/'60s on an AC station back in the '90s compared to the amount of '70s/'80s on such a station this decade (for those stations that remain). This is  also the most common format that flips over to an all-Christmas during the holiday season. The DJ-less Adult Hits format has replaced many Adult Contemporary stations these days (the Jack or whatever his/her name stations).


Excellent breakdown of how we got here in terms of AC radio.  Most AC stations, even those still billing themselves as "standard" AC have adopted the "Hot" format.  This seemed to snowball in the late '00s and early '10s.  I lived in three cities during those years and every AC station I was familiar with switched from a "Soft" to "Hot" format during those years.  It's understandable because as "soft" stations their playlist had changed very little since around 2000 and most of the new songs they did add were country crossovers, such as songs by Faith Hill.  Stations still billing themselves as "Hot AC" today have become almost indistinguishable from Top 40, with the difference being less cutting edge material and more recurrents.

You are right that Classic Hits today isn't that far off from the AC of the 90s. The real difference is that Classic Hits plays a little more classic rock than AC did and it also goes a little farther back.  Classic Hits also seems to avoid the '90s for the most part (at least the station in my area does) and instead focuses on pop and rock from the early 60s to the late 80s.  Overall, I think it is close enough that it is palatable to aging baby boomers who liked AC during the 90s.

Today, I don't think there is really enough material to do a station that sounds like the typical AC station did in the '90s while still calling it AC.  Not much from the '00s or '10s would fit nicely in a playlist with artists like Celine Dion, Michael Bolton, Elton John, Whitney Houston, Neil Diamond, etc.