There were some predictions made some time ago stating that AC could become mainstream again. Do you all think it will be true? So far, the only AC artists out there are Adele, Sam Smith, P!nk, and Kelly Clarkson, and their songs are not played on the radio unless it's an AC station. I typed in that genre, and it put Ed Sheeran as that genre, but I don't think he is considered AC at all. I checked yesterday online that Lady Gaga could be next in the AC charts considering her recent album is way different from her early work and even ArtPop.

I don't it will, to be honest. Contemporary music is mostly targeted towards 8-16 year olds now, so I don't think Adult Contemporary will ever truly make a complete comeback to the mainstream again. To be honest, when Adele emerged onto the scene in 2011, I thought soul-pop would have become a major genre of the Mid 2010s.

Unfortunately, I don't. I love AC, but advertisers target teenagers and 20-somethings. There's not as much money in the AC crowd, which is why it collapsed on radio in the first place. Look into the downfall of smooth jazz in the late 2000s.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smooth_jazz_radio

It's a real bummer.

I don't it will, to be honest. Contemporary music is mostly targeted towards 8-16-year-olds now, so I don't think Adult Contemporary will ever truly make a complete comeback to the mainstream again. To be honest, when Adele emerged onto the scene in 2011, I thought soul-pop would have become a major genre of the Mid 2010s.
I actually thought that as well especially since her songs were awesome at that time. It sucks that genre didn't take off. The music industry today would have been much better.


Unfortunately, I don't. I love AC, but advertisers target teenagers and 20-somethings. There's not as much money in the AC crowd, which is why it collapsed on the radio in the first place. Look into the downfall of smooth jazz in the late 2000s.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smooth_jazz_radio

It's a real bummer.
I read it, and it seems it was because of the radio stations changing formats around that time just to keep up with today. It sucks how this genre has truly declined since there are thousands of songs that are fantastic and have legacies.

Now that it's a new year, I'm going to go ahead and bump this topic. What do you all think? Do you believe that adult contemporary music has the potential to come back in the mainstream? I listened to some songs some time ago, and they were pretty good. Other artists, I didn't mention before that could be useful contenders are Lana Del Rey, James Arthur, Bruno Mars, Lukas Graham, Troye Sivan, and Sabrina Claudio. Then, there are more such as Ariana Grande (her music has changed), Julia Michaels, Kesha (Praying was great), Niall Horan (his song was decent). Then, there's Miley Cyrus (Malibu and Younger Now bear no similarities compared to her previous work), Selena Gomez (I'm not entirely sure, but her recent songs sound different compared to her past work) and Shawn Mendes. 

I want the adult contemporary music to be like this

hQyzEyIf7P0

I don't it will, to be honest. Contemporary music is mostly targeted towards 8-16 year olds now, so I don't think Adult Contemporary will ever truly make a complete comeback to the mainstream again. To be honest, when Adele emerged onto the scene in 2011, I thought soul-pop would have become a major genre of the Mid 2010s.


In the 1940s and early 1950s lots of music was very adult targetted. It could happen again.

Any new updates so far about this genre? I heard that music is getting better this year.

AC isn't a genre, it's just easy-listening music that adults can relate to. I think you're thinking of ballads, because you said Ed Sheeran wasn't AC, even though his song Thinking Out Loud was huge AC fodder.

Ballads are common on AC radio, but that isn't what AC always is. I think as millennials become the target audience of AC we'll see more hipster/acoustic rock songs in the vein of Say You Won't Let Go by James Arthur or Stressed Out by Twenty One Pilots, and yes, even Ed Sheeran, being really popular on AC radio.

I don't it will, to be honest. Contemporary music is mostly targeted towards 8-16 year olds now, so I don't think Adult Contemporary will ever truly make a complete comeback to the mainstream again. To be honest, when Adele emerged onto the scene in 2011, I thought soul-pop would have become a major genre of the Mid 2010s.


I don't think this is as much the case these days as it was in 2014 (the peak of neo-teen pop).  It also depends on what you consider "pop."  You don't have to go too far outside of the mainstream to find stuff that the 25-34 demographic will like.

AC isn't a genre, it's just easy-listening music that adults can relate to. I think you're thinking of ballads, because you said Ed Sheeran wasn't AC, even though his song Thinking Out Loud was huge AC fodder.

Ballads are common on AC radio, but that isn't what AC always is. I think as millennials become the target audience of AC we'll see more hipster/acoustic rock songs in the vein of Say You Won't Let Go by James Blunt or Stressed Out by Twenty One Pilots being really popular on AC radio.


I agree with this.  AC will never be Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, and Mariah Carey again.

AC isn't a genre, it's just easy-listening music that adults can relate to. I think you're thinking of ballads because you said Ed Sheeran wasn't AC, even though his song Thinking Out Loud was huge AC fodder.

Ballads are common on AC radio, but that isn't what AC always is. I think as millennials become the target audience of AC we'll see more hipster/acoustic rock songs in the vein of Say You Won't Let Go by James Arthur or Stressed Out by Twenty One Pilots, and yes, even Ed Sheeran, being really popular on AC radio.
Well, I wasn't sure if he was since a lot of people regardless of age listen to his songs.

Oh, and thank you for the description of AC. For some time, I thought it was its own genre, but I should have known it wasn't since it's about an age demographic rather than a specific musical category. Oh, and I wanted to ask, can R&B also be considered AC? I'm just confused about that since there are lots of songs from that genre that is geared towards an adult group than the usual target audience.

I don't like Adult Contemporary, it seems to me that most of is aimless forced emotion pandering that simply isn't enjoyable. Of course I won't say no to the more Soul-inspired Pop a la Amy Whinehouse like Adele sometimes do, but the straight-up Celine Dion stuff no thanks bye.

But of course if charts full of soulless ballads mean less people complaining how modern music is "soulless", then I guess I'm ok with a comeback ::)