Adult Contemporary Music Guide: What Is Adult Contemporary?

Adult contemporary music is a style of pop music that emphasizes relaxed rhythms, un-distorted instruments, love-focused lyrics, and vocal virtuosity. Adult contemporary radio stations and playlists often blend soft rock, smooth R&B, folk rock, easy listening, and gentle pop rock hits.

Throughout its existence, adult contemporary music has stood in opposition to harder-edged music such as hard rock, heavy metal, hip-hop, grunge, or club music. In the process, adult contemporary artists have produced enduring pop hits for over 50 years.

• Easy listening roots: In the 1960s, as rock 'n' roll claimed the vanguard of pop music culture, some artists harkened back to the more formal show tunes and big band numbers of decades past. They combined this with a more contemporary pop sensibility to create a genre known as easy listening. Barbra Streisand, Roger Miller, Johnny Mathis, and Perry Como were among the '60s artists who thrived during the rock 'n' roll era of the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and Creedence Clearwater Revival.
• The rise of the soft rock radio format: In the 1970s, hard rock got harder thanks to Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. FM radio's answer to this trend was the soft rock radio format, which helped propel the careers of Air Supply, Elton John, Olivia Newton-John, Neil Diamond, Linda Ronstadt, Billy Joel, James Taylor, and Carole King. Fleetwood Mac, which began as a blues band, reinvented themselves as a soft rock outfit and scored numerous Billboard Top 40 hits. Other acts like Barry Manilow, the Carpenters, Dionne Warwick, Anne Murray, and Barbra Streisand mined the poppier side of the music genre.
• Adult contemporary stations take off: By the 1980s, numerous soft and smooth subgenres were grouped together on the new adult contemporary radio format. While still embracing 1970s-style singer-songwriters, these stations also gave airplay to artists who used synthesizers and drum machines—such as Whitney Houston and Amy Grant, for example. Some classic rockers like Eric Clapton and Chicago adapted their styles to fit the new format.
• A greater focus on R&B: In the late 1980s and 1990s, smooth urban R&B became an integral part of adult contemporary radio. Following in the footsteps of prominent Black artists like Lionel Richie and Whitney Houston, new stars like Toni Braxton, Mariah Carey, and Boyz II Men crafted crossover pop songs that were both R&B and adult contemporary hits.
• Big romantic ballads: Love songs have always been a mainstay of adult contemporary, but that trend reached a new high point in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Perhaps no adult contemporary artist has had greater commercial success with love songs than Celine Dion, but many of her contemporaries like Enrique Iglesias, Phil Collins, Michael Bolton, and James Blunt did nearly as well.
• A blend of many artists: In the twenty-first century, both adult contemporary radio and adult contemporary playlists involve a diverse array of artists. Some hot AC stars, like John Mayer and Maroon 5, have rock 'n' roll backgrounds. Some come from the singer-songwriter tradition like Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars, and Adele, while others have country roots like Shania Twain and Taylor Swift. Some, like Kelly Clarkson and Ruben Studdard, began as American Idol contestants.

Adult contemporary music distinguishes itself from other pop music thanks to a few key characteristics.

1. 1. Gentle instrumentation: Adult contemporary music tends to feature acoustic guitars, gentle keyboards, and minimal distortion.
2. 2. Love songs: Love songs and power ballads are a mainstay of adult contemporary music.
3. 3. Strong R&B influence: Smooth urban R&B plays a major role in the present adult contemporary sound. However, the music also draws on country, soft rock, and old-fashioned easy listening.
4. 4. In opposition to harder-edged music: In all eras, adult contemporary has crafted its identity in part by contrasting with hard rock, heavy metal, hip-hop, disco, funk, and other forms of harder-edged music. Some AC stations—like New York’s WLTW—advertise themselves as “lite FM” or "lite rock" as a means of distinguishing themselves from more traditional rock 'n' roll stations.

Adult contemporary music has spawned many leading pop stars over the past five decades.

1. 1. Celine Dion: Sometimes dubbed "the queen of adult contemporary," Dion is known for her virtuosic singing voice and upbeat love songs such as “That’s The Way It Is.”
2. 2. Lionel Richie: Although adult contemporary radio is known for its constant churn, Richie managed to score two long-lasting hits in the form of "You Are" from 1983 and "Hello" from 1984. Those are but two of his Billboard hits in the AC format.
3. 3. George Michael: George Michael often used standard rock instrumentation, but he found a home on adult contemporary radio thanks to hits like "Faith" and "Father Figure."
4. 4. Amy Grant: Amy Grant is the rare adult contemporary star to succeed in both Christian music and mainstream pop. She scored her first major hit on "The Next Time I Fall," a duet with Peter Cetera, whose own band Chicago made a sharp turn toward adult contemporary in the 1980s.
5. 5. Fleetwood Mac: In the mid-1970s, Fleetwood Mac dropped their signature psychedelic blues sound for a soft rock aesthetic that made them international pop stars.
6. 6. Mariah Carey: Mariah Carey emerged on the scene in 1990 with an otherworldly vocal range a knack for pop songcraft. She is the co-author of perhaps the most commercially successful Christmas song on the AC charts, "All I Want for Christmas Is You."
7. 7. Boyz II Men: The 1990s adult contemporary scene was dominated by smooth R&B, and none captured this essence better than Philadelphia's Boyz II Men, with songs like "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday.”
8. 8. Chicago: In the 1970s, Chicago was known for searing horn riffs and the wild guitar solos of Terry Kath. By the 1980s, the band had become an adult contemporary hit-making machine as they scaled back the horns and emphasized crystal clear lead vocals from the likes of Peter Cetera, Jason Scheff, and Bill Champlin.
9. 9. Savage Garden: Savage Garden is an Australian duo that initially brought a 1980s synth-pop aesthetic to the 1990s. Eventually, they made a more overt stab at pop success with songs like "I Knew I Loved You," which was the most played single on American radio in 1999.

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