Adult Contemporary

Adult contemporary music, frequently abbreviated AC, refers to a broad style of popular music that ranges from lush 1960s, vocal-based music to predominantly ballad-heavy music with varying degrees of rock influence". AC radio plays mainstream music excluding hip-hop, hard rock, some teen pop music and rhythmic dance tracks (though during the 2000s, these have been included), which is intended for a mature adult audience. Radio stations playing this format will often target 16 to 54 year olds, the group most valued by advertisers.

AC is generally divided into 4 groups: "Hot AC", also known as "Adult Top 40"; "Soft AC", also known as "Lite"; "Urban AC" and "Religious AC". Some radio stations play only Hot AC; some play only Soft AC, and some play both. Thus it is not usually considered a specific genre of music, since it is merely an assembly of selected tracks of musicians of many different genres.

This description is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses materials from the Wikipedia article "Adult Contemporary Formats (AC)".